Thursday, 28 January 2016

Coexisting with dangerous carnivores


Date: January 22, 2016
Source: Boise State University

Life is replete with things we don't like that are good for us. For instance, Brussels sprouts when you were a kid, or common house spiders under your eaves. But with enough information about benefits and risks, combined with the passage of time, we learn to accept and sometimes embrace formerly unpleasant or misunderstood things.

But what if those things are potentially dangerous? How can you sway a population to tolerate, say, endangered tigers and thus enhance worldwide conservation efforts? That was the question facing Neil Carter, assistant professor in the Human-Environment Systems program in Boise State University's College of Innovation and Design.

Carter was part of a study to measure the psychological predictors of tolerance for tigers in the Bangladesh Sundarbans, where the large carnivores have a rocky and sometimes violent relationship with local communities.

That study recently was published in the journal PLOS ONEwith the title, "Toward Human-Carnivore Coexistence: Understanding Tolerance for Tigers in Bangladesh." Lead author is Chloe Inskip; additional authors include Carter, Shawn Riley, Thomas Roberts and Douglas MacMillan.


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