When Human–Wildlife Conflict Turns Deadly: Comparing the Situational Factors That Drive Retaliatory Leopard Killings in South Africa
Abstract
:Simple Summary
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
3. Results
3.1. Reasons Why Retaliatory Leopard Killings Take Place
3.2. Seeking Government Help When Dealing with Human-Wildlife Conflict
3.3. Solutions Proposed to Deal with Human-Wildlife Conflict Involving Leopards
4. Discussion and Conclusions
4.1. Summary of Findings
4.2. Study Limitations
4.3. Recommendations for Retaliatory Leopard Killing Prevention
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
Increase Effort | Increase Risks | Reduce Rewards | Reduce Provocations | Remove Excuses |
---|---|---|---|---|
Harden targets | Recruit informal guardians e.g., community member with dogs called after predation events | Conceal targets | Reduce frustrations | Set rules |
Control access | Assist natural surveillance | Encourage ownership (of wildlife) to increase agency for wildlife protection among farmers | Increase transparency among government institutions to limit corruption or the perception of it among farmers | Post instructions |
Screen exits | Reduce anonymity | Disrupt markets | Avoid disputes | Alert conscience |
Deflect offenders | Place managers | Deny benefits | Reduce emotion | Cooperative extension e.g., education initiatives to encourage cooperation from communities to prevent illegal killings |
Control tools (incl. drugs & alcohol) | Strengthen formal surveillance | Harness peer pressure by having respected community members positively pressure farmers to protect rather than kill leopards | Increase incentives & alternative benefits e.g., tourism revenue sharing with farms that use leopard friendly predation prevention methods | |
Leverage handlers e.g., pro-conservation farmers encouraging peers to protect leopards | Discourage imitation |
Appendix B
- (1)
- Why do you think poaching occurs?
- What factors make it easier/possible for poachers to operate?
- (2)
- What do local residents think about poaching?
- Are they for it or against it?
- Do they see the ills or just don’t care much because the consequences of poaching do not directly affect them?
- Do they view the land and its resources as theirs to use as they please?
- (3)
- Do you know of anyone who poaches? If so, who are they (no names just background information on the person)?
- How many are there?
- Do they work in groups (organizational structure loose or strictly defined)?
- What are their financial circumstances?
- Do they have any specific knowledge or experience with wildlife?
- (4)
- Why do these people poach? What incentives do these individuals respond to (with an eye to using that to find an alternative to poaching)?
- (5)
- What negative effects have you personally felt in your community from poaching?
- Are there any indirect effects from poaching that you’ve noticed and that wouldn’t be evident to the casual observer?
- Do most people in your community experience any negative effects from poaching?
- Is this a topic that comes up among community members?
- (6)
- Do you know where poachers unload their products (identify markets)?
- Who has access to these markets?
- Ask if possible to see such a market.
- (7)
- What do you believe would be the best methods to combat poaching in your area?
- What would it take to implement these methods?
- Who should be responsible for these efforts?
- (8)
- What obstacles currently exist to effectively combating poaching in your area?
- Are there any issues of corruption, cultural practices, lack of resources, or lack of interest from authorities?
- Are people in your area interested in helping stop poaching?
- What perception do community members have of current anti-poaching efforts or of wildlife management personnel in general?
- (9)
- Have there been any previous efforts made to stop poaching in your community?
- Were they successful?
- What made them successful/unsuccessful?
- What would you have done differently than they did?
- Are they still being implemented? If not, why not?
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Code Name | Applied When… |
---|---|
Distrust | |
Anger | Expressions of anger at leopards, the current state of predation, the current conservation situation, or actors involved in the area. |
Fear | Quotations suggesting that local actors live in fear as a result of human-wildlife conflict. |
Distrust | Quotations suggesting that stakeholders do not trust either other stakeholders in the study site or members of their own group. |
Corruption | Any reference to corruption as a factor in how leopard livestock predation and illegal leopard killings are investigated or dealt with in the area. Quote must include the word “corruption.” |
Failure of government response | Comments suggesting the government’s current handling of human-leopard conflicts and illegal leopard killings is not working. |
Ecological Beliefs | |
Rationale for predator intolerance | Quotes that give reasons why a person dislikes leopards. |
Livestock loss expectation | Quotes describing farmers’ beliefs about acceptable losses of livestock. Quote must include the words “livestock loss” or any of its derivatives (i.e., “lost livestock”). |
Natural prey availability | Quotes describing farmers’ beliefs about how much natural prey is available in the area for leopards to eat. |
Unsustainable land use | Quotes describing unsustainable land uses or practices in the area. |
Human-Leopard Conflict | |
Human-wildlife conflict cost | Examples of how human-wildlife conflict imposes a cost on humans and/or wildlife. |
Predation prevention beliefs | Quotes explaining what methods biologists, NGOs, government officials, farmers, and the general public believe should be used to prevent leopard livestock predation. |
Why & when predation | Quotes describing why and when biologists, NGOs, government officials, farmers, and the general public believe leopards eat livestock. |
Illegal Killings | |
Rationale for leopard killing | Justifications individuals provided for why they believe it is acceptable to shoot a leopard. |
Poaching network | Quotes suggesting that offenders had help or belong to an organized group. |
Leopard killing method 1 | Quotations describing how leopards are killed in the area. |
Why & when killed | Quotes describing why and when biologists, NGOs, government officials, farmers, and the general public believe leopard poaching and retaliatory killings take place. |
Solutions | |
Judicial outcome | Description of judicial outcomes for prosecutions of leopard killings/poaching. |
Solutions: Suggested & attempted | Description of any suggested or attempted solutions to prevent leopard livestock predation and illegal leopard killings. |
Solutions: Why working | Quotes that explain or suggest why certain solutions to poaching and retaliatory killings are working. |
Types of Complaints | Farmers’ Complaints | Government Officials’ and NGO Staff’s Complaints |
---|---|---|
Using inefficient methods | Officials feed meat to leopards during translocation which encourages livestock predation | Officials sometimes lack training and use ineffective methods |
Officials do not relocate far enough | Officials use “one size fits all” enforcement or simply do not have resources to tailor solutions to farmer needs | |
Official trapping cages are too small allowing leopards to escape | Prevention measures are just one more burden for farmers, so unlikely to stick to them | |
Penalties are not a deterrent for farmers who kill leopards | ||
Inadequate laws | Officials apply laws unequally | No national legislation for these issues makes enforcement difficult |
Not enough resources | Government authorities provide no compensation for predation losses | Officials lack enough money to do things properly |
Officials do not have enough trained personnel to respond | ||
Slow & unwilling | Officials are corrupt | Officials wait too long to act |
Corruption is an issue | ||
Officials are uninterested in solving the problem | No one will talk to help investigators and/or wildlife management personnel |
Predation Prevention Methods Cited | Farmers’ Thoughts on These Methods | Government Officials’ and NGO Staff’s Thoughts on These Methods |
---|---|---|
Translocation | Ineffective because leopard comes back | Stress of translocation hurts leopard survival |
Kill problem leopard | Best to kill leopard right away | Only if trapping ineffective, issue kill permit |
Use poison collars on livestock if needed | ||
Trap & release | Completely ineffective | Trap & release with GPS, hope for fear of humans, no guarantees |
Anatolian sheep dogs | Dogs cause other problems by hunting small prey | Work when hunting instinct bred out of dogs |
Donkeys | Ok, but not 100% effective | Work well |
Wire collars | Ineffective | Ineffective |
Bell collars | Ineffective | Good when used randomly so leopards are not habituated to the noise |
New ideas | Suggested alternative solutions:
| Suggested alternative solutions:
|
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Viollaz, J.S.; Thompson, S.T.; Petrossian, G.A. When Human–Wildlife Conflict Turns Deadly: Comparing the Situational Factors That Drive Retaliatory Leopard Killings in South Africa. Animals 2021, 11, 3281. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11113281
Viollaz JS, Thompson ST, Petrossian GA. When Human–Wildlife Conflict Turns Deadly: Comparing the Situational Factors That Drive Retaliatory Leopard Killings in South Africa. Animals. 2021; 11(11):3281. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11113281
Chicago/Turabian StyleViollaz, Julie S., Sara T. Thompson, and Gohar A. Petrossian. 2021. "When Human–Wildlife Conflict Turns Deadly: Comparing the Situational Factors That Drive Retaliatory Leopard Killings in South Africa" Animals 11, no. 11: 3281. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11113281