Exploring cultural differences in wildlife value orientations using student samples in seven nations

Understanding differences in the way people think about wildlife across countries is important as many conservation challenges transcend jurisdictions. We explored differences in wildlife value orientations in seven countries: Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Serbia. Standard scales assessed domination (prioritizing human well-being) and mutualism (striving for egalitarian relationships with wildlife). We used student samples (total n = 2176) for cross-cultural comparisons. Reliabilities of the wildlife value orientations scales were adequate in all countries. Relationships between demographics and wildlife value orientations were different across countries. Men were generally more oriented towards domination and less towards mutualism than women, except in Serbia, where it was the other way around. Estimated at the level of the individual (using ANOVA), wildlife value orientations varied across countries, with nationality explaining a larger portion of the variation in mutualism (21%) than domination (6%). Estimated at the level of countries (using multilevel modelling), effect sizes were comparable. Thought about wildlife has previously only been examined within single countries. This paper makes a new contribution to the conservation literature suggesting that wildlife value orientations vary by country, and are associated with demographic factors. For conservation practices, understanding national differences in the way people think about wildlife is crucial to understanding sources of conflict among practitioners. Such knowledge is also important to gain public support for conservation.

Multi-taxa spatial conservation planning reveals similar priorities between taxa and improved protected area representation with climate change

Protected area (PA) networks have in the past been constructed to include all major habitats, but have often been developed through consideration of only a few indicator taxa or across restricted areas, and rarely account for global climate change. Systematic conservation planning (SCP) aims to improve the efficiency of biodiversity conservation, particularly when addressing internationally agreed protection targets. We apply SCP in Great Britain (GB) using the widest taxonomic coverage to date (4,447 species), compare spatial prioritisation results across 18 taxa and use projected future (2080) distributions to assess the potential impact of climate change on PA network effectiveness. Priority conservation areas were similar among multiple taxa, despite considerable differences in spatial species richness patterns; thus systematic prioritisations based on indicator taxa for which data are widely available are still useful for conservation planning. We found that increasing the number of protected hectads by 2% (to reach the 2020 17% Aichi target) could have a disproportionate positive effect on species protected, with an increase of up to 17% for some taxa. The PA network in GB currently under-represents priority species but, if the potential future distributions under climate change are realised, the proportion of species distributions protected by the current PA network may increase, because many PAs are in northern and higher altitude areas. Optimal locations for new PAs are particularly concentrated in southern and upland areas of GB. This application of SCP shows how a small addition to an existing PA network could have disproportionate benefits for species conservation.

Invasive ants reduce abundance of small rainforest skinks

Invasive ants are among the world’s most damaging invasive species, often directly or indirectly affecting native fauna. Insecticidal baits are the main method for suppressing or eradicating invasive ant populations, but their use must be considered against potential for unintended effects on native organisms. The invasive yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracillipes) is widespread in the tropics, particularly on islands, where they have displaced a range of invertebrates. Effects of this ant on vertebrates, and in continental ecosystems generally, are less studied. We investigated the effects of yellow crazy ants and bait application on rainforest skinks and their invertebrate prey. We compared skink and skink prey abundance across four replicated rainforest site categories: high and low yellow crazy ant sites had both been baited but differed in yellow crazy ant activity; control sites had never had yellow crazy ants or been baited; and buffer sites had never had yellow crazy ants but had been baited. We recorded significantly lower abundance of two small skink species (Lygisaurus laevis and Saproscincus tetradactylus) in high yellow crazy ant sites compared to all other site categories. The differences persisted even after baiting reduced yellow crazy ant activity by 97.8% ± 0.04% (mean ± SD). A larger rainforest skink species (Carlia rubrigularis) was not negatively affected by yellow crazy ant invasion. Skink prey abundance was significantly lower in high yellow crazy ant sites compared to control sites and low yellow crazy ant sites, but not compared to buffer sites. These differences did not persist following baiting. We found no evidence that baiting negatively affects skinks or their invertebrate prey. Our data suggest that yellow crazy ants, but not the bait used to treat them, pose a direct threat to small rainforest skinks.