DISES: Social-ecological drivers and consequences of human-carnivore interactions within and among American cities

Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

Human coexistence with carnivores is vital to global conservation efforts, but coexistence is difficult because conflicts arising from the transmission of zoonotic diseases and attacks on people and domestic animals can reduce human tolerance for carnivores. Interactions between humans and carnivores are becoming more common with growing urbanization worldwide, leading to calls for carnivore eradication from some residents while others demand management approaches that promote coexistence. Conflicts between humans and carnivores and between different groups of people create a research need to predict negative human-carnivore interactions in cities and understand how to improve management to foster coexistence. This project examines 1) which characteristics of humans and carnivores either lead to conflict or to coexistence, 2) how management decisions are made about the use of lethal and non-lethal methods for controlling carnivores in cities, and 3) the heterogeneous impacts of different management strategies on carnivore genetics and public acceptability of carnivores. This research focuses on two urban carnivores with broad regional distributions, coyotes (Canis latrans) and raccoons (Procyon lotor), within cities involved in the Urban Wildlife Information Network, a collaborative of researchers and managers in over 50 cities who study urban wildlife using similar methods. This project particularly focuses on four cities: Chicago, IL; Washington D.C.; Phoenix, AZ; and San Francisco, CA. Complementary analysis draws on camera trap data from 20 cities to understand how the geographical patterns of carnivores and conflicts vary based on characteristics of the respective cities. Part of the challenge in preventing negative interactions between humans and carnivores is that it is typically approached as a wildlife management issue rather than a complex social-ecological system. Human-carnivore interactions are influenced by the presence of carnivores near people, but human responses ultimately affect the likelihood of interactions (e.g., providing food attractants), outcomes (e.g., whether carnivores are lethally removed), and diverse forms of coexistence (e.g., whether carnivores are tolerated or celebrated in urban natural areas). This project helps to address this challenge by combining data on coyote and raccoon distributions from camera traps with resident attitudes, as elicited via survey methods, and management perspectives, as inferred from interviews. This approach facilitates inferences about the extent to which carnivore distributions explain spatial patterns in conflicts and if there are communities where conflict is evident but not reported to managers. Similarly, the multifaceted approach helps to identify contexts where lethal management is used and if these measures result in changes to the genetic diversity of local carnivore populations. Lastly, the transdisciplinary approach elucidates how wildlife disease can dynamically influence the likelihood of human-wildlife interactions and how humans respond to those interactions. This project engages thousands of urban residents in participatory science via the tagging of wildlife images. It also provides educational training for K-12 students through the Lincoln Park Zoo’s Partners in Fieldwork program, in which students monitor wildlife using cameras and analyze mammal community data from cities across the Urban Wildlife Information Network. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.