Fig 1.
Black arrows represent the hypothesized direct relationships between experience, psychological variables and tolerance for tigers tested in the paper. Black dotted arrow represents the hypothesized indirect effect of experience on tolerance for tigers. Grey boxes (H1-6) identify each of the hypotheses described in the text and tested in our model. Grey dashed arrows represent how knowledge of the antecedents of tolerance can be applied to improve tiger conservation strategies.
Fig 2.
Map of study area and study villages.
The location of the six case study villages, including the two villages where stray tigers were killed in 2010 (TK villages), additional piloting villages (initial piloting was carried out in case study villages), and the 10 questionnaire survey villages are shown. The eight ‘upazilas’ (sub-districts) which border the Sundarbans are delineated as are the three wildlife sanctuaries within the Sundarbans which comprise a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The four Sundarbans ranges (Forest Department administrative units) are shown; the West Forest Division comprises Satkhira and Khulna ranges and the East Forest Division comprises Chandpai and Sarankhola ranges.
Table 1.
Variables used to explore the psychological basis of acceptance capacity for tigers in Sundarbans-border villages.
Table shows the response options for each variable and the percentage survey respondents selecting each of these (N = 385 unless specified).
Table 2.
Factor loadings for observed variables on the two latent variables included in the structural acceptance capacity model.
Fig 3.
The psychological basis for tolerance of tigers in the Bangladesh Sundarbans.
Continuous arrows represent significant direct effects. Dashed arrows represent significant indirect effects. Grey arrow represents the anomalous effect of livestock depredation upon tolerance. Non-significant effect pathways are not shown. Tiger Population: belief about the current tiger population trend. Village-based tiger incidents include tigers entering villages, tigers attacking livestock in villages or tigers attacking people in villages. Standardized regression weights are shown for direct and indirect pathways; where different to the direct effect regression weight, total effects standardized regression weights are shown in brackets. All values are significant at either the 0.05 or 0.01 levels (Table 3).
Table 3.
Significant direct and indirect path effects (standardized regression weights) in the structural acceptance capacity model.