Chapter 14 - Promoting coexistence through improved understanding of human perceptions, attitudes, and behavior toward snow leopards

Abstract

Research on perceptions, attitudes, and behavior toward snow leopards has primarily been triggered by the prevalence of the livestock predation behavior of snow leopards and retaliatory persecution by livestock herders. Several conservation interventions have been implemented with the aim of improving local peoples’ attitudes toward snow leopard by helping to mitigate the effects of livestock depredation. Drivers of attitudes can be diverse and context-specific; however, factors such as age, gender, and education have been identified by multiple studies as being important for determining human attitudes toward snow leopards. More recent work has identified nearly 55 proximate factors affecting human attitudes and grouped them into 5 ultimate factors: Value Orientation, Social Interactions, Resource Dependence, Risk Perception, and Nature of Interaction. Despite much research, our understanding of the link between human attitudes and their behavior toward snow leopards remains tenuous. There is also a greater need to shift the focus from the negative interactions between people and snow leopards to the much broader context of human-nature relationships in order to facilitate coexistence between carnivores and people.