346 J. H. Hanson et al.
FIG. 1 Sagarmatha National Park, showing sampling locations and dates in 2014 on which respondents’ attitudes to the proposed translocation of blue sheep Pseudois nayaur were assessed.
to test for normality inmultiple regression models indicated some evidence of non-normality in the dependent variable, and bootstrapping was therefore used for the final model (Field, 2013).
Interviews
The focus of the semi-structured interviews was to provide concurrent, cross-method triangulation with the question- naire data by interviewing key informants (Mikkelsen, 2005). The questions followed the outline of the household survey, and interview sampling followed the framework developed for the household questionnaires, with the aim of collecting 10% of the number of surveys administered. Twenty-six interviews were conducted and there was a bias in the sample towards community and conservation leaders, with Buddhist monks, teachers and women’s group leaders being the next three most numerous groups. The interviewswere usually administered in Nepali by a research assistant, with either JHH
orMSpresent.Asmall number of interviewees agreed to be interviewed in English. After tran- scription, the interview data were analysed both quantita- tively and qualitatively to triangulate and complement the questionnaire analysis.
Results
The majority of questionnaire respondents were previously unfamiliar with blue sheep (73.1%) and were unable to posi- tively identify it from a photograph (76.5%). When asked whether translocating a new prey species to the area would reduce livestock depredation by snow leopards, 10% completely agreed, 35.4% agreed, 41.5% were neutral, 12.3% disagreed and 0.8% completely disagreed. On being asked whether a population of blue sheep should be translocated to the Park, 13.5% completely agreed, 49.2% agreed, 22.7%were neutral, 13.5%disagreed and 1.1%completely dis- agreed. The Likert scale results from these two questions were scored and combined to create the blue sheep trans- location attitudinal scale, with a mean of 3.51 ± SD 0.82. Triangulation interviews, however, showed reduced levels of support for translocation, with slightly higher levels of neutral sentiment, and a lower proportion agreeing with the idea (Table 1).
Explaining local attitudes
In the multiple regression model (Table 2) two variables best explained attitudes to the proposed blue sheep translocation.
Oryx, 2020, 54(3), 344–350 © 2018 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605318000157
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