Wildlife SOS, 406 East 300 South, No. 302, Salt Lake City, UT, 84111, USA.
Brigham Young University, 5050 Life Sciences Building, Provo, UT, 84602, USA.
Sci Rep. 2022 Mar 10;12(1):3943. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-07974-y.
Sloth bears behave aggressively toward humans when threatened and are among the most dangerous wildlife in India. Safety messaging for those who live in sloth bear country must be accurate to be effective, and messaging may need to be modified to account for regional differences in human-bear relationships. The timing of sloth bear attacks on the Deccan Plateau of Karnataka, both by season and by time of day, deviated enough from those reported in other areas such that it warranted further investigation. We compared data from eight studies of human-sloth bear conflict from across the Indian subcontinent and explored possibilities as to why differences exist. Seasonally all studies reported that human-sloth bear conflict was highest when human activity in the forest was greatest, though the season of highest human activity varied significantly by region (χ = 5921, df = 5, P < 0.001). The time of day that the majority of attacks occurred also varied significantly by region (χ = 666, df = 5, P < 0.001), though human activity was relatively consistent. We speculated that the rate of day attacks on the Deccan Plateau was lower due to the reduced probability of encountering a sleeping bear as they are concealed and secure in shallow caves. Additionally, the rate of attacks was significantly higher at night on the Deccan Plateau because people often to work into nighttime. We concluded that slight differences, or different emphasis, to bear safety messaging may be necessary on a regional basis to keep the messaging accurate and effective.
当受到威胁时，懒熊会对人类表现出攻击性，是印度最危险的野生动物之一。为了确保有效性，生活在懒熊栖息地的人必须接收到准确的安全信息，而且这些信息可能需要根据人类与熊关系的区域差异进行调整。在卡纳塔克邦的德干高原，懒熊袭击的时间（无论是按季节还是按白天时间）与其他地区报道的有足够大的差异，这表明有必要进一步调查。我们比较了来自印度次大陆各地的八项有关人与懒熊冲突的研究数据，并探讨了存在差异的原因。所有研究都报告说，从季节上看，当森林中的人类活动最频繁时，人与懒熊的冲突最为严重，尽管人类活动最频繁的季节因地区而异（χ²=5921，df=5，P<0.001）。大多数袭击发生的时间也因地区而异（χ²=666，df=5，P<0.001），尽管人类活动相对稳定。我们推测，德干高原白天袭击的发生率较低，因为遇到正在睡觉的熊的可能性降低了，因为它们隐藏在浅洞穴中，很安全。此外，在德干高原上，夜间袭击的发生率明显更高，因为人们经常在夜间工作。我们的结论是，基于区域差异，可能需要对熊安全信息进行细微的调整或不同的强调，以确保信息的准确性和有效性。
