Community attitudes towards Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) and their prey species in Yanbian, Jilin province, a region of northeast China where tigers are returning
Community attitudes towards large carnivores are of central importance to their conservation in human-dominated landscapes. In this study, we evaluate community attitudes and perceptions towards the Amur tiger ( Panthera tigris altaica ), Amur leopard ( Panthera pardus orientalis ) and bears ( Ursus...
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crplos:10.1371/journal.pone.0276554 2024-09-15T18:40:16+00:00 Community attitudes towards Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) and their prey species in Yanbian, Jilin province, a region of northeast China where tigers are returning Li, Ying Powell, Joshua Jin, Aifen Ryoo, Hee Kyung Li, Hailong Pandey, Puneet Zhu, Weihong Li, Dongwei Lee, Hang Cristescu, Bogdan Conservation Leadership Programme Tiger & Leopard Conservation Fund in Korea (KTLCF) Tumen River ecology network project National Natural Science Foundation of China Natural Environment Research Council Research England 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276554 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276554 en eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ PLOS ONE volume 17, issue 10, page e0276554 ISSN 1932-6203 journal-article 2022 crplos https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276554 2024-07-23T04:07:59Z Community attitudes towards large carnivores are of central importance to their conservation in human-dominated landscapes. In this study, we evaluate community attitudes and perceptions towards the Amur tiger ( Panthera tigris altaica ), Amur leopard ( Panthera pardus orientalis ) and bears ( Ursus thibetanus and Ursus arctos ), as well as their prey species, namely sika deer ( Cervus nippon ), roe deer and wild boar ( Sus scrofa ), in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin province, northeast China. We surveyed 139 households and found that community members’ perceptions of large carnivores and their prey species were influenced by their predominant economic activities; their prior interactions with wildlife; their household income level; and whether they were either long-term residents of Yanbian or had migrated to the region from elsewhere in China. We recorded fairly neutral attitudes towards large carnivores among the communities we surveyed, but strongly negative attitudes were shown towards wild boar, particularly where respondents had lost agricultural products to crop raiding by wild boar. We recommend conservation stakeholders in northeast China utilise this finding to encourage support for large carnivore recovery and conservation by targeting messaging around the importance of the tiger as a key predator of wild boar in the ecosystem. Furthermore, our findings suggest that government provided compensation paid for cattle lost to large carnivore predation (notably, by tigers) may be helping to reduce animosity from cattle owners towards large carnivores. However, we also highlight that compensation for loss of livestock is therefore performing a useful role in mitigating human-wildlife conflict, that there are potentially unintended consequences of the current compensation program, for example it fails to dissuade livestock grazing in protected areas. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ursus arctos PLOS PLOS ONE 17 10 e0276554 |
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English |
description |
Community attitudes towards large carnivores are of central importance to their conservation in human-dominated landscapes. In this study, we evaluate community attitudes and perceptions towards the Amur tiger ( Panthera tigris altaica ), Amur leopard ( Panthera pardus orientalis ) and bears ( Ursus thibetanus and Ursus arctos ), as well as their prey species, namely sika deer ( Cervus nippon ), roe deer and wild boar ( Sus scrofa ), in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin province, northeast China. We surveyed 139 households and found that community members’ perceptions of large carnivores and their prey species were influenced by their predominant economic activities; their prior interactions with wildlife; their household income level; and whether they were either long-term residents of Yanbian or had migrated to the region from elsewhere in China. We recorded fairly neutral attitudes towards large carnivores among the communities we surveyed, but strongly negative attitudes were shown towards wild boar, particularly where respondents had lost agricultural products to crop raiding by wild boar. We recommend conservation stakeholders in northeast China utilise this finding to encourage support for large carnivore recovery and conservation by targeting messaging around the importance of the tiger as a key predator of wild boar in the ecosystem. Furthermore, our findings suggest that government provided compensation paid for cattle lost to large carnivore predation (notably, by tigers) may be helping to reduce animosity from cattle owners towards large carnivores. However, we also highlight that compensation for loss of livestock is therefore performing a useful role in mitigating human-wildlife conflict, that there are potentially unintended consequences of the current compensation program, for example it fails to dissuade livestock grazing in protected areas. |
author2 |
Cristescu, Bogdan Conservation Leadership Programme Tiger & Leopard Conservation Fund in Korea (KTLCF) Tumen River ecology network project National Natural Science Foundation of China Natural Environment Research Council Research England |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Li, Ying Powell, Joshua Jin, Aifen Ryoo, Hee Kyung Li, Hailong Pandey, Puneet Zhu, Weihong Li, Dongwei Lee, Hang |
spellingShingle |
Li, Ying Powell, Joshua Jin, Aifen Ryoo, Hee Kyung Li, Hailong Pandey, Puneet Zhu, Weihong Li, Dongwei Lee, Hang Community attitudes towards Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) and their prey species in Yanbian, Jilin province, a region of northeast China where tigers are returning |
author_facet |
Li, Ying Powell, Joshua Jin, Aifen Ryoo, Hee Kyung Li, Hailong Pandey, Puneet Zhu, Weihong Li, Dongwei Lee, Hang |
author_sort |
Li, Ying |
title |
Community attitudes towards Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) and their prey species in Yanbian, Jilin province, a region of northeast China where tigers are returning |
title_short |
Community attitudes towards Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) and their prey species in Yanbian, Jilin province, a region of northeast China where tigers are returning |
title_full |
Community attitudes towards Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) and their prey species in Yanbian, Jilin province, a region of northeast China where tigers are returning |
title_fullStr |
Community attitudes towards Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) and their prey species in Yanbian, Jilin province, a region of northeast China where tigers are returning |
title_full_unstemmed |
Community attitudes towards Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) and their prey species in Yanbian, Jilin province, a region of northeast China where tigers are returning |
title_sort |
community attitudes towards amur tigers (panthera tigris altaica) and their prey species in yanbian, jilin province, a region of northeast china where tigers are returning |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276554 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276554 |
genre |
Ursus arctos |
genre_facet |
Ursus arctos |
op_source |
PLOS ONE volume 17, issue 10, page e0276554 ISSN 1932-6203 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276554 |
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PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
e0276554 |
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1810484571541602304 |