The leopard that learnt from the cat and other narratives of carnivore–human coexistence in northern India

Dhee,; Athreya, Vidya; Linnell, John D. C.; Shivakumar, Shweta; Dhiman, Sat Pal

doi:10.1002/pan3.10039

Cited by 33 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 37 publications

(36 reference statements)

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“…These observations are consistent with similar popular legends that discuss other mammalian commensals, e.g. Dhee et al (2019). Monotheistic or otherwise, culturally, Indian society is collectivistic and promotes social cohesion and interdependence, evident in unique names to depict paternal and maternal relations, unlike the western societies (Chadda & Deb, 2013).…”

Section: Extension Of the Human Familial Structure To Bird Scavengerssupporting

confidence: 88%

“…for an upgrade to more relevant social carrying capacity for the human use landscapes (Ghosal & Kjosavik, 2015). Permeation of rituals and cultural factors in the social factors not only promotes tolerance for animals that indulge in conflicts within cities but also at urban-peri urban (Aiyadurai, 2016;Barua, 2014a;Dhee et al, 2019) and village-protected area ecotones (Ghosal & Kjosavik, 2015). If modern systematics allows us to extend and generalize the outcomes of a scientific study, folk identities, perceptions and practices that supplicate coexistence could aid conservation endeavours in times when we need the public will, more than ever before.…”

Section: Conclusion: Implications For the Future Of Urbanisation In mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Folk perceptions for avian scavengers in a tropical megacity: implications for biocultural conservation

Gupta¹,

Qureshi²,

Kumar³

2020

Preprint

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1.Inductive generalisations based on folk perceptions for animals complement anthropogenic impacts that affect non-human species in myriad ways. Despite the surge in research on urban ecosystems, there is a poor understanding of the importance of human perceptions that affect animal-guilds subsisting on urban food-subsidies. 2.We studied the cultural salience of representative commensal avian species that opportunistically thrive on anthropogenic resources and religious sentiments translating in ritual feeding in Delhi. We investigated people’s perceptions of representative avian scavengers, to understand the importance citizens attributed to their ecosystem services. We anticipated homogenising urban impacts over folk perceptions people registered for species-specific-interactions in tropical megacities. For this, we explored the prevalence of people-scavenger interactions or experiences represented in local terminology/folk taxonomy and systematics about black kites Milvus migrans, house crows Corvus splendens, and critically endangered vultures. 3.Folk perceptions varied across various stakeholders and were based on bird morphology and behaviour, and corresponding socio-cultural legends. People have coexisted with opportunistic scavengers, long before the advent of Linnaean systematics, implying a dynamic relationship under the purview of biocultural coevolution. Additionally, cultural values for these commensals, evident in ritual feeding practices, were crucial for the prevalence of inductive characterization, zoomorphism, and anthropomorphism. 4.The social-technological impacts on folk perceptions for animals we associate with rapid urban changes can potentially affect the political ecologies urban human-animal interface. Mediatisation and misinformation can mimetically evolve the existing trade-offs, pertinent to the human patronage and the practice of harnessing informal garbage-consumption by companion animals that are the culprit of conflicts and diseases. Frequently reported affective relationships of Indians for animals varied across the stakeholders likely due to urban-sprawl, demographic parameters, refuse management, and religio-cultural folktales. 5.Individually, scientific approaches lack scope concerning the scale of evidence for instinctive animal responses to the diverse, inductive folk practices of native stakeholders. Expansion of the purview of citizen science that factors integration of human socio-cultural estimates within scientific studies is, therefore, vital for human-animal coexistence. We suggest conservation implications of local and indigenous perception pathways about backyard biodiversity and rapidly homogenizing biophilic relationships in megacities.

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Section: Extension Of the Human Familial Structure To Bird Scavengerssupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Conclusion: Implications For the Future Of Urbanisation In mentioning

confidence: 99%

Folk perceptions for avian scavengers in a tropical megacity: implications for biocultural conservation

Gupta¹,

Qureshi²,

Kumar³

2020

Preprint

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“…In our study area, farmers project their own stories and experiences onto jackals and to a lesser extent, caracals, that then become vehicles to transmit human meaning. The mesopredators thus become a symbol of human emotions, a social construction [79].…”

Section: Stories and Physical Appreciation Contextualize Attitude Salmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beauty or beast? Farmers’ dualistic views and the influence of aesthetic appreciation on tolerance towards black-backed jackal and caracal

2021

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Various species of wild, adaptable, medium-sized carnivores occur outside of protected areas, often coming into contact with people and their domestic animals. Negative human-carnivore interactions can lead to antagonistic attitudes and behavior directed at such species. In the South African Karoo, a semi-arid rangeland, the predation of small-livestock by mesopredators is common and farmers typically use a combination of non-lethal and lethal methods to try and prevent livestock losses. We used ethnographic field observations and semi-structured interviews as part of a mixed methods approach, including the quantitative and qualitative analysis of farmers’ narratives to illustrate the nuanced ways in which sheep farmers relate to the two mesopredators that consume the most livestock on their farms; black-backed jackal and caracal. Overall, farmers attributed negative characteristics to jackal and caracal but farmers’ narratives provided evidence of complex perceptions in that the animals were admired as well as disliked. Both species were seen as charismatic due to traits such as their physical appearance, their “cunning” nature and their remarkable adaptability to human activities, including lethal control. Aesthetic appreciation was an important predictor of tolerance towards both species whereas negative attitudes were associated with the perception that mesopredators should only occur within protected areas. Attitudes towards jackals also appeared to have been affected by cultural representations of them as “thieves”. We showed that perceiving mesopredators as beautiful increased the average marginal probability of a farmer tolerating them, and that this strong relationship held when controlling for other covariates such as livestock predation. We advocate the importance of understanding the cultural and aesthetic aspects of predators and considering existing positive dimensions of human-wildlife relationships that may encourage increased farmers’ tolerance, which might promote coexistence.

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“…They may be considered as family-related adaptation strategies to prevent expected negative life impacts based on ancestral knowledge that is mediated via case-specific narratives (Dhee et al, 2019;Fernández-Llamazares & Cabaza, 2017).…”

Section: General Perceptions On Aye-ayesmentioning

confidence: 99%

To tell a different story: Unexpected diversity in local attitudes towards Endangered Aye‐ayes Daubentonia madagascariensis offers new opportunities for conservation

et al. 2021

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The leopard that learnt from the cat and other narratives of carnivore–human coexistence in northern India

Cited by 33 publications

References 37 publications

Folk perceptions for avian scavengers in a tropical megacity: implications for biocultural conservation

Folk perceptions for avian scavengers in a tropical megacity: implications for biocultural conservation

Beauty or beast? Farmers’ dualistic views and the influence of aesthetic appreciation on tolerance towards black-backed jackal and caracal

To tell a different story: Unexpected diversity in local attitudes towards Endangered Aye‐ayes Daubentonia madagascariensis offers new opportunities for conservation

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