Knowledge, attitude and practice of the local people towards human-carnivore coexistence in Faragosa-Fura landscape, Gamo Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Local people's knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) have played an important role in human-wildlife coexistence and have received increased attention in biodiversity conservation. However, studies on the KAP of local people towards human-carnivore coexistence (HCC) are scarce, species-specific, or limited to the protected areas. Therefore, we investigated the local people's KAP towards carnivores’ coexistence with humans, the problem of livestock, and mitigation practices in a human-dominated landscape of Southern Ethiopia. We collected the data from 352 households’ interviews using a semi-structured questionnaire and photographic sampling. The respondents mentioned 13 carnivores coexisting with local people belonging to six families. Eighty-five percent of the respondents perceived carnivores as problematic species and expressed a negative attitude towards them, primarily due to the damage they caused to their livestock. Respondents who had better knowledge of carnivores also show...