Drivers of Predator Killing by Rural Residents and Recommendations for Fostering Coexistence in Agricultural Landscapes

Predators inhabiting human-dominated landscapes are vulnerable to various anthropogenic actions, including people killing them. We assess potential drivers of predator killing in an agricultural landscape in southern Chile, and discuss the implications for policies and interventions to promote coexi...

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Autores principales:	Nicolás Gálvez, Freya A. V. St. John, Zoe G. Davies
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:	carnivores free-roaming dogs illegal behavior Leopardus guigna livestock predation random response technique General. Including nature conservation, geographical distribution QH1-199.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/acf7a4287232447180055705a6638b2f
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:acf7a4287232447180055705a6638b2f2021-11-18T09:39:57ZDrivers of Predator Killing by Rural Residents and Recommendations for Fostering Coexistence in Agricultural Landscapes2673-611X10.3389/fcosc.2021.712044https://doaj.org/article/acf7a4287232447180055705a6638b2f2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcosc.2021.712044/fullhttps://doaj.org/toc/2673-611XPredators inhabiting human-dominated landscapes are vulnerable to various anthropogenic actions, including people killing them. We assess potential drivers of predator killing in an agricultural landscape in southern Chile, and discuss the implications for policies and interventions to promote coexistence. We evaluate five different types of motivation: (i) sociodemographics and household economy; (ii) livestock loss; (iii) predator encounter rates; (iv) knowledge of legal protection (all native predators are currently protected); and, (v) tolerance to livestock predation. As the killing of native predators is illegal, the prevalence of this behavior by rural residents was estimated using a symmetrical forced-response randomized response technique (RRT), a method designed to ask sensitive questions. A total of 233 rural residents from randomly assigned sample units (4 km2) across the study region completed our questionnaire. More conspicuous species, such as hawks (Falconiformes sp), foxes (Lycalopex sp) and free-roaming domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris), were killed by a higher proportion of farmers than more cryptic species, like the felid güiña (Leopardus guigna), skunk (Conepatus chinga) and pumas (Puma concolor). The proportion of respondents admitting to killing predators was highest for hawks (mean = 0.46, SE = 0.08), foxes (mean = 0.29, SE = 0.08) and dogs (mean = 0.30, SE = 0.08) and lowest for güiña (mean = 0.10, SE = 0.09), which is the only species of conservation concern we examine (considered Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List). From our five motivation categories, past killing of predators was associated with higher reported predator encounter rates (guina, hawks), lower tolerance to livestock predation (hawks, dogs), higher reported livestock loss (dogs) and sociodemographics and household economy (foxes). Our results demonstrate that a one-size-fits-all approach to predator persecution is unlikely to reduce or eliminate illegal killings for the suite of species we examined. We identify and describe two main types of intervention that could foster coexistence, improvement of livestock management and domestic dog management in rural areas, as well as discussing the potential for social marketing.Nicolás GálvezNicolás GálvezFreya A. V. St. JohnZoe G. DaviesFrontiers Media S.A.articlecarnivoresfree-roaming dogsillegal behaviorLeopardus guignalivestock predationrandom response techniqueGeneral. Including nature conservation, geographical distributionQH1-199.5ENFrontiers in Conservation Science, Vol 2 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	carnivores free-roaming dogs illegal behavior Leopardus guigna livestock predation random response technique General. Including nature conservation, geographical distribution QH1-199.5
spellingShingle	carnivores free-roaming dogs illegal behavior Leopardus guigna livestock predation random response technique General. Including nature conservation, geographical distribution QH1-199.5 Nicolás Gálvez Nicolás Gálvez Freya A. V. St. John Zoe G. Davies Drivers of Predator Killing by Rural Residents and Recommendations for Fostering Coexistence in Agricultural Landscapes
description	Predators inhabiting human-dominated landscapes are vulnerable to various anthropogenic actions, including people killing them. We assess potential drivers of predator killing in an agricultural landscape in southern Chile, and discuss the implications for policies and interventions to promote coexistence. We evaluate five different types of motivation: (i) sociodemographics and household economy; (ii) livestock loss; (iii) predator encounter rates; (iv) knowledge of legal protection (all native predators are currently protected); and, (v) tolerance to livestock predation. As the killing of native predators is illegal, the prevalence of this behavior by rural residents was estimated using a symmetrical forced-response randomized response technique (RRT), a method designed to ask sensitive questions. A total of 233 rural residents from randomly assigned sample units (4 km2) across the study region completed our questionnaire. More conspicuous species, such as hawks (Falconiformes sp), foxes (Lycalopex sp) and free-roaming domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris), were killed by a higher proportion of farmers than more cryptic species, like the felid güiña (Leopardus guigna), skunk (Conepatus chinga) and pumas (Puma concolor). The proportion of respondents admitting to killing predators was highest for hawks (mean = 0.46, SE = 0.08), foxes (mean = 0.29, SE = 0.08) and dogs (mean = 0.30, SE = 0.08) and lowest for güiña (mean = 0.10, SE = 0.09), which is the only species of conservation concern we examine (considered Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List). From our five motivation categories, past killing of predators was associated with higher reported predator encounter rates (guina, hawks), lower tolerance to livestock predation (hawks, dogs), higher reported livestock loss (dogs) and sociodemographics and household economy (foxes). Our results demonstrate that a one-size-fits-all approach to predator persecution is unlikely to reduce or eliminate illegal killings for the suite of species we examined. We identify and describe two main types of intervention that could foster coexistence, improvement of livestock management and domestic dog management in rural areas, as well as discussing the potential for social marketing.
format	article
author	Nicolás Gálvez Nicolás Gálvez Freya A. V. St. John Zoe G. Davies
author_facet	Nicolás Gálvez Nicolás Gálvez Freya A. V. St. John Zoe G. Davies
author_sort	Nicolás Gálvez
title	Drivers of Predator Killing by Rural Residents and Recommendations for Fostering Coexistence in Agricultural Landscapes
title_short	Drivers of Predator Killing by Rural Residents and Recommendations for Fostering Coexistence in Agricultural Landscapes
title_full	Drivers of Predator Killing by Rural Residents and Recommendations for Fostering Coexistence in Agricultural Landscapes
title_fullStr	Drivers of Predator Killing by Rural Residents and Recommendations for Fostering Coexistence in Agricultural Landscapes
title_full_unstemmed	Drivers of Predator Killing by Rural Residents and Recommendations for Fostering Coexistence in Agricultural Landscapes
title_sort	drivers of predator killing by rural residents and recommendations for fostering coexistence in agricultural landscapes
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/acf7a4287232447180055705a6638b2f
work_keys_str_mv	AT nicolasgalvez driversofpredatorkillingbyruralresidentsandrecommendationsforfosteringcoexistenceinagriculturallandscapes AT nicolasgalvez driversofpredatorkillingbyruralresidentsandrecommendationsforfosteringcoexistenceinagriculturallandscapes AT freyaavstjohn driversofpredatorkillingbyruralresidentsandrecommendationsforfosteringcoexistenceinagriculturallandscapes AT zoegdavies driversofpredatorkillingbyruralresidentsandrecommendationsforfosteringcoexistenceinagriculturallandscapes
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Drivers of Predator Killing by Rural Residents and Recommendations for Fostering Coexistence in Agricultural Landscapes

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