Human–carnivore conflict: ecological and economical sustainability of predation on livestock by snow leopard and other carnivores in the Himalaya

Aryal, Achyut; Brunton, Dianne H.; Ji, Weihong; Barraclough, Rosemary K.; Raubenheimer, David

doi:10.1007/s11625-014-0246-8

Cited by 93 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Although several species of Asian mega fauna, including tigers (Panthera tigris), snow leopard (Panthera uncia), rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) and elephants (Elephas maximus), are involved in such conflicts (Aryal et al 2012(Aryal et al , 2014a(Aryal et al , 2014b(Aryal et al , 2015Bhattarai & Fisher 2014), elephants are of particular concern because of the relatively high frequency and severity of their adverse interactions with humans in South Asia.…”

Section: Forummentioning

confidence: 99%

Dispersal and ranging patterns of the Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) in relation to their interactions with humans in Nepal

Koirala

Aryal

et al. 2015

Ethology Ecology & Evolution

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Section: Forummentioning

confidence: 99%

Dispersal and ranging patterns of the Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) in relation to their interactions with humans in Nepal

Koirala

Aryal

et al. 2015

Ethology Ecology & Evolution

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“…There is a long history of animal husbandry and pastoralism in these high altitude rangelands (Schaller 1977). The livestock assemblages of the region typically include: goat (Capra hircus), sheep (Ovis aries), cow (Bos indicus), yak (Bos grunniens) and horse (Equus caballus) (Aryal et al 2014b). We conducted a reconnaissance survey before the beginning of this research and characterized the present grazing regime.…”

Section: Study Species and Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Snow leopards and brown bears are known to use this area (Aryal et al 2014b), especially during winter, but no terrestrial predators were observed during the fieldwork period. The Golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) is the only avian predator known to feed on marmots.…”

Section: Study Species and Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This, coupled with predicted rapid climatic and phenological changes in the Himalaya (Shrestha et al 2012;Aryal et al 2014a), is likely to provide suitable conditions to expand and intensify pastoralist activities in Nepal. These predicted changes in the nature of Nepalese pastoralism may increase human-wildlife conflict in the region (Aryal et al 2014b), and have potential detrimental effects on marmot foraging activities due to competition with grazing animals (Shrestha and Wegge 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pastoralist disturbance effects on Himalayan marmot foraging and vigilance activity

Poudel

Spooner

Matthews

2015

Ecological Research

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Pastoralism is pervasive and has a long history across the rangelands of Trans-Himalaya. Disturbance associated with pastoralism can influence the behaviour of wild animals; hence, it is important to better understand its effects on wild animal behaviour. We compared the activity budget of the Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana) between areas experiencing both high and low levels of pastoralism, in the Upper Mustang region in Nepal. Scan sampling was used to collect diurnal activity budget data on adult marmots, whereas 2 min focal observations were made on foraging marmots to assess vigilance during foraging. Contrary to our prediction, there was no significant difference between areas of high and low pastoralism in terms of foraging behaviour. However, the vigilance activity of marmots was significantly influenced by the extent of disturbances associated with pastoralism. Marmots scanned the surroundings more often while foraging and spent more time scanning in high pastoralism sites as compared to marmots in low pastoralism sites. Although we found no direct negative effects of pastoralism on foraging time, marmots shifted the time of day when they foraged. This study suggests that marmots adjust their vigilance behaviour according to the environmental conditions in which they occur. These findings have important implications for the conservation of marmots in the wake of increasing pastoral activities and consequent increases in human-wildlife conflict in Nepal.

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“…This not only threatens the livelihoods of farmers that share their land with carnivores, but also 13 Possibly because the proposed mitigation measures not being implemented endangers recently restored carnivore populations as some farmers can turn to lethal control to manage this situation (Aryal, Brunton, Ji, Barraclough, & Raubenheimer, 2014;Rust & Marker, 2014). Why is it that we have not found a sustainable way to resolve human-wildlife conflict in the long-term?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the human dimensions of coexistence between carnivores and people: A case study in Namibia

Rust¹

2018

Preprint

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Many carnivore populations were in decline throughout much of the 20 th century, but due to recent conservation policies, their numbers are stabilising or even increasing in some areas of the world. This, compounded with human population growth, has caused increased livestock depredation by carnivores, which threatens farmer livelihoods, particularly those in developing countries such as Namibia. How to resolve this so-called "conflict" between carnivores and livestock farmers remains challenging, in part because some mitigation strategies have proven somewhat ineffective or unacceptable. By using a case-study approach on the commercial farmlands of northcentral Namibia, I aimed to understand the complexity of the human dimensions affecting coexistence between carnivores and people in an unprotected working landscape. Specifically, my objectives were to 1) develop a participatory decisionmaking exercise to analyse the views of stakeholders on how they would like carnivores to be managed in unprotected lands, 2) understand how the media framed financial incentives to improve human-carnivore coexistence, and 3) determine if there were any underlying social, economic or political causes of negative human-carnivore interactions on commercial livestock farms.To answer objective 1, I developed a new decision-making exercise that combined Q-methodology and the Delphi technique to determine whether a diverse group of stakeholders could agree on how to manage carnivores on commercial farmland. A strong agreement was reached by participants: providing conservation education and training on livestock husbandry were acceptable and effective ways to improve coexistence with carnivores. This new also method highlighted areas of disagreement between stakeholders and showed that there were two different narratives on how carnivores should be managed. This method could be used by policy makers to help with participatory decision-making for resolving other conservation conflicts.To answer objective 2, I undertook content analysis of national newspapers to determine how the media framed articles on financial incentives to mitigate this conservation conflict. The most common (30%) financial incentive discussed was compensation -many (61%) of these articles framed compensation positively. Niki Rust © 2015However, upon categorising these articles into those where respondents were enrolled in compensation schemes compared with those who were not, a clear pattern emerged: articles were more likely (89%) to be framed ambivalently or negatively when respondents had experience of this financial incentive compared with respondents that did not. These results can help conservationists plan more effective communication interventions and anticipate issues that can affect the success of mitigation strategies.To answer objective 3, I undertook eight months of participant observation on livestock farms and interviewed 69 respondents and found that reported livestock depredation was associated with increased instances of poaching of wildl...

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Human–carnivore conflict: ecological and economical sustainability of predation on livestock by snow leopard and other carnivores in the Himalaya

Cited by 93 publications

References 34 publications

Dispersal and ranging patterns of the Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) in relation to their interactions with humans in Nepal

Dispersal and ranging patterns of the Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) in relation to their interactions with humans in Nepal

Pastoralist disturbance effects on Himalayan marmot foraging and vigilance activity

Understanding the human dimensions of coexistence between carnivores and people: A case study in Namibia

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