Human-wildlife interactions: influence of ecological context on people's attitudes towards wild mammals

• Grant number: 16/06789-3
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): January 01, 2017
• Effective date (End): February 28, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Cooperation agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Renata Pardini
• Grantee: Lucas Manuel Cabral Teixeira
• Home Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/23457-6 - Interface project: relationships among landscape structure, ecological processes, biodiversity and ecosystem services, AP.BTA.TEM

Abstract

Human-wildlife conflicts have been rapidly growing in the last years and are nowadays considered one of the most important threats to wildlife conservation around the world. Research about conflicts has been centered on two relatively isolated approaches that are seldom explored together: one focuses on the ecological determinants of conflicts (e.g. how landscape structure affects wildlife and consequently the damages it causes); and the other focuses on aspects related to human dimensions (e.g. which socioeconomic factors or past experiences affects people's attitude towards wildlife). However, conflicts are processes of interactions that interconnect ecological (e.g. landscape structure, animal communities structure) and human components (e.g. beliefs, attitudes and human behaviors) of socioecological systems. Thus, interdisciplinary projects that take into account these two research approaches together are essential to support proper management strategies to reduce conflicts aiming biodiversity conservation. By focusing on three different mammal species - opossum, crab-eating fox and cougar - we intend to test hypotheses on how remaining forest cover at the landscape affects damage frequency and people's contact with these species (ecological component), and how these past experiences affect beliefs associated with the risks and benefits these species bring, as well as people's attitudes towards them (human component). To do so, we will apply structured questionnaires via interviews to 120 landowners distributed in 12 landscapes varying in the proportion of remaining forest cover in the Cantareira-Mantiqueira region, São Paulo state, Brazil. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

TEIXEIRA, Lucas Manuel Cabral. Tolerance towards wildlife in the Atlantic forest: an empirical test across ecological contexts and mammal specie. 2018. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Biociências São Paulo.