Factors influencing local attitudes towards the conservation of leopard cats Prionailurus bengalensis in rural Taiwan


I AN B EST and KURTIS J AI-CHY I P EI


Abstract Understanding the human dimension is critical for effective conservation management of species involved in human–carnivore conflict. There is also a need to recog- nize who among the local human population is supportive of wildlife conservation. We investigated how local people’s attitudes and knowledge of the leopard cat Prionailurus ben- galensis are influenced by socio-demographic variables, en- counter rates and the nature of encounters with the felid in Taiwan. During June–August 2014 we interviewed 150 resi- dents in Miaoli County in northern Taiwan, where the leop- ard cat is known to occur. More than half of the participants indicated they were supportive of leopard cat conservation. The majority of those who expressed positive attitudes to- wards protection of the leopard cat belonged to younger, more educated socio-demographic groups. Negative attitudes towards leopard cat conservation weremost prevalent among farmers, who also reported the highest incidence of negative experiences, mainly involving predation of poultry. We pro- vide recommendations to mitigate human–felid conflict, including changes to animal husbandry practices. We also describe how conservation efforts for this species and wildlife in general in Taiwan could be improved, for example through incentive and awareness-raising programmes.


Keywords Attitudes, felid conservation, human–carnivore conflict, leopard cat, socio-demographic factors, Taiwan, threatened species


Supplementary material for this article is available at https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605318000984


Introduction E


ffective wildlife conservation planning and manage- ment have become critically important in many parts of the world, with more and more species threatened


IAN BEST* (Corresponding author) Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. E-mail ianbest03@gmail.com


KURTIS JAI-CHYI PEI (Corresponding author) Institute of Wildlife Conservation, College of Veterinary Medicine, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Neipu, Pingtung, Taiwan. E-mail kcjpei@gms.ndhu.edu.tw


*Also at: Biodiversity Program, Taiwan International Graduate Program, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan


Received 7 February 2018. Revision requested 16 April 2018. Accepted 16 July 2018. First published online 28 February 2019.


and facing population declines (Ripple et al., 2014). Contemporary approaches to wildlife conservation have become more interdisciplinary, emphasizing the need for research that considers human dimensions and socio- economic as well as ecological factors (Marchini, 2014; Verdade et al., 2014). In areas where people and carnivores increasingly come into contact as human activities encroach on wildlife habitat, an understanding of human–carnivore interactions and underlying human–human conflicts is essential (Young et al., 2010; Redpath et al., 2015), and opinions and attitudes toward carnivores will undoubtedly vary (Jacobs et al., 2012; Suryawanshi et al., 2014). The leopard cat Prionailurus bengalensis is categorized as


Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (Ross et al., 2015) but on the island of Taiwan it is categorized as Endangered and is protected under Taiwan’s Wildlife Conservation Act. Leopard cats were once widely distributed throughout Taiwan but are now limited to Miaoli County, Taichung City and Nantou County (Pei, 2008; Chen et al., 2016). Their current habitats, in low-elevation mountainous regions with secondary vegetation, are in close proximity to human settlements and agricultural areas and are thus vulnerable to further development and encroachment (Pei, 2008; Chen et al., 2016). The leopard cat population on the island is estimated to comprise c. 500 individuals; a small fraction of the former population (Pei et al., 2014). The de- cline has been caused by anthropogenic factors, including commercial hunting for pelts, and habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation (McCullough, 1974; Ross et al., 2015). Regardless of the leopard cat’s protected status under the Wildlife Conservation Act, illegal hunting still takes place (Pei, 2008; St. John et al., 2015). With increased infrastruc- ture development and habitat fragmentation, leopard cats are also occasionally killed by motorized vehicles while attempting to cross roads (Pei et al., 2014). Conflicts between people and leopard cats in Taiwan are


often a result of poultry predation incidents, and sometimes lead to retaliatory killings of leopard cats by trapping or poi- soning. In a survey conducted in Miaoli County (St. John et al., 2015), 6–9%of 242 respondents (n = 242) admitted to killing leopard cats during 2009–2012. Conflicts and negative attitudes are likely to persist if farmers’ livelihoods are threatened and they suffer economic losses, especially in the case of small-scale poultry farmers (St. John et al., 2015). Human–humanconflicts also occurinTaiwanbetweengroups with varying interests concerning leopard cat conservation


Oryx, 2020, 54(6), 866–872 © 2019 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605318000984


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