Predicting acceptance of lethal management of wood bison in Alaska, USA.

Wood bison (Bison bison athabascae) were reintroduced into Alaska after a 170-year absence in the state. Wildlife reintroductions may cause problems by damaging property, spreading disease, increasing fear levels, and human injury and death. We examined the influence of urban Alaskan's wildife value orientations (WVO; domination and mutualism), fear, and attitudes toward wood bison on their behavioral intention to support lethal management under specific situations. We hypothesized that: (a) domination, mutualism and fear would influence public attitudes toward wood bison, and (b) attitudes would predict an individual's behavioral intention to support lethal management of the newly restored bison population. We collected data through a self-administered questionnaire randomly distributed to residents in Anchorage (n = 243) and Fairbanks (n = 272). Regression analyses indicated that both mutualism and domination positively correlated with attitudes, and fear negatively correlated with attitudes. Attitudes did not predict behavioral intention to support lethal management practices. Both WVOs and fear predicted behavioral intentions. The model helps to illustrate how cognitive and emotional components can influence acceptance of newly restored herbivore species. Our findings also suggested that for situations where an attitude may not exist, people may use more basic value orientations and emotions when thinking about how they would react in specific situations.

Attitudes toward jaguars and pumas and the acceptability of killing big cats in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest: An application of the Potential for Conflict Index2.

We explored the overall acceptability of killing jaguars and pumas in different scenarios of people-big cat interactions, the influence of attitudes toward big cats on acceptability, and the level of consensus on the responses. Data were obtained from 326 self-administered questionnaires in areas adjacent to Intervales State Park and Alto Ribeira State Park. Overall, people held slightly positive attitudes toward jaguars and pumas and viewed the killing of big cats as unacceptable. However, individuals that held negative attitudes were more accepting of killing. As the severity of people-big cat interactions increased, the level of consensus decreased. Knowing whether killing a big cat is acceptable or unacceptable in specific situations allows managers to anticipate conflict and avoid illegal killing of big cats.