Tolerant Attitudes Reflect an Intent to Steward: A Reply to Bruskotter and Fulton

The terms tolerance and intolerance are widely used by scholars and managers alike because they are widely understood in contexts beyond attitudes or behavior toward wildlife. Tolerance is a frame of mind; thus, intolerance should also be considered one. Redefining intolerance as the opposite of stewardship would conflate intention and behavior; thus, I argue that tolerance–neutrality–intolerance should be a continuum of attitudes, whereas stewardship–inaction–opposition should be considered a continuum of behavior or action. In my framework, attitudes and willingness to steward wolves or retaliate against them represent intentions to support or oppose wolf conservation.