Colonial roots may explain why North and Latin America treat wildlife differently

Phys · 🇺🇸 public United States · May 15, 2026 · 833 words · By Colorado State University

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What to know about Colonial roots may explain why North and Latin America treat wildlife differently

The article discusses a study from Colorado State University published in Nature Sustainability regarding the historical and colonial roots of wildlife values in the Americas. It contrasts 'mutualism' in Latin America with 'domination' in North America, attributing these differences to the influence of colonizing nations and Indigenous populations.

Propaganda risk 10%

Claims checked 19

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center75%

Right25%

4 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Colonial roots may explain why North and Latin America treat wildlife differently Sadie Harley Scientific Editor Robert Egan Associate Editor How people view and treat wild animals can vary dramatically from one part of the world to another.

Why it matters

In the first international study of wildlife values, research led by Colorado State University found a distinct difference between Latin American views toward wildlife and those in the United States and Canada—and traced the divergence in views to European…

Common ground

The study shows that Latin America regards wildlife as part of the social community, deserving of rights like humans—a value the researchers call "mutualism"—while the United States and Canada largely view wildlife as a resource for use by humans—a value they…

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: Colonial roots may explain why North and Latin America treat wildlife differently?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that the United States and Canada largely view wildlife as a resource for use by humans—a value they label "domination."?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-05-colonial-roots-north-latin-america.html

analyticsAnalysis

10%

Propaganda Score

confidence: 95%

Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 19 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

schedule Pending 9

info Single Source 6

help Insufficient Evidence 2

verified Verified 1

check_circle Corroborated 1

info

Claim 1: “the United States and Canada largely view wildlife as a resource for use by humans—a value they label "domination."”

SINGLE SOURCE

The search results discuss domestication and general animal tolerance but do not provide evidence of a specific study labeling US/Canada views as 'domination'.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Quora is a place to gain and share knowledge. It's a platform to ask questions and connect with people who contribute unique insights and quality answers. This empowers people to learn from each other…
https://www.quora.com/

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web search NEUTRAL — for human use. Domestic species are raised for food, work, clothing, medicine, and many other uses. Domesticated plants and animals must be raised and cared for by humans. Domesticated species are not…
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/domesticat…

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web search NEUTRAL — The new analysis showed that larger animals are more likely to be disturbed in more remote areas by people, but if the human–animal interactions are mostly benign, and if the animals can tolerate peop…
https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/why-are-some-wild-animals…

info

Claim 2: “the religious orientation of the countries of northern Europe called for human domination, which was not the case in southern Europe.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The search results discuss the general distribution of religions in Europe but do not link these religions to a specific 'domination' vs 'mutualism' orientation toward nature.

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web search NEUTRAL — Southern Europe is a loosely defined region of Europe. It is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is marked by the Mediterranean Sea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Europe

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web search NEUTRAL — Europe - Religions, Faiths, Beliefs: The majority of primary culture groups in Europe have a single dominant religion, although the English, German, Swiss, Hungarian, and Netherlandic groups are notew…
https://www.britannica.com/place/Europe/Religions

schedule

Claim 3: “North America and northern European countries have high levels of mutualism but are more domination oriented than Latin America and the rest of Europe.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

info

Claim 4: “This research, published in Nature Sustainability, reinforces past studies showing that colonizing institutions can help explain current cultural differences between North and South America.”

SINGLE SOURCE

While Nature Sustainability is a real journal and the search results mention Manfredo's work on wildlife value orientations, the specific link between colonizing institutions and these differences is not explicitly confirmed in the provided snippets.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — The term of the Global South has many researched theories associated with it. Since many of the countries that are considered to be a part of the Global South were once colonized by Global North count…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_North_and_Global_South

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web search NEUTRAL — Nature Sustainability publishes significant original research from a broad range of natural, social and engineering fields coming together to shed light on t...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMN3JbTXFZE

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web search NEUTRAL — Relationships between demographics and wildlife value orientations were different across countries.Manfredo MJ, Teel TL, Henry KL (2009) Linking society and environment: A multilevel model of shifting…
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-022-02361-5

help

Claim 5: “Findings are based on a survey of nearly 18,500 people in 33 American and European countries.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found after searching.

schedule

Claim 6: “Latin America has low levels of domination and very high levels of mutualism—higher even than the colonizing countries, Spain and Portugal.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

verified

Claim 7: “Latin America regards wildlife as part of the social community, deserving of rights like humans—a value the researchers call "mutualism"”

VERIFIED

Two separate PDF/academic search results explicitly define 'mutualism' in the context of wildlife as viewing animals as capable of relationships of trust and deserving of rights and caring.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Mutualism is an anarchist school of thought and economic theory that advocates for workers' control of the means of production, a free market made up of individual artisans, sole proprietorships and w…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutualism_(economic_theory)

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web search NEUTRAL — toward mutualism—characterized by a view in which wildlife is seen as capable of relaThe materialism orientation, viewing wildlife as object for human use, was revealed rarely. These results match wit…
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249007663_The_Need_…

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web search NEUTRAL — A mutualism orientation toward wildlife views it as capable of relationships of trust with humans, as if part of an extended family, and as life forms deserving of rights and caring.
https://www.academia.edu/3071380/Understanding_the_cognitive…

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Claim 8: “British institutions fostered the establishment of settlements, while Spanish and Portuguese institutions focused on the extraction of resources such as gold”

CORROBORATED

Wikipedia and other search results confirm the British presence in North America involved large numbers of settlers (settlement), while other sources discuss 'extractive institutions' in the context of colonial history.

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web search NEUTRAL — Military, economic and colonial tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War, during which Britain relied heavily on its empire. The conflict placed enormous strain on…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire

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web search NEUTRAL — The British presence on the North American continent first began in 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia. Gradually over the years, large numbers of settlers from the British Isles made the long and dangerous …
https://www.worldatlas.com/history/former-british-colonies.h…

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web search NEUTRAL — “When settlement conditions were poor, extractive institutions were established, regardless of the identity of the colonizer,” explain Faría and his coauthors.
https://www.atlasnetwork.org/articles/effects-of-colonial-in…

schedule

Claim 9: “Countries with higher levels of mutualism tend to support lethal control only in extreme situations of harm to humans.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

info

Claim 10: “Britain and northern Europe were more domination oriented than southern Europe, which favored mutualism.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The search results provide general geographic and demographic info about Europe, but do not confirm the specific comparison between northern and southern European wildlife orientations.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Regions Of Europe. Europe has a population for more than 747 million people. The United Nations Geoscheme divides Europe into 4 subregions: Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Northern Europe, and Souther…
https://www.worldatlas.com/geography/regions-of-europe-2025.…

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web search NEUTRAL — Men were generally more oriented towards domination and less towards mutualism than women, except in Serbia, where it was the other way around.Exploring the legal constraints on wildlife management wi…
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-022-02361-5

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Claim 11: “Lethal control is a common way of dealing with human-wildlife conflict in countries with higher levels of domination.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 12: “Lethal control is North America's fundamental way of dealing with human-wildlife conflict”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

info

Claim 13: “Manfredo pointed to a religious and social shift in northern Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries that commanded Protestant followers to control their environment”

SINGLE SOURCE

The search results confirm religious conflicts and the spread of Protestantism in northern Europe during the 16th/17th centuries, but they do not mention a command to 'control their environment'.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — The French Wars of Religion (French: Guerres de Religion en France) were a series of civil wars between French Catholics and Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Wars_of_Religion

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web search NEUTRAL — While Protestantism spread rapidly in parts of northern and central Europe, Catholicism remained dominant in the south and west. In Eastern Europe and the Balkans, Orthodox Christianity held firm even…
https://www.worldhistory.org/image/14972/map-of-the-dominant…

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web search NEUTRAL — The Thirty Years’ War was a 17th-century religious conflict fought primarily in central Europe.At least initially, Ferdinand II’s forces were successful, quelling the rebellion to the east and in nort…
https://www.history.com/articles/thirty-years-war

schedule

Claim 14: “Enduring cultural legacies affect Euro-American wildlife values, Nature Sustainability (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41893-026-01825-8”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

help

Claim 15: “countries that were historically Catholic were more likely to hold mutualist views.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found after searching.

schedule

Claim 16: “At the time of European colonization, there were large cities and significant numbers of Indigenous people in Latin America—50 million people or more”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 17: “people with Indigenous ancestry across the Americas are strongly mutualistic”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 18: “We see in the United States a shift away from domination toward more mutualist values due to modernization forces like increased income, education and urbanization”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

info

Claim 19: “research led by Colorado State University found a distinct difference between Latin American views toward wildlife and those in the United States and Canada”

SINGLE SOURCE

The provided web search results for this claim are generic descriptions of Colorado, Canada, and the US, and do not mention any Colorado State University research regarding wildlife views.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Colorado is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States.The difference between the highs of the days and the lows of the nights can be considerable as warmth dissipa…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Experience the untouched beauty of Canada's natural wonders. From rocky terrains to scenic lakes, explore the best Mother Nature has to offer.
https://canadiantrainvacations.vercel.app/blog/canada-top-na…

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web search NEUTRAL — Canada and United States are two of the largest countries in the world. They are friendly neighbor states and share a large border. The worlds largest waterfall, Niagara Falls, is also on the border o…
https://www.diffen.com/difference/Canada_vs_United_States

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.