Tolerance for cougars diminished by high perception of risk

Abstract

ABSTRACT. In North America, both human and cougar populations are expanding and increasingly sharing the same space, including modified landscapes viewed by people as their "backyard." Low tolerance for cougars in modified landscapes has been identified as a key factor that could restrict continued cougar range expansion in North America, or even reverse some of the gains made by cougar populations in recent decades. To better understand factors influencing tolerance and identify opportunities to improve conservation prospects for cougars, we implemented a questionnaire in west-central Alberta, where both human and cougar populations have increased over the past 20 years and where we had developed a resource selection function for cougars from telemetry data. Respondents overestimated risk from cougars, and more than half believed cougars posed the same or greater risk as driving a car, even though only one Albertan has been killed by a cougar in the last century and hundreds die in car accidents each year. Although respondents valued cougars highly, they indicated that cougars belonged in the wilderness and not near their homes. We predicted that tolerance for cougars would be negatively correlated with increased probability of cougar selection near the respondent's home, but our prediction was not supported. Although such correlations have been reported at broader spatial scales, we suggest they may break down at finer scales. Other factors, such as education, were important drivers of tolerance for cougars in Alberta. Our results suggest that education undertaken to improve large carnivore conservation should focus on accurately defining the risks and ecological benefits resulting from maintaining cougars on the landscape. Education may also need to focus on the importance of nonwilderness habitats (i.e., the rapidly expanding backyard) as an important part of long-term conservation and continued range expansion and repatriation of adaptable large carnivores, such as cougars.

Carnivores and Communities: A Case Study of Human-Carnivore Conflict Mitigation in Southwestern Alberta

“…Despite some examples of successful coexistence, support for conserving carnivores is not uniform and can vary between groups of people, including rural land owners and urban residents, particularly when rural people might directly interact with these animals (Kellert et al, 1996;Bjerke and Kaltenborn, 1999;Ericsson et al, 2004;Karlsson and Sjöström, 2007;Hughes and Nielsen, 2018). In a rural context, tolerance for large carnivores may be contingent on reducing the safety risks or economic impacts on human livelihoods these species can cause (Riley and Decker, 2000;Ericsson et al, 2008;Knopff et al, 2016;Hughes and Nielsen, 2018). Further, rural communities and agricultural areas typically bear the costs of living with carnivores (Newsome et al, 2015;Morehouse and Boyce, 2017;Hughes and Nielsen, 2018).…”

Bearly Guilty: Understanding Human–Andean Bear Conflict Regarding Crop Losses

“…We could not verify this claim since other people feared retaliation from hunters. Also, hunters were substantially less tolerant than non-hunters (Knopff et al 2016), and indicated they will do it again if needed, and if they have problems with bears, they cannot count with any authority to help them, and prefer to "eliminate the problem". This was also discussed by Dickman (2010), who indicated that the response to conflict often appears disproportionate and even a small level of wildlife damage can still elicit harsh responses.…”

“…Despite the reduced number of sightings and damage to crops, the perception of the people towards the Andean bear remains negative. The substantial overestimation of risk associated with carnivores, including bears, could be the result of a cognitive illusion, which occurs when rare events are so memorable and easily recalled that individuals overestimate their frequency (Knopff et al 2016).…”

Social Media and Large Carnivores: Sharing Biased News on Attacks on Humans

“…Human-large carnivore conflict is the major barrier to the conservation of these species and attacks on humans represent the most extreme form of such conflict. It is well-recognized that human acceptance of large carnivores plays a crucial role in the fate of these species (Ripple et al, 2014) and acceptance highly depends on the real or perceived risk that these species pose to human safety (Decker et al, 2002;Knopff et al, 2016). Thus, Abbreviations: SM, Social Media; NTS, Number of Total Shares.…”