Bell Elicia, Raycraft Justin
Department of Geography, University of Victoria, V8P 5C2, Victoria, BC, Canada.
Department of Anthropology, University of Lethbridge, T1K 3M4, Lethbridge, AB, Canada.
J Environ Manage. 2025 Sep;392:126703. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.126703. Epub 2025 Jul 30.
Across shared landscapes, negative human-carnivore interactions can bring about serious consequences for both wildlife and human livelihoods. Identifying factors that promote coexistence is thereby one of the most pressing and complex environmental issues facing wildlife managers and local communities globally. The nature and intensity of human-carnivore interaction dynamics are contingent on both ecological and human social factors. Carnivore behavioural ecology is influenced by external environment and distributions of available resources, whereas human interactions with predatory wildlife are shaped by an array of social, economic, and cultural factors. This paper explores carnivore-pastoralist interactions in Maasai communities within the Tarangire ecosystem of northern Tanzania, employing a mixed-methods framework to analyze the ecological and social dimensions of coexistence. Based on anthropological data from household surveys (n = 424), we assess reported levels of livestock predation by leopards (Panthera pardus) and spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) across a savanna landscape adjacent to a mountain forest. We examine the effects of environmental factors (vegetative structure and proximity to protected area) and livestock husbandry practices (presence of fencing and predator deterrent lighting) on the perceived frequency of carnivore homestead visits using cumulative link mixed models. We found that leopards and hyenas mainly attacked corralled livestock at night. Variations in predator visits to homesteads were better explained by the presence of preventative infrastructure than environmental factors. Though predator deterrent lighting had negligible effects, and interior livestock corral fencing had minor effects, robust perimeter fencing was associated with major reductions in carnivore visitation frequency. We conclude that targeted investments in fortified homestead fencing may offer the most effective strategy for reducing negative human-carnivore interactions at the household scale, particularly in areas of the Tarangire ecosystem where spatial overlap between pastoralist communities and predators is consistently high.
在共享的地域范围内，人类与食肉动物之间的负面互动会给野生动物和人类生计带来严重后果。因此，确定促进共存的因素是全球野生动物管理者和当地社区面临的最紧迫、最复杂的环境问题之一。人类与食肉动物互动动态的性质和强度取决于生态和人类社会因素。食肉动物的行为生态受到外部环境和可用资源分布的影响，而人类与食肉野生动物的互动则受到一系列社会、经济和文化因素的塑造。本文探讨了坦桑尼亚北部塔兰吉雷生态系统中马赛社区内食肉动物与牧民的互动，采用混合方法框架分析共存的生态和社会层面。基于家庭调查（n = 424）的人类学数据，我们评估了在毗邻山地森林的热带稀树草原景观中，豹（Panthera pardus）和斑鬣狗（Crocuta crocuta）对家畜的捕食报告水平。我们使用累积链接混合模型，研究环境因素（植被结构和与保护区的距离）和畜牧实践（围栏和捕食者威慑照明的存在）对食肉动物到访家园感知频率的影响。我们发现，豹和鬣狗主要在夜间袭击圈养的家畜。与环境因素相比，预防性基础设施的存在能更好地解释食肉动物到访家园的差异。虽然捕食者威慑照明的效果可忽略不计，内部家畜围栏的影响较小，但坚固的周边围栏与食肉动物到访频率的大幅降低有关。我们得出结论，有针对性地投资强化家园围栏可能是在家庭层面减少人类与食肉动物负面互动的最有效策略，特别是在塔兰吉雷生态系统中牧民社区与捕食者空间重叠一直很高的地区。
