Abstract
Some traditional activities like extensive mountain livestock grazing and pastoralism characterized the economy, the society and the culture of mountain territories for centuries. In many mountain regions this traditional way of protecting livestock with fences and shepherd's presence can still be found today. In others, the extermination of large carnivores in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has led to changes in husbandry practices including also the abandonment of livestock protection measures. Today, free grazing of livestock on mountain pastures in the Alps is a commonly used practice. The landscape has undergone significant changes, and some traditions such as homecoming ceremony of livestock at the end of the season, are often preserved only for tourist purposes. The natural return of wolves to the Alps causes multilevel societal debates and is often perceived as a threat to this recently acquired "new" status quo with unsurveilled free grazing. At the same time, it can be seen as an opportunity to revalorize historical practices such as pastoralism with benefits for animals' welfare and homogenous pasture exploitation. A recent study on the attitude of tourists toward the return of wolves to South Tyrol suggests that the presence of the wolf and the revalorization of traditional mountain pasture practices including the presence of shepherds and adequate protection systems for livestock can increase the attractiveness of an area and create a new tourist niche.