Data from: Multiscale factors affecting human attitudes toward snow leopards and wolves

The threat posed by large carnivores to livestock and humans makes
peaceful coexistence between them difficult. Effective implementation of
conservation laws and policies depends on the attitudes of local residents
toward the target species. There are many known correlates of human
attitudes toward carnivores, but they have only been assessed at the scale
of the individual. Because human societies are organized hierarchically,
attitudes are presumably influenced by different factors at different
scales of social organization, but this scale dependence has not been
examined. We used structured interview surveys to quantitatively assess
the attitudes of a Buddhist pastoral community toward snow leopards
(Panthera uncia) and wolves (Canis lupus). We interviewed 381 individuals
from 24 villages within 6 study sites across the high-elevation Spiti
Valley in the Indian Trans-Himalaya. We gathered information on key
explanatory variables that together captured variation in individual and
village-level socioeconomic factors. We used hierarchical linear models to
examine how the effect of these factors on human attitudes changed with
the scale of analysis from the individual to the community. Factors
significant at the individual level were gender, education, and age of the
respondent (for wolves and snow leopards), number of income sources in the
family (wolves), agricultural production, and large-bodied livestock
holdings (snow leopards). At the community level, the significant factors
included the number of smaller-bodied herded livestock killed by wolves
and mean agricultural production (wolves) and village size and large
livestock holdings (snow leopards). Our results show that scaling up from
the individual to higher levels of social organization can highlight
important factors that influence attitudes of people toward wildlife and
toward formal conservation efforts in general. Such scale-specific
information can help managers apply conservation measures at appropriate
scales. Our results reiterate the need for conflict management programs to
be multipronged.