RESUMO
Understanding and assessing the public's attitudes towards urban wildlife is an important step towards creating management plans, increasing knowledge and awareness, and fostering coexistence between people and wildlife. We conducted a survey of undergraduate college students in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area-where coyotes are recent arrivals-to determine existing attitudes towards coyotes and coyote management methods. Amongst other findings, we found that the more a person feared coyotes, the less likely they were to support their presence (p < 0.001), and the less likely they were to believe that pet owners should be directly responsible for protecting their pets (p < 0.001). Respondents demonstrated major gaps in their understanding of basic coyote biology and ecology. Respondents broke wildlife management practices into two categories: those that involved an action on coyotes (both lethal or non-lethal; referred to as "Coyote"), and those that restricted human behavior (referred to as "Human"); the "Human" methods were preferred. We found important differences between key demographic groups in terms of attitudes and management preferences. Our study suggests that wildlife professionals have unique opportunities in urban areas to prevent and reduce conflict before it escalates, in part by targeting tailored outreach messages to various demographic and social groups.
RESUMO
Ulcerative lesions are a health concern for managed black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) populations. To examine possible relationships between ex situ variables and adrenal activity with the presence of lesions, facility and socioenvironmental surveys of 25:20 (male:female) black rhinos at 18 zoos were conducted, and fecal samples were collected twice weekly for 1 yr for glucocorticoid metabolite analyses. During the collection period, 5.1 rhinos exhibited skin lesions, 1.0 had oral lesions, and 1.0 had both. All of the rhinos with lesions recovered, except the one with both oral and skin lesions, which died shortly after the end of the study. In general, there were no relationships (P > 0.05) between ex situ variables, or rhino behavior indices, and lesion onset. There also were no differences (P > 0.05) in fecal glucocorticoid variability (+/- SEM) between rhinos with (coefficients of variation [CV] = 57.1 +/- 7.2 ng/g) and without (53.8 +/- 2.3 ng/g) lesions, or in overall mean (+/- SEM) glucocorticoid metabolite concentrations between rhinos with (45.1 +/- 4.0 ng/g) and without (34.6 +/- 2.8 ng/g) lesions. However, baseline mean (+/- SEM) glucocorticoid metabolite concentrations were lower (P < 0.05) in rhinos with lesions (n = 5.1, baseline mean = 29.9 +/- 3.3 ng/g, range: 24.3-84.9 ng/g) than without (n = 19.19 baseline mean = 40.0 +/- 2.4 ng/g, range: 19.4-50.8 ng/g). For a male rhino that developed lesions during the study, the mean glucocorticoid concentrations were lower (P < 0.01) when lesions were present (n = 12, overall = 30.1 +/- 2.4 ng/g, baseline = 28.7 +/- 2.2 ng/g) than prior to lesion onset (n = 75, overall = 36.5 +/- 1.0 ng/g, baseline 35.3 +/- 0.8 ng/g). These results suggest that ulcerative lesions may be associated with changes in adrenal activity, although it is not clear if this is a cause or effect of disease.
