Livelihoods and large carnivores: identifying social-ecological drivers of interaction dynamics in northern Tanzania to foster coexistence

Abstract

Across shared landscapes, negative human-carnivore interactions can bring about serious consequences for both wildlife and human livelihoods. Identifying factors that promote coexistence is thereby one of the most pressing and complex environmental issues facing wildlife managers and local communities globally. The nature and intensity of human-carnivore interaction dynamics are contingent on both ecological and human social factors. Carnivore behavioural ecology is influenced by external environment and distributions of available resources, whereas human interactions with predatory wildlife are shaped by an array of social, economic, and cultural factors. This paper explores carnivore–pastoralist interactions in Maasai communities within the Tarangire ecosystem of northern Tanzania, employing a mixed-methods framework to analyze the ecological and social dimensions of coexistence. Based on anthropological data from household surveys (n = 424), we assess reported levels of livestock predation by leopards (Panthera pardus) and spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) across a savanna landscape adjacent to a mountain forest. We examine the effects of environmental factors (vegetative structure and proximity to protected area) and livestock husbandry practices (presence of fencing and predator deterrent lighting) on the perceived frequency of carnivore homestead visits using cumulative link mixed models. We found that leopards and hyenas mainly attacked corralled livestock at night. Variations in predator visits to homesteads were better explained by the presence of preventative infrastructure than environmental factors. Though predator deterrent lighting had negligible effects, and interior livestock corral fencing had minor effects, robust perimeter fencing was associated with major reductions in carnivore visitation frequency. We conclude that targeted investments in fortified homestead fencing may offer the most effective strategy for reducing negative human–carnivore interactions at the household scale, particularly in areas of the Tarangire ecosystem where spatial overlap between pastoralist communities and predators is consistently high.