Drivers of agricultural producers' tolerance towards less-charismatic avian species

Abstract

Increasing wildlife tolerance (i.e., “the willingness of an individual to absorb the extra potential or actual costs of living with wildlife”) can reduce human-wildlife conflict (HWC). Previous research shows how socio-cultural and psychological factors shape HWC, focusing on carnivores and charismatic species. Less-charismatic species, particularly non-mammals, have received less attention from both the scholarly and policy-making communities even though they may be socially, culturally, and ecologically important. This paper applies the Wildlife Tolerance Model (WTM) to examine livestock producers' interactions with a less-charismatic avian species, black vultures (Coragyps atratus), in the Midwestern USA, as an example of an emerging HWC in an agricultural landscape. We collected usable survey data from 168 livestock producers in Indiana and Kentucky and used a partial-least squares structural equation model to assess potential drivers of their tolerance of black vultures. Intangible costs (i.e., negative emotions associated with black vultures), utilitarian wildlife value orientations (WVOs), and tendency towards using more severe management actions were significantly associated with reduced tolerance. Intangible benefits (i.e., “non-monetary factors such as stress and fear”) and mutualistic WVOs were significantly associated with increased tolerance. Importantly, tangible costs (i.e., “estimated economic costs associated with livestock losses due to wildlife predation”) were not a significant predictor of black vulture tolerance. This paper highlights the importance of socio-cultural and psychological factors, rather than economic factors, in shaping people's tolerance of a less-charismatic avian species. It demonstrates the utility of WTM as a framework for assessing the economic, socio-cultural, and psychological drivers of less-charismatic avian species.