Species-specific spatiotemporal patterns of leopard, lion and tiger attacks on humans

Craig Packer; Shweta Shivakumar; Vidya Athreya; Meggan E. Craft; Harshawardhan Dhanwatey; Poonam Dhanwatey; Bhim Gurung; Anup Joshi; Hadas Kushnir; John D.C. Linnell; Nicholas M. Fountain-Jones

doi:10.1111/1365-2664.13311

Species-specific spatiotemporal patterns of leopard, lion and tiger attacks on humans

Craig Packer, Shweta Shivakumar, Vidya Athreya, Meggan E. Craft, Harshawardhan Dhanwatey, Poonam Dhanwatey, Bhim Gurung, Anup Joshi, Hadas Kushnir, John D.C. Linnell, Nicholas M. Fountain-Jones

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24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Large carnivores of the genus Panthera can pose serious threats to public safety. Although the annual number of attacks on humans is rare compared to livestock depredation, such incidents undermine popular support for wildlife conservation and require immediate responses to protect human life. We used a space–time scan method to perform a novel spatiotemporal analysis of 908 attacks on humans by lions, leopards, and tigers to estimate the risks of further attacks in the same locales. We found that a substantial proportion of attacks were clustered in time and space, but the dimension of these outbreaks varied between species. Lion outbreaks included more human fatalities, persisted for longer periods of time, and extended over larger areas than tiger or leopard outbreaks. Synthesis and applications. Our analysis reveals the typical spatiotemporal patterns of past lion, leopard, and tiger attacks on humans. In future, this technique could be used by relevant agencies to warn local people of risks from further attacks within a certain time and distance following an initial incident by each species. Furthermore, the approach can help identify areas requiring management interventions to address such threats.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	585-593
Number of pages	9
Journal	Journal of Applied Ecology
Volume	56
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13311
State	Published - Mar 2019

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank the National Science Foundation for financial support (grants DEB-1354093 to C.P. and DEB-1413925 to N.M.F.-J. and M.E.C.). The Himachal Pradesh project was conducted in collaboration with the Wildlife Wing of the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department and Wildlife Conservation Society—India. All research was conducted with relevant permission from the wildlife authorities in India, Nepal, and Tanzania. We thank Julio Alvarez for early advice on the SatScan method. We also thank Johan du Toit, Craig Tambling and the anonymous referee for their comments.

Funding Information:
We thank the National Science Foundation for financial support (grants DEB-1354093 to C.P. and DEB-1413925 to N.M.F.-J. and M.E.C.). The Himachal Pradesh project was conducted in collaboration with the Wildlife Wing of the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department and Wildlife Conservation Society?India. All research was conducted with relevant permission from the wildlife authorities in India, Nepal, and Tanzania. We thank Julio Alvarez for early advice on the SatScan method. We also thank Johan du Toit, Craig Tambling and the anonymous referee for their comments.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Authors. Journal of Applied Ecology © 2018 British Ecological Society

Keywords

Panthera
anthropogenic landscape
attacks on humans
big cats
human–wildlife conflict
space–time scan
spatiotemporal clustering

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10.1111/1365-2664.13311

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@article{08c98d5b59e4422e8a31cb221f7f87b9,

title = "Species-specific spatiotemporal patterns of leopard, lion and tiger attacks on humans",

abstract = "Large carnivores of the genus Panthera can pose serious threats to public safety. Although the annual number of attacks on humans is rare compared to livestock depredation, such incidents undermine popular support for wildlife conservation and require immediate responses to protect human life. We used a space–time scan method to perform a novel spatiotemporal analysis of 908 attacks on humans by lions, leopards, and tigers to estimate the risks of further attacks in the same locales. We found that a substantial proportion of attacks were clustered in time and space, but the dimension of these outbreaks varied between species. Lion outbreaks included more human fatalities, persisted for longer periods of time, and extended over larger areas than tiger or leopard outbreaks. Synthesis and applications. Our analysis reveals the typical spatiotemporal patterns of past lion, leopard, and tiger attacks on humans. In future, this technique could be used by relevant agencies to warn local people of risks from further attacks within a certain time and distance following an initial incident by each species. Furthermore, the approach can help identify areas requiring management interventions to address such threats.",

keywords = "Panthera, anthropogenic landscape, attacks on humans, big cats, human–wildlife conflict, space–time scan, spatiotemporal clustering",

author = "Craig Packer and Shweta Shivakumar and Vidya Athreya and Craft, {Meggan E.} and Harshawardhan Dhanwatey and Poonam Dhanwatey and Bhim Gurung and Anup Joshi and Hadas Kushnir and Linnell, {John D.C.} and Fountain-Jones, {Nicholas M.}",

note = "Funding Information: We thank the National Science Foundation for financial support (grants DEB-1354093 to C.P. and DEB-1413925 to N.M.F.-J. and M.E.C.). The Himachal Pradesh project was conducted in collaboration with the Wildlife Wing of the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department and Wildlife Conservation Society—India. All research was conducted with relevant permission from the wildlife authorities in India, Nepal, and Tanzania. We thank Julio Alvarez for early advice on the SatScan method. We also thank Johan du Toit, Craig Tambling and the anonymous referee for their comments. Funding Information: We thank the National Science Foundation for financial support (grants DEB-1354093 to C.P. and DEB-1413925 to N.M.F.-J. and M.E.C.). The Himachal Pradesh project was conducted in collaboration with the Wildlife Wing of the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department and Wildlife Conservation Society?India. All research was conducted with relevant permission from the wildlife authorities in India, Nepal, and Tanzania. We thank Julio Alvarez for early advice on the SatScan method. We also thank Johan du Toit, Craig Tambling and the anonymous referee for their comments. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 The Authors. Journal of Applied Ecology {\textcopyright} 2018 British Ecological Society",

year = "2019",

month = mar,

doi = "10.1111/1365-2664.13311",

language = "English (US)",

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AU - Packer, Craig

AU - Shivakumar, Shweta

AU - Athreya, Vidya

AU - Craft, Meggan E.

AU - Dhanwatey, Harshawardhan

AU - Dhanwatey, Poonam

AU - Gurung, Bhim

AU - Joshi, Anup

AU - Kushnir, Hadas

AU - Linnell, John D.C.

AU - Fountain-Jones, Nicholas M.

N1 - Funding Information: We thank the National Science Foundation for financial support (grants DEB-1354093 to C.P. and DEB-1413925 to N.M.F.-J. and M.E.C.). The Himachal Pradesh project was conducted in collaboration with the Wildlife Wing of the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department and Wildlife Conservation Society—India. All research was conducted with relevant permission from the wildlife authorities in India, Nepal, and Tanzania. We thank Julio Alvarez for early advice on the SatScan method. We also thank Johan du Toit, Craig Tambling and the anonymous referee for their comments. Funding Information: We thank the National Science Foundation for financial support (grants DEB-1354093 to C.P. and DEB-1413925 to N.M.F.-J. and M.E.C.). The Himachal Pradesh project was conducted in collaboration with the Wildlife Wing of the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department and Wildlife Conservation Society?India. All research was conducted with relevant permission from the wildlife authorities in India, Nepal, and Tanzania. We thank Julio Alvarez for early advice on the SatScan method. We also thank Johan du Toit, Craig Tambling and the anonymous referee for their comments. Publisher Copyright: © 2018 The Authors. Journal of Applied Ecology © 2018 British Ecological Society

PY - 2019/3

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N2 - Large carnivores of the genus Panthera can pose serious threats to public safety. Although the annual number of attacks on humans is rare compared to livestock depredation, such incidents undermine popular support for wildlife conservation and require immediate responses to protect human life. We used a space–time scan method to perform a novel spatiotemporal analysis of 908 attacks on humans by lions, leopards, and tigers to estimate the risks of further attacks in the same locales. We found that a substantial proportion of attacks were clustered in time and space, but the dimension of these outbreaks varied between species. Lion outbreaks included more human fatalities, persisted for longer periods of time, and extended over larger areas than tiger or leopard outbreaks. Synthesis and applications. Our analysis reveals the typical spatiotemporal patterns of past lion, leopard, and tiger attacks on humans. In future, this technique could be used by relevant agencies to warn local people of risks from further attacks within a certain time and distance following an initial incident by each species. Furthermore, the approach can help identify areas requiring management interventions to address such threats.

AB - Large carnivores of the genus Panthera can pose serious threats to public safety. Although the annual number of attacks on humans is rare compared to livestock depredation, such incidents undermine popular support for wildlife conservation and require immediate responses to protect human life. We used a space–time scan method to perform a novel spatiotemporal analysis of 908 attacks on humans by lions, leopards, and tigers to estimate the risks of further attacks in the same locales. We found that a substantial proportion of attacks were clustered in time and space, but the dimension of these outbreaks varied between species. Lion outbreaks included more human fatalities, persisted for longer periods of time, and extended over larger areas than tiger or leopard outbreaks. Synthesis and applications. Our analysis reveals the typical spatiotemporal patterns of past lion, leopard, and tiger attacks on humans. In future, this technique could be used by relevant agencies to warn local people of risks from further attacks within a certain time and distance following an initial incident by each species. Furthermore, the approach can help identify areas requiring management interventions to address such threats.

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KW - anthropogenic landscape

KW - attacks on humans

KW - big cats

KW - human–wildlife conflict

KW - space–time scan

KW - spatiotemporal clustering

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ER -

Species-specific spatiotemporal patterns of leopard, lion and tiger attacks on humans

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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