Troublesome neighbours: Changing attitudes towards chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in a human-dominated landscape in Uganda

Abstract

a b s t r a c tLong-term human-wildlife sympatry depends on the willingness and capacity of local people to coexist with wild animals. With human population growth and deforestation for agriculture, farmers increasingly live in proximity to wildlife, including large mammals of conservation concern. Understanding local perspectives and concerns regarding wildlife is essential for informing appropriate management strategies that reduce conflicts and promote sustainable coexistence. Social science approaches therefore have a critical role in integrated conservation programmes. We undertook an attitude survey to understand residents' perspectives about sharing a landscape with chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in an unprotected forest-agriculture mosaic in Uganda. Interviews (n = 134) in 12 villages demonstrate residents' ambivalence towards living alongside these protected yet potentially troublesome mammals. Chimpanzee behaviour is reported to have undergone recent changes. Residents claim apes increasingly enter villages for food, threaten people, and pose a particular threat to children's safety. Chimpanzee numbers are believed to have increased locally. Most interviewees fear chimpanzees, considering them dangerous. Crop losses to chimpanzees were widely reported. Farmers tolerate raiding of domestic fruits, but not cash-crops. Results demonstrate that attitudes towards wildlife are not fixed. Reported changes to chimpanzee behaviour are challenging villagers' traditionally benign attitude towards them. Even so, residents acknowledge benefits to chimpanzees because they reportedly displace other crop-raiding wildlife which, unlike chimpanzees, damage important staple food crops. Survey findings are contextualised with respect to recent, major land-use changes in Uganda (clearance of unprotected forest for timber and agriculture) that have precipitated a sharp rise in farmer-chimpanzee interactions. We discuss the study's broader implications for protected mammal management and conflict mitigation in human-dominated landscapes, and ask whether it is appropriate to expect impoverished rural farmers to accommodate large-bodied mammals that pose a potential threat to their safety and livelihoods.

Perceptions of challenges to subsistence agriculture, and crop foraging by wildlife and chimpanzees Pan troglodytes verus in unprotected areas in Sierra Leone

“…However, it is also possible that farmers were potentially more likely to report chimpanzee foraging on a valuable staple crop such as cassava than domestic fruits because these are in most villages typically grown around individual households and harvested mainly for self-consumption. A similar situation was described by McLennan and Hill (2012) in Uganda where farmers tolerated consumption of fruits by chimpanzees like guavas but not cash crops like sugarcane, cocoa or bananas. Still, farmers in our study reported domestic fruits as being targeted especially by chimpanzees and monkeys.…”

“…There was indeed a gradient with chimpanzees being ranked higher (LA and MO) where farmers mentioned growing more seasonal crops and fewer cash crops and also reporting selling fewer surpluses, indicating a higher dependency of seasonal cultivation for subsistence. The degree to which farmers viewed chimpanzees as a threat to their agricultural yield may also be related to the extent of overlap between the chimpanzees' home range and farmlands in the landscape, the contribution of different crop species to chimpanzees' diet locally (McLennan & Hill, 2012) or whether farmers have direct experience of chimpanzee crop foraging (although there was no reported variation across sites in this study), and their level of tolerance of chimpanzee offtake (although chimpanzees were reportedly less likely to threaten people at LA which would indicate that perhaps farmers are more tolerant of chimpanzee crop-foraging at this site) (Webber & Hill, 2014). These alternative explanations warrant further investigation to reveal patterns of similarity or differences across sites.…”

Using Participatory Risk Mapping (PRM) to Identify and Understand People's Perceptions of Crop Loss to Animals in Uganda

“…However, some respondents were afraid of chimpanzees and were reluctant to adopt crop protection strategies due to their possible aggressive behaviour, as has been seen elsewhere [49]. This is a potential concern for conservation locally because people are likely to become intolerant of a situation they cannot control.…”

People and wildlife: Conflicts arising around the Bia Conservation Area in Ghana

“…In addition to financial benefits, beekeeping holds the potential for implementing bee hive fences (King et al 2009), and has been proven to be highly successful in Kenya (King et al 2011). However, in areas where chimpanzees (P. troglodytes) occur honey production might not be feasible as the primates can raid and destroy these beehives (McLennan & Hill 2012;Sanz & Morgan 2009). Trials should test the effectiveness and feasibility of such fences for susceptible farms around the BCA.…”