Individual attributes and party affect large carnivore attacks on humans

• Main Authors: Garrote, Pedro J., Delgado, María del Mar, López-Bao, José V., Fedriani, José M., Bombieri, Giulia, Penteriani, Vincenzo
• Other Authors: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Springer 2017
• Subjects: Party effects; Predator sex; Victim gender; Attack patterns; Attack outcome; Carnivore-humans conflict; Large carnivore attacks; Canis lupus; Ursus arctos
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/198440; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-017-1142-1; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003329; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871

Wildlife managers, researchers and the general public have traditionally been demanding information on factors concerning the probability of risky encounters between predators and people, as well as how to react in those situations. This information is crucial to reduce the number of predator attacks, which in absolute terms have increased in the last decades. Here, we focus on the role of carnivore species and sex, as well as victim-related factors (i.e. gender, activities, party composition), as determinants of carnivore attacks on humans. Using a dataset on attacks by grizzlies (Ursus arctos horribilis), black bears (Ursus americanus), cougars (Puma concolor), wolves (Canis lupus) and coyotes (Canis latrans) in North America during the last five decades, we found that (1) male black bears were involved in attacks more frequently than females; (2) attacks by coyotes, cougars and wolves prevalently caused injuries, whereas cases of death were more frequent during grizzly and black bear attacks; and (3) people in a party were less vulnerable to an attack than a person alone. We identified risky situations and behaviours that should be avoided in areas where people and large carnivore share the landscape. PJGG and JMF were funded by a Portuguese FCT grant (IF/00728/2013). MMD was supported by a Spanish ‘Ramón y Cajal’ grant (RYC-2014-16263). JVLB was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (JCI-2012-13066).