Hunters’ opposition to Egyptian mongoose passive restoration in central-southern Spain

Abstract

Land use changes and conservation policies have led to the recovery of some wildlife populations in Europe. In this context, understanding people’s attitudes and perception towards returning wildlife species may be important to minimize human-wildlife conflicts and to promote coexistence. This is particularly evident in the case of carnivores, whose recovery may lead to strong conflicts between advocates and opponents of those species. In accordance with this, researchers are increasingly paying attention to the social aspects of the recovery of carnivores. A paradigmatic case is the passive restoration of the Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon) in the Iberian Peninsula. In turn, hunters often complain of the presence of this carnivore species, as it preys on small game species. To improve the understanding of the human dimension of mongoose expansion, an online survey was carried out with hunters (n= 885) in the autonomous communities of Andalucia, Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha. In particular, the main objective of this survey was assessing hunters’ attitudes regarding the passive restoration of the Egyptian mongoose and their preferences about the species’ management. Our results revealed that hunters mostly opposed (95.9%) to passive restoration of the Egyptian mongoose. Accordingly, most of them believed that some management should be carried out to avoid its expansion. Hunters mostly selected management measures with stronger impact on the species and carried out by hunters themselves (90.6%). Hunter’s negative perception of the Egyptian mongoose was generalized, but the analysis of the decision tree (CHAID tree-Chi-square automatic interaction detection) showed indeed subtle differences depending on the region, legal regulation and the species presence. Given the expansion dynamic experienced by the Egyptian mongoose during the last decades, environmental managers should not neglect human-mongoose conflict if they want to seek their coexistence