Public perceptions and attitudes toward urban wildlife encounters – A decade of change

Basak, Sayantani M.; Hossain, Sarwar; O’Mahony, Declan T.; Okarma, Henryk; Widera, Elżbieta; Wierzbowska, Izabela A.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155603

Cited by 35 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…Together, these patterns demonstrate that a person's experiences with conflict do not necessarily mean that they have simplistic or reductionist views toward wildlife or conservation, or that they are unwilling to coexist (e.g. Basak et al, 2022; Don Carlos et al, 2009). On the contrary, instead of calling for lethal removal measures, those with more interactions may acclimate to the presence of wildlife (see Drake et al, 2021) and may be more willing to respond to coyotes with proactive and preventative actions that support coexistence (Lute et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such results indicate that the spatial factors facilitating conflict are not necessarily the same drivers of human concern. People's fear or awareness of risk can be elevated even without experiencing conflict themselves when instances of conflict take place in their communities or are disseminated and dramatised through social media and popular culture (Basak et al, 2022; Dickman et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…People's fear or awareness of risk can be elevated even without experiencing conflict themselves when instances of conflict take place in their communities or are disseminated and dramatised through social media and popular culture (Basak et al, 2022;Dickman et al, 2014). Although the coyotes' use of green space likely stayed the same, several factors, including San Francisco's temperate climate, the onset of work-from-home policies, and rapid growth in flexibleschedule gig and technology economies (Hathaway & Muro, 2016), seemed to have fueled an increase in park visitation, especially in the middle of the day (Venter et al, 2020).…”

Section: Conflict Is Best Understood From a Social-ecological Perspec...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Coexistence across space and time: Social‐ecological patterns within a decade of human‐coyote interactions in San Francisco

Wilkinson,

Caspi,

Stanton

et al. 2023

People and Nature

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Global change is increasing the frequency and severity of human‐wildlife interactions by pushing people and wildlife into increasingly resource‐limited shared spaces. To understand the dynamics of human‐wildlife interactions and what may constitute human‐wildlife coexistence in the Anthropocene, there is a critical need to explore the spatial, temporal, sociocultural and ecological variables that contribute to human‐wildlife conflicts in urban areas. Due to their opportunistic foraging and behavioural flexibility, coyotes (Canis latrans) frequently interact with people in urban environments. San Francisco, California, USA hosts a very high density of coyotes, making it an excellent region for analysing urban human‐coyote interactions and attitudes toward coyotes over time and space. We used a community‐curated long‐term data source from San Francisco Animal Care and Control to summarise a decade of coyote sightings and human‐coyote interactions in San Francisco and to characterise spatiotemporal patterns of attitudes and interaction types in relation to housing density, socioeconomics, pollution and human vulnerability metrics, and green space availability. We found that human‐coyote conflict reports have been significantly increasing over the past 5 years and that there were more conflicts during the coyote pup‐rearing season (April–June), the dry season (June–September) and the COVID‐19 pandemic. Conflict reports were also more likely to involve dogs and occur inside of parks, despite more overall sightings occurring outside of parks. Generalised linear mixed models revealed that conflicts were more likely to occur in places with higher vegetation greenness and median income. Meanwhile reported coyote boldness, hazing and human attitudes toward coyotes were also correlated with pollution burden and human population vulnerability indices. Synthesis and applications: Our results provide compelling evidence suggesting that human‐coyote conflicts are intimately associated with social‐ecological heterogeneities and time, emphasizing that the road to coexistence will require socially informed strategies. Additional long‐term research articulating how the social‐ecological drivers of conflict (e.g. human food subsidies, interactions with domestic species, climate‐induced droughts, socioeconomic disparities, etc.) change over time will be essential in building adaptive management efforts that effectively mitigate future conflicts from occurring. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conflict Is Best Understood From a Social-ecological Perspec...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Coexistence across space and time: Social‐ecological patterns within a decade of human‐coyote interactions in San Francisco

Wilkinson,

Caspi,

Stanton

et al. 2023

People and Nature

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Studies have suggested that East Asian attitudes toward animals are converging with their Western counterparts [ 66 ], with a greater aesthetic appreciation of animals (e.g. [ 67 ]). This is supported by the results from our survey where 70% of the respondents reported that they liked butterflies because they were beautiful, and mentioned a range of colour characteristics and ‘spots’ when describing their preferred traits of butterflies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Familiarity with, perceptions of and attitudes toward butterflies of urban park users in megacities across East and Southeast Asia

et al. 2022

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Perceptions of, and attitudes toward, wildlife are influenced by exposure to, and direct experiences with, nature. Butterflies are a conspicuous and ubiquitous component of urban nature across megacities that are highly urbanized with little opportunity for human–nature interactions. We evaluated public familiarity with, perceptions of and attitudes toward butterflies across nine megacities in East and Southeast Asia through face-to-face interviews with 1774 urban park users. A total of 79% of respondents had seen butterflies in their cities mostly in urban parks, indicating widespread familiarity with butterflies. Those who had seen butterflies also had higher perceptions of butterflies, whereas greater than 50% of respondents had positive attitudes toward butterflies. Frequent visits to natural places in urban neighbourhoods was associated with (i) sightings of caterpillars, indicating increased familiarity with urban wildlife, and (ii) increased connectedness to nature. We found two significant positive relationships: (i) between connectedness to nature and attitudes toward butterflies and (ii) between connectedness to nature and perceptions of butterflies, firmly linking parks users' thoughts and feelings about butterflies with their view of nature. This suggests that butterflies in urban parks can play a key role in building connectedness to nature and consequently pro-environmental behaviours and support for wildlife conservation among urban residents.

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“…(Liordos et al., 2020; Zsido et al., 2022). As a suite of species are known to play vital roles in ecosystem function and resilience, addressing the circumstances that contribute to taxonomic knowledge and sentiment in urban residents is an essential component to understanding HNC (Basak et al., 2022; Connop et al., 2016; Liordos et al., 2020; Straka et al., 2022; Zsido et al., 2022). The type of urban green space, how it is experienced and the role of wildlife sentiment associated with HNC, combined with the rest of an individual's experiences throughout their lifetime, demonstrates some of the many challenges to increasing human–nature contact with broad resonance (Gerrish & Watkins, 2018; Jennings et al., 2017; Rigolon et al., 2018; Taylor & Hochuli, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What informs human–nature connection? An exploration of factors in the context of urban park visitors and wildlife

Hayes Hursh,

Perry,

Drake

2024

People and Nature

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Human–nature connection (HNC) is a concept derived from investigating the formulation and extent of an individual's identification with the natural world. This relationship is often characterized as an emotional bond to nature that develops from the contextualized, physical interactions of an individual, beginning in childhood. This outcome presents complexity in evaluating the development of HNC but suggests optimism in the pathways for enhancing lifelong HNC. As urban populations increase, there is a growing recognition worldwide of the potential for urban green space to cultivate HNC and thus shape the environmental identity of urban residents. The results of an online survey of 560 visitors to three community parks (managed primarily to provide a variety of physical, social and cultural opportunities) and three conservation parks (managed primarily to protect native plants and wildlife) in Madison, Wisconsin, USA, were used to investigate HNC. Linear mixed effects models evaluated visitors' HNC as a function of their (1) literacy and sentiment about wildlife species, (2) park experience, (3) number and frequency of nine childhood and adult recreation experiences, and (4) demographics. Across the park response groups, the number and frequency of childhood and adult recreation experiences was significantly associated with HNC, and this positive association persisted in multiple recreation activities. Furthermore, species literacy and sentiment, visiting a park for ‘Nature’, and frequent and extended visitation also was significantly associated with HNC by park type. Our research demonstrates the importance of lifelong recreation experiences in the development and enhancement of HNC and provides evidence for differences in the expression of HNC associated with particular attributes of urban park visitors and their views of wildlife. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Public perceptions and attitudes toward urban wildlife encounters – A decade of change

Cited by 35 publications

References 73 publications

Coexistence across space and time: Social‐ecological patterns within a decade of human‐coyote interactions in San Francisco

Coexistence across space and time: Social‐ecological patterns within a decade of human‐coyote interactions in San Francisco

Familiarity with, perceptions of and attitudes toward butterflies of urban park users in megacities across East and Southeast Asia

What informs human–nature connection? An exploration of factors in the context of urban park visitors and wildlife

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