What determines attitude of local people towards tiger and leopard in Nepal?
Article
Article Title | What determines attitude of local people towards tiger and leopard in Nepal? |
---|---|
ERA Journal ID | 5883 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Dhungana, Rajendra (Author), Maraseni, Tek (Author), Silwal, Thakur (Author), Aryal, Kishor (Author) and Karki, Jhamak Bahadur (Author) |
Journal Title | Journal for Nature Conservation |
Journal Citation | 68 |
Article Number | 126223 |
Number of Pages | 9 |
Year | 2022 |
Place of Publication | Germany |
ISSN | 1617-1381 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2022.126223 |
Web Address (URL) | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1617138122000966 |
Abstract | Understanding attitude of local people towards big cats is vital for conservation interventions to succeed. Taking tigers and leopards as focal species, we investigated local peoples' attitude towards four subjects—tiger, tiger conservation, leopard, and leopard conservation—considering demographic and socio-economic factors as well as past experience with such predators in Nepal's first national park and a world heritage site, Chitwan National Park. The data were collected from 414 local people using structured questionnaires and their attitude towards the four subjects determined. We performed ordinal logistic regression analysis to identify the best fitted model and significant variables affecting attitudes. While majority of the people (51%) strongly liked tigers, fewer people (38%) had similar view while it came to leopard. However, a greater proportion of people strongly agreed that the conservation of tigers (61%) and leopards (53%) is important. About 12% people had negative attitude towards both big cats. We found women and low income respondents to likely have negative attitudes and higher caste Hindus to have positive attitudes towards both big cats and their conservation. Better educated persons and the owners to larger herds of livestock only agreed on conservation of tiger but not leopard. Past experience with the predator negatively affected attitude towards tiger but not leopard. We suggest the identified cohort of people with negative attitudes be more targeted in conservation initiatives. The reasons behind the similarities and differences in peoples’ attitudes are discussed and designation of species-specific programmes for both cats is recommended. |
Keywords | Attitude; Big cat; Chitwan; Human-tiger conflict; Human-leopard conflict; Wildlife conservation |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 410407. Wildlife and habitat management |
Public Notes | Files associated with this item cannot be displayed due to copyright restrictions. |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
Byline Affiliations | Ministry of Forests and Environment, Nepal |
University of Southern Queensland | |
Tribhuvan University, Nepal | |
University of Southern Queensland | |
Kathmandu Forestry College, Nepal |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q777w/what-determines-attitude-of-local-people-towards-tiger-and-leopard-in-nepal
114
total views3
total downloads2
views this month0
downloads this month