Livestock depredations and attitudes of local pastoralists toward carnivores in the Qinghai Lake Region, China

Abstract

As human population increase, human‐wildlife conflicts have reached unprecedented levels, often resulting in negative attitudes toward regional conservation initiatives, and thus are of concern for conservation communities. From April to May 2011, we carried out a survey to quantify carnivore‐induced livestock losses perceived by local pastoralists in the Qinghai Lake region on the pastoral Qinghai—Tibetan Plateau and examined the ecological and socio‐economic dimensions in the conflict. We finished 286 in‐person interviews using a semi‐structured questionnaire with mixed closed‐ and open‐ended questions. Our results showed that 93.7% of the respondents reported livestock depredations by carnivores from March 2010 to March 2011. The perceived losses represented 3.7% of total standing value of livestock in the region. The losses were positively correlated with livestock number in each household and showed significant seasonal and diurnal difference. Adult sheep and goats were the mostly killed (54.9%), followed by lambs (21.0%), adult yaks and cattle (19.1%), calves (4.9%) and horses (0.1%). More than 80% of the respondents reported that they could not tolerate the contemporaneous depredations and nearly two thirds expected compensations for their losses. Wolf Canis lupus was blamed for most of the killings (76.0%) and was perceived most negative followed by brown bear Ursus arctos, Tibetan fox Vulpes ferrilata, red fox Vulpes vulpes and raptors. Attitudes toward the problem carnivores were positively correlated with livestock size but negatively with magnitudes of the depredations. The attitudes also varied among the three survey sites, which may be attributed to the different extent of openness and livelihood dependence on animal husbandry. In the light of our results, we suggested possible measures to mitigate the conflict and maintain coexistence between human and wild carnivores on the Qinghai—Tibetan Plateau.

Perspectives of traditional Himalayan communities on fostering coexistence with Himalayan wolf and snow leopard

“…Unfortunately, we could not access any recorded data to validate the reports to account for the recall bias of the respondents. However these potential errors of selfreporting do not invalidate the importance of our findings that are reflective of the locals' perceptions (Li et al, 2015). One might expect a general hostility between stockmen and carnivores, and certainly the negative attitudes we report are mirrored in those of ranchers in the USA (Agarwala, Kumar, Treves, & Naughton-treves, 2010), Norway (Bjerke, Kaltenborn, & Thrane, 2001), and Brazil (Marchini & Macdonald, 2012).…”

“…Many studies on human-carnivore conflicts in highland Asia have provided important conservation implications by understanding people's attitudes toward carnivores; either by characterizing the attitudes (Bagchi & Mishra, 2006;Ferreira & Freire, 2009;Liu et al, 2011;Oli et al, 1994;Wang, Lassoie, & Curtis, 2006) or by identifying the drivers for the attitudes (Li et al, 2015;Mishra, 1997;Suryawanshi et al, 2014). But these studies usually present surveyors' opinions as possible solutions rather than including those of local communities.…”

“…Throughout the Asian highlands, pastoralists' attitudes toward snow leopards and wolves differ: they show a comparatively better tolerance toward snow leopards than toward wolves (Din et al, 2017;Jamtsho & Katel, 2019;Li et al, 2015;Maheshwari & Sathyakumar, 2019;Mishra, 1997;Suryawanshi et al, 2014;Suryawanshi, Bhatnagar, Redpath, & Mishra, 2013), even when snow leopards are responsible for higher economic loss than the wolves. Various factors like religion, income, education, species-specific characteristics, and cultural factors can explain the differences (Liu et al, 2011;Mishra, 1997).…”

Troublemaking carnivores: conflicts with humans in a diverse assemblage of large carnivores

“…Further, wolves are opportunistic, flexible hunters with diets depending on availability and vulnerability of prey (Huggard 1993, Cressman and Garay 2011, Morehouse and Boyce 2011, Metz et al 2012, and livestock depredation by wolves is common in many areas of the world (e.g., Rigg et al 2011, Li et al 2015, Ali et al 2016. Wild prey have evolved various predator-avoidance strategies (Fortin et al 2005, Laporte et al 2010, whereas cattle lack consistent, predictable, and timely predator-avoidance strategies (Laporte et al 2010, Muhly et al 2010a, making them potentially more vulnerable to predation.…”

Decline of Jakar sheep population in pastoral communities of Bhutan: A consequence of diminishing utility, alternate income opportunities and increasing challenges

“…Sheep are the most susceptible livestock species to depredation (Li et al 2015). Depredation of livestock is common in Bhutan (Sangay and Karl Vernes 2008) and a major constraint in yak farming among the pastoralists (Wangchuk and Wangdi 2015).…”