Human-wildlife conflict（HWC） is a global conservation issue of increasing concern,and understanding the factors driving conflict is crucial for preventing or mitigating it. In many parts of China,large human populat...Human-wildlife conflict（HWC） is a global conservation issue of increasing concern,and understanding the factors driving conflict is crucial for preventing or mitigating it. In many parts of China,large human populations and increasing development has led to an escalation in HWC with both carnivore and prey species. In this paper we assess herder attitudes toward blue sheep（Pseudaois nayaur,Hodgson,1833）,white lipped deer（Carvus albirostris,Przewalski,1883）,red deer（Cervus elaphus,Linnaeus,1758）,and marmot（Marmota himalayana Hodgson,1841） through interview-based surveys conducted in 46 households across 8 villages in Qilianshan National Nature Reserve,Gansu,China. We also examine the perceived impact of three ecological-restoration policies（anti-grazing,sustainable grazing,and grass-planting policies） on livelihoods,and how this affects attitudes toward wildlife. Herders reported neutral attitudes toward wildlife species in general,but reported negative attitudes towards blue sheep. Mixed-effects modeling revealed that herder attitudes toward the target species varied significantly across villages,but other socioeconomic variables had limited explanatory power for attitudes. Furthermore,we found that while policy implementation was negatively perceived by herders,anti-grazing policy implementation and total policy implementation were positively correlated with positive attitudes toward wildlife,highlighting a potential gap between perceived threats and actual threats. Finally,we show that the leading cause of reported livestock death is preventable disease,alleviation of which may help improve attitudes toward wildlife.展开更多
The snow leopard(Panthera uncia)inhabits a human-altered alpine landscape and is often tolerated by residents in regions where the dominant religion is Tibetan Buddhism,including in Qomolangma NNR on the northern side...The snow leopard(Panthera uncia)inhabits a human-altered alpine landscape and is often tolerated by residents in regions where the dominant religion is Tibetan Buddhism,including in Qomolangma NNR on the northern side of the Chinese Himalayas.Despite these positive attitudes,many decades of rapid economic development and population growth can cause increasing disturbance to the snow leopards,altering their habitat use patterns and ultimately impacting their conservation.We adopted a dynamic landscape ecology perspective and used multiscale technique and occupancy model to better understand snow leopard habitat use and coexistence with humans in an 825 km^(2) communal landscape.We ranked eight hypothetical models containing potential natural and anthropogenic drivers of habitat use and compared them between summer and winter seasons within a year.HABITAT was the optimal model in winter,whereas ANTHROPOGENIC INFLUENCE was the top ranking in summer(AICc_(w)≤2).Overall,model performance was better in the winter than in the summer,suggesting that perhaps some latent summer covariates were not measured.Among the individual variables,terrain ruggedness strongly affected snow leopard habitat use in the winter,but not in the summer.Univariate modeling suggested snow leopards prefer to use rugged land in winter with a broad scale(4000 m focal radius)but with a lesser scale in summer(30 m);Snow leopards preferred habitat with a slope of 22°at a scale of 1000 m throughout both seasons,which is possibly correlated with prey occurrence.Furthermore,all covariates mentioned above showed inextricable ties with human activities(presence of settlements and grazing intensity).Our findings show that multiple sources of anthropogenic activity have complex connections with snow leopard habitat use,even under low human density when anthropogenic activities are sparsely distributed across a vast landscape.This study is also valuable for habitat use research in the future,especially regarding covariate selection for finite sample sizes in inaccessible terrain.展开更多
基金Assessment on Snow Leopard Population and Habitat of China,Second National Survey of Terrestrial Wildlife in China,State Forestry Administration and Grassland of China(2012-LYS-JWT-29)
文摘Human-wildlife conflict（HWC） is a global conservation issue of increasing concern,and understanding the factors driving conflict is crucial for preventing or mitigating it. In many parts of China,large human populations and increasing development has led to an escalation in HWC with both carnivore and prey species. In this paper we assess herder attitudes toward blue sheep（Pseudaois nayaur,Hodgson,1833）,white lipped deer（Carvus albirostris,Przewalski,1883）,red deer（Cervus elaphus,Linnaeus,1758）,and marmot（Marmota himalayana Hodgson,1841） through interview-based surveys conducted in 46 households across 8 villages in Qilianshan National Nature Reserve,Gansu,China. We also examine the perceived impact of three ecological-restoration policies（anti-grazing,sustainable grazing,and grass-planting policies） on livelihoods,and how this affects attitudes toward wildlife. Herders reported neutral attitudes toward wildlife species in general,but reported negative attitudes towards blue sheep. Mixed-effects modeling revealed that herder attitudes toward the target species varied significantly across villages,but other socioeconomic variables had limited explanatory power for attitudes. Furthermore,we found that while policy implementation was negatively perceived by herders,anti-grazing policy implementation and total policy implementation were positively correlated with positive attitudes toward wildlife,highlighting a potential gap between perceived threats and actual threats. Finally,we show that the leading cause of reported livestock death is preventable disease,alleviation of which may help improve attitudes toward wildlife.
文摘The snow leopard(Panthera uncia)inhabits a human-altered alpine landscape and is often tolerated by residents in regions where the dominant religion is Tibetan Buddhism,including in Qomolangma NNR on the northern side of the Chinese Himalayas.Despite these positive attitudes,many decades of rapid economic development and population growth can cause increasing disturbance to the snow leopards,altering their habitat use patterns and ultimately impacting their conservation.We adopted a dynamic landscape ecology perspective and used multiscale technique and occupancy model to better understand snow leopard habitat use and coexistence with humans in an 825 km^(2) communal landscape.We ranked eight hypothetical models containing potential natural and anthropogenic drivers of habitat use and compared them between summer and winter seasons within a year.HABITAT was the optimal model in winter,whereas ANTHROPOGENIC INFLUENCE was the top ranking in summer(AICc_(w)≤2).Overall,model performance was better in the winter than in the summer,suggesting that perhaps some latent summer covariates were not measured.Among the individual variables,terrain ruggedness strongly affected snow leopard habitat use in the winter,but not in the summer.Univariate modeling suggested snow leopards prefer to use rugged land in winter with a broad scale(4000 m focal radius)but with a lesser scale in summer(30 m);Snow leopards preferred habitat with a slope of 22°at a scale of 1000 m throughout both seasons,which is possibly correlated with prey occurrence.Furthermore,all covariates mentioned above showed inextricable ties with human activities(presence of settlements and grazing intensity).Our findings show that multiple sources of anthropogenic activity have complex connections with snow leopard habitat use,even under low human density when anthropogenic activities are sparsely distributed across a vast landscape.This study is also valuable for habitat use research in the future,especially regarding covariate selection for finite sample sizes in inaccessible terrain.
