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Dryad

Social media reports of urban carnivores in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles county

Abstract

 In this study, we analyzed 2,584 posts and comments on carnivore sightings, human-carnivore interactions, and attitudes toward carnivores via the neighborhood-based social media platform Nextdoor, focusing on 52 peri-urban neighborhoods near the Angeles National Forest in California. We focused on the two most frequently discussed species: coyote (Canis latrans) and American black bear (Ursus americanus). We then analyzed social-ecological covariates as potential predictors of Nextdoor carnivore reports, and also compared the sightings of these species to data collected on the popular biodiversity logging application, iNaturalist.