National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bangalore, India.
Department of Anthropology, The University of Texas, San Antonio, Texas, USA.
Am J Primatol. 2021 Sep;83(9):e23310. doi: 10.1002/ajp.23310. Epub 2021 Jul 30.
Living near primate species has positive and negative outcomes for human communities. While most studies focus on understanding people's perceptions regarding the adverse consequences of interacting with primates, less is known about people's willingness to coexist with primates or reasons that may promote human-primate coexistence. We surveyed 794 people co-living with four different primate species-rhesus macaque Macaca mulatta, bonnet macaque Macaca radiata, lion-tailed macaque Macaca silenus, and Hanuman langur Semnopithecus dussumieri-in southern and western India to understand how people perceived the costs and benefits of coexistence. The results of our semi-structured interview study revealed that although tangible costs (i.e., financial losses from primate depredation) primarily drive people's stated tolerance for primate presence, intangible benefits from primates (i.e., their ecological, existence, sentience, and religious values) also critically affect attitudes towards coexistence. Amongst the four species, people associated rhesus macaques with the greatest costs and fewest benefits, lion-tailed macaques with the lowest costs, and bonnet macaques with the highest benefits. People preferred lion-tailed macaques and Hanuman langurs more than bonnet and rhesus macaques, and affection for a species shaped how people viewed costs accruing from the species. People's preferences for species were influenced by their existence, ecological, and sentience values more than their religious value. We suggest that intangible benefits influence people's fondness for a primate species and this, in turn, shapes how people perceive costs resulting from the species. Hence strengthening people's perceptions of the intangible benefits they receive from primate species will improve human tolerance for living near primates. We argue that there is a need to understand the context of human-primate conflicts beyond the cost aspects and focus on the benefits to improve human-primate coexistence.
与灵长类动物生活在同一地区对人类社区既有积极影响，也有消极影响。虽然大多数研究都集中在了解人们对与灵长类动物互动的不利后果的看法上，但人们对与灵长类动物共存的意愿或促进人与灵长类动物共存的原因知之甚少。我们调查了 794 名与四种不同灵长类动物共同生活的人——猕猴 Macaca mulatta、戴帽叶猴 Macaca radiata、狮尾猕猴 Macaca silenus 和豚尾叶猴 Semnopithecus dussumieri——生活在印度南部和西部，以了解人们如何看待共存的成本和收益。我们的半结构化访谈研究结果表明，尽管有形成本（即灵长类动物掠夺造成的经济损失）主要驱动着人们对灵长类动物存在的容忍度，但灵长类动物的无形收益（即它们的生态、存在、意识和宗教价值）也会对共存态度产生重大影响。在这四种物种中，人们认为猕猴带来的成本最高，收益最少，狮尾猕猴的成本最低，而戴帽叶猴的收益最高。人们更喜欢狮尾猕猴和豚尾叶猴，而不是戴帽叶猴和猕猴，对一个物种的喜爱程度影响了人们对该物种带来的成本的看法。人们对物种的偏好受到其存在、生态和意识价值的影响，超过了其宗教价值。我们认为，无形收益影响了人们对灵长类动物物种的喜爱程度，进而影响了人们对该物种产生的成本的看法。因此，增强人们对从灵长类动物物种获得的无形收益的认识，将提高人们对生活在灵长类动物附近的容忍度。我们认为，有必要超越成本方面，了解人类与灵长类动物冲突的背景，关注收益，以改善人类与灵长类动物的共存。
