Shanghai residents attitudes towards raccoon dogs
Data files
Mar 19, 2024 version files 32.94 KB
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README.md
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semdata.xlsx
Abstract
Human-wildlife interactions become increasingly common in urban areas across all continents and ecosystem types. Depending on the context, human-wildlife interactions can be categorized as harmonious, neutral, or in conflict and raise cultural, economic, and ecological challenges in maintaining urban biodiversity. Understanding the mechanism behind the tolerance of residents to the presence of wildlife is vital to promoting a harmonious coexistence between humans and wildlife in urban environments. To advance our knowledge of this mechanism, we developed a questionnaire to survey residents in Shanghai, China about their knowledge of and attitude towards raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides), a species whose population is increasing in urban areas. Using 281 questionnaires, we conducted structural equation modeling to examine how relational values, including familiarity with raccoon dogs, perceived benefits and risks, together with residents’ trust in wildlife management authorities, interactively influence the tolerance for this species. We found that the residents’ familiarity with raccoon dogs positively influenced their tolerance, both directly and indirectly through increased perceived benefits and reduced perceived risks. Furthermore, trust in wildlife management authorities contributed to higher tolerance through perceived benefits. Our results suggested that education about the relational values of raccoon dogs to the public can reduce the traditional negative connotation for this species and promote the coexistence of people and raccoon dogs in the Shanghai urban environment. Based on our understanding of how raccoon dogs were culturally constructed and the willingness of residents to share landscapes with the species, we advocate that relational values play an important role in future urban biodiversity conservation planning. We also advocate for education programs that familiarize the public with raccoon dogs as well as other species, which can turn urban human-wildlife conflicts into harmonious relationships in Shanghai and other urban areas.
README: Shanghai residents attitudes towards raccoon dogs
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fj6q57430
Description of the data and file structure
Latent variable Measurement variables Questions in Survey Scale
Gender: What is your gender? 1=Female 2=Male
Age: What is your age? 1=18-30 2=31-50 3=51-70 4=70+
Education: What is your highest degree? 1=High school education and below 2=College degree 3=Bachelor's degree 4=Master's degree 5=Doctoral degree and above
Familiarity contact: Have you had any contact with raccoon dogs in your life? What level of contact? 1=No contact at all 2=I heard that the community has, but have not seen it in person 3=Seen with my own eyes, but did not touch 4=fed 5=touched/chased by raccoon dogs
knowledge: Which of the following statements do you think best fits what you know about raccoon dogs? 1=I don't know anything about raccoon dogs at all. 2=I know enough about raccoon dogs to make a judgment. 3=I have a basic understanding of the habits of raccoon dogs.
Trust obedient: I will comply with wildlife measures established by wildlife management authorities. 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree
measure: I will be concerned about the wildlife management practices of the wildlife management authorities. 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree
reporting: In the event of a wildlife-related incident, I will respond to the appropriate authorities. 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree
Risk dirty/smelly: I am concerned that the raccoon dogs are deteriorating the environmental conditions of the neighborhood. 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree
diseases: I am concerned that raccoon dogs can carry zoonotic diseases. 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree
traffic: I am concerned that raccoon dogs may cause traffic accidents. 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree
bite: I am concerned that raccoon dogs may bite people or pets. 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree
noise: I am concerned that the raccoon dogs will make noise and disturb the residents. 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree
Benefit self: Do you agree with the following point: protecting wildlife is good for us? 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree
community: Do you agree with the idea that the presence of wildlife is a sign of a good community environment? 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree
nature: Do you agree with the view that the presence of wildlife is beneficial to nature? 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree
Tolerance number: How many raccoon dogs are you comfortable with in your neighborhood? 1=I can't accept the existence of raccoon dogs at all 2=I can accept the existence of raccoon dogs in situations where I would never encounter them at all 3=I can accept the presence of one or two raccoon dogs in my neighborhood on very rare occasions 4=I can accept that sometimes I encounter a small number of raccoon dogs in my neighborhood 5=I can accept encountering packs of raccoon dogs in my neighborhood
lethal: Do you agree that drugs, hunting, and other lethal methods should be used to kill raccoon dogs in your neighborhood? 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree
Methods
We developed a questionnaire and conducted a survey during April-June 2021 to investigate people’s knowledge, attitude, and tolerance towards raccoon dogs. Because the Wildlife Tolerance Model (WTM) described by Kansky et al. (2016) provided a theoretical framework for identifying the key drivers (e.g. cost, benefits) of people’s tolerance for wildlife, we followed and revised Kansky et al. (2016) to develop our questionnaire. We considered demographic variables including gender, age, and education as external variables because we hypothesized that these factors potentially influence residents' familiarity with raccoon dogs and their trust in the ability of wildlife management authorities (Table 1). We also included four variables of human dimensions, including familiarity with raccoon dogs, trust in the ability of wildlife management authorities, and perceived benefits and risks of raccoon dogs, to explain the tolerance of residents toward raccoon dogs (Table 1). We designed multiple corresponding questions for each dimension to quantitatively score participant responses (Table S1, S2).
During the survey, the questionnaires were collected from a convenience sampling due to respondents’ geographical proximity, availability, and willingness to participate (Farrokhi, F., & Mahmoudi-Hamidabad 2012). All questionnaire surveys were conducted in 10 residential districts that had the most human-raccoon-dog conflict cases according to the Shanghai Forestry Bureau database (Shanghai Forestry Bureau, unpublished data). We started our surveys at the residential district at 6 pm and spent the next 2-3 hours interviewing passers-by at the roadside. We chose to survey people at this time because residents walk after dinner and the nocturnal raccoon dogs start to come out. In each residential district, we randomly stopped passers-by to ask about their willingness to participate in the survey. Each participant was informed that the questionnaire survey was anonymous. We received written informed consent from all participants to participate in this research, and the questionnaire was approved by the Ethics Reviewing Committee of Fudan University (FDU220901a). We generated a QR code so that participants could open the questionnaires on their mobile devices and submit their responses anonymously. When interviewing the residents, we distributed stickers with the QR code of the questionnaire and invited participants to share the QR code with their neighbors on social network platforms.
We also conducted a second survey during October-December 2021, after Shanghai wildlife management authorities and environmental organizations initiated educational activities that aimed to inform the public about urban wildlife in their areas. During these educational activities, staff distributed science brochures (Fig. 1a) and placed urban species bulletins in residential districts that had raccoon dog distribution, with specific guidance on how to keep a safe distance and coexist with raccoon dogs. Four educational talks were organized for the communities (Fig. 1b), and volunteers from these communities were invited to participate in raccoon dog surveys. Because the Chinese pronunciation of raccoon dog “貉” sounds exactly the same as “和”, which means peace and harmony, we utilized the homophonic stem and designed raccoon dog emoji (Fig. 1c), and distributed raccoon dog window decoration paper-cut (Fig. 1d). Because the goal of the second survey was to evaluate the effect of these educational activities on tolerance, we surveyed the same districts as the first survey by the same surveyors to achieve compatibility.