Dryad
Published November 16, 2023 | Version v1
Dataset Open

Interests, beliefs, experience, and perceptions shape tolerance towards impacts of recovering predators

Creators

  • 1. University of Aberdeen
  • 2. Forestry England*
  • 3. Forest Research
  • 4. Vincent Wildlife Trust

Description

  1. The modification of landscapes is increasing the interface between humans and wildlife, while conflicts concerning predator impacts on human activities persist. Some previously persecuted but now protected predator species are experiencing recovery and range expansion.
  2. Tolerance is considered essential for achieving coexistence between humans and wildlife; however, its conceptualisation remains unresolved. Little is known about tolerance in the context of recovering predators, particularly which drivers are relevant to all or specific species and human interests.
  3. Using an online questionnaire survey shared with members of organisations with interests in rural land-based activities, we collected data on interests and beliefs, and attitudes, perceptions, experience, and management preferences for six recovering vertebrate predators in the UK (n=819). We created a species tolerance score representing the management choices of the respondents in different conflict scenarios, which differed in the degree of impact on the predator population.
  4. Our species tolerance score was characterized by a complex combination of the interests and beliefs of the respondents about wildlife management, perceptions and experience of that species (perceived benefits, population trend, positive and negative experience, indirect negative experience) and negative experience of other recovering predators. 
  5. We found a tolerance gradient between interest groups with notable overlap between groups with primary interests in wildlife conservation, shooting, farming, and fishing. Although higher perceived benefits consistently corresponded to higher tolerance, having a negative experience of the species dampened the effect of perceived benefits on tolerance. When both negative personal and indirect experiences were reported, tolerance was dramatically reduced. The classification of species from least to most tolerated was consistent between interest groups. 
  6. The application of our species tolerance score as the normative dimension (i.e., acceptability) in Brenner and Metcalf's (2020) Social Tolerance of Wildlife Framework highlights that tolerance (negative attitude-high acceptability) is potentially rare and more positive attitudes must be achieved before acceptance of the impacts of species can increase. 
  7. Our findings highlight that considering only primary interests may hinder debates concerning recovering predators. Strategies to reduce negative experiences or change how they are perceived could significantly increase tolerance in combination with increasing positive experiences.

Notes

Funding provided by: Natural Environment Research Council
Crossref Funder Registry ID: https://ror.org/02b5d8509
Award Number: NE/N008960/1

Methods

This dataset is used in "Interests, beliefs, experience, and perceptions shape tolerance towards impacts of recovering predators" by Hobson K J, Stringer A, Gill R, MacPherson J, Lambin X, in People and Nature.

Corresponding author: Professor Xavier Lambin (University of Aberdeen) x.lambin@abdn.ac.uk

The data is dervived from a quesitonnaire survey for our study which was approved by the Ethics Review Committee of the School of Psychology of the University of Aberdeen (Application No. PEC/4220/2019/5). Informed consent to participate in the study was obtained from all respondents. The dataset contains data collected using an online survey (using SNAP 11 Professional software, www.snapsurveys.com) shared with stakeholders with interests in rural land-based activities between June 2019 to February 2020. The questionnaire gathered information on people's interests and how they value wildlife, and their attitudes, perceptions, and experience of six recovering predator species: otter, pine marten, polecat, buzzard, golden eagle, and red kite, in the UK. Using varying hypothetical conflict scenarios (e.g., species impacting livestock, game, pets, and native species) we asked each respondent to choose the management strategy they deemed most appropriate. From this, we created a tolerance score for each respondent about each species. The dataset contains different versions of the variables used in the study including raw data, as well as the final variables used to model tolerance to recovering predators using linear mixed models with Gaussian distributions and a random effect of the respondent (see paper and supplementary materials for the final 23 variables used). 

The dataset contains data from the 819 respondents that completed the questionnaire. Respondents or observations (a respondent's answers about one of the species) were removed from the analysis if there were missing data for any of the final variables or if the respondent could not be assigned to an interest group. The final data used in the analysis is noted in the column "Data_used_mixed_model" as "final_data".

Structure - the data has multiple observations/lines per respondent, one for each species. If a species was not recognised by the respondent then the questions were not asked about this species. 

See tables in paper and supplementary materials for full details on variables and data manipulation.  

Data derived from other questions in the questionnaire are not included in the dataset, only the data that was used in the anaylsis for this study. 

Files

Data_questionnaire_Hobson_et_al_2023_Stakeholder_tolerance_recovering_predators_UK.csv

Files (4.8 MB)