«A me le domeniche mica me le paga il lupo». I grandi carnivori come catalizzatori di vulnerabilità nel lavoro d’alpeggio

This essay presents the initial results of ethnographic research in the Rendena Valley (Province of Trento, Italy). The author aims to show how bear and wolf predations catalyzed the vulnerabilities of contemporary alpine pastoralism. The presence of large carnivores in this valley has generated a strong social conflict due to friction with mountain livestock farmers. For herders, cattle breeders, and mal-gari, these predations have highlighted the critical issues of the alpine pasture in-frastructure and the problematic conditions of their work. However, focusing the debate solely on the issue of large carnivores risks “silencing” the structural socio-economic causes that make high-altitude pastoralism fragile.