870 I. Best and K. J.-C. Pei
FIG. 3 (a) Attitudes towards leopard cat protection, based on experience type (n = 56), and (b) experience type within occupational subgroups (n = 56) among interviewees in three townships in Miaoli County, Taiwan (Fig. 1).
perceived leopard cats as pests, and all 10 owned small-scale poultry farms. The relatively low incidence of negative ex- periences and associated attitudes should not be overlooked however, because of the potential harm to the felid’s reputa- tion (Sakurai et al., 2013). In terms of the relationship between age and supportive-
ness of leopard cat conservation, the results are significant when the participants are divided into two groups: ,45 and $45 years old. Other authors have reported that age is negatively associated with attitude towards carnivores; i.e. younger people have more positive attitudes towards these species (Casey et al., 2005; Suryawanshi et al., 2014). Our results also indicate that conservation experience contributes to favourable attitudes towards leopard cats, which confirms our second prediction. This is not surpris- ing, as we would expect individuals with conservation experience to have an interest in the subject and be more empathetic towards wildlife, especially threatened wildlife (Teel & Manfredo, 2009). Individuals with conservation experience had higher levels of knowledge of leopard cat ecology and status. Few of the participants were able to correctly answer the
question pertaining to the current status of leopard cats, which implies that awareness could be improved at the local level. St. John et al. (2015) found that few of the re- spondents in their survey were aware that leopard cats are protected by law. Thus there is room for improvement in community-level environmental educational programmes in Taiwan (Hsu et al., 1997). Awareness of and support for leopard cats could be
increased by targeting younger, higher-educated socio- demographic groups through social media and other online platforms. Online sampling and outreach is becoming more widely used in the scientific community (Baltar & Brunet, 2012). When asked how they would be willing to help sup- port leopard cats, many of the participants in our study
indicated they would be willing to help improve awareness. This could be achieved via online media platforms. The success of conservation action plans for wildlife, es-
pecially carnivores, depends on the support of local people. For leopard cats, mitigation of any sources of conflict is a priority, especially as many farmers in Miaoli stock poultry. One of the participants in our study mentioned that he had installed powerful lights surrounding the enclosure of his poultry to deter leopard cats, which he claimed was success- ful. Lights can act as disruptive visual stimuli for predators, and have been found to be useful (Shivik & Martin, 2001). Another effective, non-lethal management technique is to construct and/or strengthen and reinforce enclosures to maintain barriers between carnivores and livestock or poultry (Shivik&Martin, 2001; Ravenelle&Nyhus, 2017). Apart from alterations to animal husbandry, compensation schemes are commonly adopted to mitigate the impact of depredation (Zabel & Holm-Muller, 2008; Maheshwari et al., 2014). However, in Taiwan ex-post compensation schemes are in- effective as they are not offered through the government but through NGOs, with minimal compensation, requirement for substantial evidence of losses, and lengthy processing time (Pei et al., 2014). Moreover, farmers may be reluctant to report losses to the government or conservation groups, as they may prefer to take matters into their own hands and carry out retaliatory killings of leopard cats (Kao, 2013). As an alternative, programmes based on conservation
performance payments have been designed and implemen- ted in developed countries (e.g. Sweden) to support carni- vore conservation, and these have been largely successful (Persson et al., 2015). Performance payments are made to individuals and/or groups for specific conservation achieve- ments, such as successful reproduction of target species (Zabel & Holm-Muller, 2008; Persson et al., 2015). The pay- ments are contingent on reciprocity; i.e. the amount paid is dependent on specific conservation targets being met
Oryx, 2020, 54(6), 866–872 © 2019 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605318000984
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