Abstract
Despite legal protection, deliberate killing by local people is one of the major threats to the conservation of lions and other large carnivores in Africa. Addressing this problem poses particular challenges, mainly because it is difficult to uncover illicit behavior. This article examined two groups of Maasai warriors: individuals who have killed African lions (Panthera leo) and those who have not. We conducted interviews to explore the relationship between attitudes, intentions and known lion killing behavior. Factor analysis and logistic regression revealed that lion killing was mainly determined by: (a) general attitudes toward lions, (b) engagement in traditional customs, (c) lion killing intentions to defend property, and (d) socio-cultural killing intentions. Our results indicated that general attitudes toward lions were the strongest predictor of lion killing behavior. Influencing attitudes to encourage pro-conservation behavior may help reduce killing.
Highlights
The conservation of large carnivores poses substantial challenges [1, 2] due to these species’ wide-ranging nature and high potential for livestock depredation [3, 4]
We examined attitudes toward lions among the Maasai pastoralists in southern Kenya including their engagement of traditional customs, as adhering to traditional customs and faith may reduce the propensity toward wildlife killing [27,28,29]
Fifty-one percent stated cultural reasons as the main reason for killing a lion, while 49% said that they killed in response to actual livestock depredation
Summary
The conservation of large carnivores poses substantial challenges [1, 2] due to these species’ wide-ranging nature and high potential for livestock depredation [3, 4]. Killing by humans has eliminated many carnivore species from extensive portions of their former range, including puma (Puma concolor), tiger (Panthera tigris) and African lion (Panthera leo) [3, 5, 6]. As human and livestock populations have rapidly expanded, large carnivore habitat and prey have declined and human-carnivore conflict over depredation has increased [6, 7]. Carnivore killing may be motivated by the degree of damage (e.g., livestock depredation) incurred [8, 9], but social and cultural beliefs are often important drivers and need to be addressed in order to reduce killing [10, 11].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
