Experimental Validation of Specialised Questioning Techniques in Conservation

Conservation increasingly relies on social science tools to understand human behavior. Specialized questioning techniques (SQTs) are a suite of methods designed to reduce bias in social surveys and are widely used to collect data on sensitive topics, including compliance with conservation rules. Most SQTs have been developed in Western, industrialized, educated, rich, and democratic countries, meaning their suitability in other contexts may be limited. Whether these techniques perform better than conventional direct questioning is important for those considering their use. We designed an experiment to validate the performance of four SQTs (unmatched count technique, randomized response technique, crosswise model, and bean method) against direct questions when asking about a commonly researched sensitive behavior in conservation, wildlife hunting. We developed fictional characters, and for each method asked respondents to report the answers that each fictional character should give when asked if they hunt wildlife. We collected data from 609 individuals living close to protected areas in two different cultural and socioeconomic contexts (Indonesia and Tanzania) to quantify the extent to which respondents understood and followed SQT instructions and to explore the sociodemographic factors that influenced a correct response. Data were modeled using binomial general linear mixed models. Participants were more likely to refuse to answer questions asked using SQTs compared with direct questions. Model results suggested that SQTs were harder for participants to understand. Demographic factors (e.g., age and education level) significantly influenced response accuracy. When sensitive responses to sensitive questions were required, all SQTs (excluding the bean method) outperformed direct questions, demonstrating that SQTs can successfully reduce sensitivity bias. However, when reviewing each method, most respondents (59–89%) reported they would feel uncomfortable using them to provide information on their own hunting behavior, highlighting the considerable challenge of encouraging truthful reporting on sensitive topics. Our results demonstrate the importance of assessing the suitability of social science methods prior to their implementation in conservation contexts

Ethical considerations when conservation research involves people

Social science is becoming increasingly important in conservation, with more studies involving methodologies that collect data from and about people. Conservation science is a normative and applied discipline designed to support and inform management and practice. Poor research practice risks harming participants, researchers, and can leave negative legacies. Often, those at the forefront of field‐based research are early‐career researchers, many of whom enter their first research experience ill‐prepared for the ethical conundrums they may face. Here, we draw on our own experiences as early‐career researchers to illuminate how ethical challenges arise during conservation research that involves human participants. Specifically, we discuss ethical review procedures, conflicts of values, and power relations, and provide broad recommendations on how to navigate ethical challenges when they arise during research. We encourage greater engagement with ethical review processes and highlight the pressing need to develop ethical guidelines for conservation research that involves human participants.Output Status: Forthcoming/Available Onlin

Improving our understanding of the socio-ecological complexity of human-carnivore interactions

Conflicts over the management of large carnivores, and their impacts on humans reduces well-being for human communities and threatens the persistence of large carnivore populations around the world. Improving our understanding of the complex ecological and social systems that create these conservation conflicts is vital if they are to be resolved. In this thesis we investigate ecological and social aspects of human-carnivore interactions in land bordering Ruaha National Park in Tanzania where there are conflicting views on how large carnivores should be managed. Investigating the spatio-temporal patterns of carnivore attacks on livestock we found higher risk of attacks linked to increased rainfall, wild prey and proximity to protected areas. We found re-enforced wire enclosures to be more effective at protecting livestock compared to those of traditional construction. Using local ecological knowledge to investigate carnivore landscape use in community land we found occupancy of lions, wild dog, leopard and cheetah higher in the wet season, while hyenas are present all year round. However low detection rates and respondent availability during the dry season restricted our model's ability to accurately predict carnivore land use. Studying tolerance towards lions and hyenas we found perceived benefits and positive beliefs were the most influential variables for both species, while experience of species and perceived risks only influenced tolerance towards hyenas. Engagements with conservation programs increased tolerance towards lions but had a complex relationship with risk perception for both species, highlighting how conservation interventions can interact with other socio-psychological variables with unexpected consequences. Simulating an African savannah community we found low levels of retaliatory killing of large carnivores drove them to extinction. This, however, had little impact on other simulated populations. We also found small herbivores to be responsible for the most damage to crops compared to large herbivores. This work contributes to our understanding of some of the drivers of the human-carnivore interactions that conservation conflicts are often centred on. We highlight the complexity of these systems and the broad range of tools and disciplines required to study them.</p

Topic sensitivity still affects honest responding, even when specialised questioning techniques are used

To develop more effective interventions, conservationists require robust information about the proportion of people who break conservation rules (such as those relating to protected species, or protected area legislation). Developed to obtain more accurate estimates of sensitive behaviours, including rule-breaking, specialised questioning techniques such as Randomised Response Techniques (RRTs) are increasingly applied in conservation, but with mixed evidence of their effectiveness. We use a forced-response RRT to estimate the prevalence of five rule-breaking behaviours in communities living around the Ruaha-Rungwa ecosystem in Tanzania. Prevalence estimates obtained for all behaviours were negative or did not differ significantly from zero, suggesting the RRT did not work as expected and that respondents felt inadequately protected. To investigate, we carried out a second study to explore how topic sensitivity influenced respondents’ propensity to follow RRT instructions. Results from this experimental study revealed respondents understood instructions well (~88% of responses were correct) but that propensity to follow RRT instructions was significantly influenced by the behaviour asked about, and the type of answer they were required to provide. Our two studies highlight that even if RRTs are well understood by respondents, where topics are sensitive and respondents are wary of researchers, their use does not necessarily encourage more honest responding. Here we include anonymised datasets from both studies, along with the survey instruments (XLS forms uploaded into ODK, which were adminstered face-to-face by interviewers). </p

Carnivory in the common hippopotamus Hippopotamus amphibius: implications for the ecology and epidemiology of anthrax in African landscapes

1. The common hippopotamus Hippopotamus amphibius (‘hippo’) is a keystone species whose foraging activities and behaviour have profound effects on the structure and dynamics of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems within its habitat. 2. Although hippos are typically regarded as obligate herbivores and short-grass grazing specialists, field studies have demonstrated that hippos are facultative carnivores that consume flesh and intestinal tissues from the carcasses of other animals. Carnivory by hippos is not an aberrant behaviour restricted to particular individuals in certain localities, but a behaviour pattern that occurs within populations distributed in most of the hippo’s current range in eastern and southern Africa. Carnivory is frequently associated with communal feeding involving multiple individuals or entire social groups of hippos. 3. The observed tendency of hippos to feed on carcasses, including those of other hippos, has important implications for the ecology and epidemiology of anthrax and other ungulate-associated zoonotic diseases in African landscapes. Scavenging and carnivory by hippos may explain why the spatiotemporal patterns and dynamics of anthrax mortality among hippos often differ markedly from those of other anthrax-susceptible herbivores within the same habitats, and why levels of hippo mortality from anthrax may be orders of magnitude higher than those of other anthrax-susceptible ungulate populations within the same localities. 4. Recognition of the role of carnivory as a key factor in modulating the dynamics of mass anthrax outbreaks in hippos can provide a basis for improved understanding and management of the effects of anthrax outbreaks in hippo and human populations