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Planning the Reintroduction of the Clouded Leopard Southern Illinois University Carbondale OpenSIUC Theses Theses and Dissertations 12-1-2018 PLANNING THE REINTRODUCTION OF THE CLOUDED LEOPARD (NEOFELIS NEBULOSA) TO TAIWAN: AN ASSESSMENT OF ATTITUDES AND POTENTIAL SUPPORT Evan Greenspan Southern Illinois University Carbondale, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses Recommended Citation Greenspan, Evan, "PLANNING THE REINTRODUCTION OF THE CLOUDED LEOPARD (NEOFELIS NEBULOSA) TO TAIWAN: AN ASSESSMENT OF ATTITUDES AND POTENTIAL SUPPORT" (2018). Theses. 2451. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/2451 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at OpenSIUC. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of OpenSIUC. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PLANNING THE REINTRODUCTION OF THE CLOUDED LEOPARD (NEOFELIS NEBULOSA) TO TAIWAN: AN ASSESSMENT OF ATTITUDES AND POTENTIAL SUPPORT by Evan Greenspan B.A., The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2006 M.Ed., The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2008 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Science Degree Department of Forestry in the Graduate School Southern Illinois University Carbondale December 2018 THESIS APPROVAL PLANNING THE REINTRODUCTION OF THE CLOUDED LEOPARD (NEOFELIS NEBULOSA) TO TAIWAN: AN ASSESSMENT OF ATTITUDES AND POTENTIAL SUPPORT By Evan Greenspan A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in the field of Forestry Approved by: Dr. Clayton K. Nielsen, Chair Dr. Anthony J. Giordano Dr. Kofi Akamani Graduate School Southern Illinois University Carbondale October 9, 2018 AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Evan Greenspan, for the Master of Science degree in Forestry, presented on October 9, 2018, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: PLANNING THE REINTRODUCTION OF THE CLOUDED LEOPARD (NEOFELIS NEBULOSA) TO TAIWAN: AN ASSESSMENT OF ATTITUDES AND POTENTIAL SUPPORT MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Clayton K. Nielsen Large felid populations are in decline globally and wildlife managers have increasingly used reintroductions as a conservation tool, yet few studies have assessed public attitudes towards potential large felid reintroduction candidates prior to release. The clouded leopard was recently declared extinct in Taiwan; however, a reintroduction effort is ecologically feasible and success largely depends on resident attitudes towards clouded leopards and support for its reintroduction. In 2017, 263 semi-structured interviews with indigenous locals were conducted in southern Taiwan and an internet questionnaire was distributed to 500 urban residents for comparison. Rural and urban attitudes were 67% and 76% positive toward clouded leopards, respectively. Males, younger respondents, and residents with more clouded leopard knowledge exhibited more positive attitudes among rural respondents. In addition to these predictors, urbanites with more household children were more positive. Rural support for reintroduction to the Tawushan Nature Reserve was 48% positive, 31% neutral, and 21% opposed, while urban support was 71% positive, 22% neutral, and 7% opposed. Environmental group membership, increases in attitudinal positivity, and lower levels of risk perception and knowledge influenced support for reintroduction in both samples. Although support is substantial among urbanites, a knowledge-based education campaign that targets women and older residents living adjacent to the reintroduction site would benefit reintroduction efforts. i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My committee members, Clayton K. Nielsen, Anthony J. Giordano, and Kofi Akamani were invaluable throughout my graduate school experience and continually provided me with pertinent feedback and support. Many of my peers within the Wildlife Cooperative Research Laboratory at SIU were also instrumental to the completion of this thesis, particularly Zach Cravens and Liz Hillard. Yi-Chen Lee translated an early version of my survey instrument from English into Mandarin. Christopher Sinico and Huei Hsun Lin helped me administer the pilot survey and aided me with translations. My primary collaborator in Taiwan, Dr. Kurtis Jai-Chyi Pei, aided our field team with logistics and support during our field season and was integral to the collection of data from indigenous Taiwanese locals. Taiwanese volunteers Yu Hsin Huang, Cheng An Wei, and Nick Ching-Min Sun also aided our field team throughout the survey collection process. I would also like to thank the Paiwan and Rukai people who warmly welcomed me into their homes and took time out of their busy lives to help me understand their culture. Most importantly, I would like to thank my wife, Lek, and my close friends and family who have always supported me. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................................. ii LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... xi CHAPTERS CHAPTER 1 – Introduction.................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2 – Methods ....................................................................................................10 CHAPTER 3 – Results.......................................................................................................20 CHAPTER 4 – Discussion .................................................................................................37 CHAPTER 5 – Management Implications ........................................................................56 EXHIBITS .....................................................................................................................................61 LITERATURE CITED ..................................................................................................................99 APPENDICES APPENDIX A – Rural Survey Instrument .....................................................................119 VITA ..........................................................................................................................................130 iii LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE Table 1 – Rural (n = 263) and urban (n = 500) sample sociodemographic results, Taiwan, 2017...................................................................................................................65 Table 2 – A comparison of sample and population demographics among rural and urban samples, Taiwan, 2017. ...................................................................................................66 Table 3 – Descriptive statistics, including number of respondents (n), answer percentages (%), mean score (x̄ ), and standard deviation (SD), of rural and urban responses to survey questions assessing general knowledge of clouded leopards (Neofelis nebulosa) in Taiwan, 2017. ...............................................................67 Table 4 – Summary of AICc, AICc delta (∆ᵢ), AICc weight (wᵢ), cumulative Akaike weight (acc wᵢ), evidence ratio (ER), and parameter number (k) results for best-ranked regression models (∆ᵢ ≤ 6; here showing top 12) relating predictor variables to rural resident knowledge about clouded leopards (Neofelis nebulosa) in Taiwan, 2017. These were the only models with a lower AICc than the intercept only model. ......................................................................................................68 Table 5 – Summary results of full model averaging, including coefficients (β), adjusted standard errors (SE), 95% confidence intervals (CI), z values, p values, and relative importance weights, for parameters from candidate models regarding rural resident knowledge about clouded leopards (Neofelis nebulosa) in Taiwan, 2017...................................................................................................................69 Table 6 – Descriptive statistics, including number of respondents (n), answer percentages (%), mean score (x̄ ), and standard deviation (SD), of rural and iv TABLE PAGE urban responses to survey questions assessing attitudes towards clouded leopards (Neofelis nebulosa) in Taiwan, 2017. ...............................................................70 Table 7 – Summary of AICc, AICc delta (∆ᵢ), AICc weight (wᵢ), cumulative Akaike weight (acc wᵢ), evidence ratio (ER), and parameter number (k) results for 24 best-ranked regression models (∆ᵢ ≤ 6) relating predictor variables to rural resident attitudes towards clouded leopards (Neofelis nebuolsa) in Taiwan, 2017. .......71 Table 8 – Summary results of full model averaging, including coefficients (β), adjusted standard errors (SE), 95% confidence intervals (CI), z values, p values, and relative importance weights, for parameters from candidate models regarding rural resident attitudes towards clouded leopards (Neofelis nebulosa) in Taiwan, 2017...................................................................................................................72 Table 9 – Descriptive statistics, including number of respondents (n), answer percentages (%), mean score
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