DOI: 10.5061/dryad.fj6q57430
title: Shanghai residents attitudes towards raccoon dogs

description: Human-wildlife interactions become increasingly common in urban areas
 across all continents and ecosystem types. Depending on the context,
 human-wildlife interactions can be categorized as harmonious, neutral, or
 in conflict and raise cultural, economic, and ecological challenges in
 maintaining urban biodiversity. Understanding the mechanism behind the
 tolerance of residents to the presence of wildlife is vital to promoting a
 harmonious coexistence between humans and wildlife in urban environments.
 To advance our knowledge of this mechanism, we developed a questionnaire
 to survey residents in Shanghai, China about their knowledge of and
 attitude towards raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides), a species whose
 population is increasing in urban areas. Using 281 questionnaires, we
 conducted structural equation modeling to examine how relational values,
 including familiarity with raccoon dogs, perceived benefits and risks,
 together with residents’ trust in wildlife management authorities,
 interactively influence the tolerance for this species. We found
 that the residents’ familiarity with raccoon dogs positively influenced
 their tolerance, both directly and indirectly through increased perceived
 benefits and reduced perceived risks. Furthermore, trust in wildlife
 management authorities contributed to higher tolerance through perceived
 benefits. Our results suggested that education about the relational values
 of raccoon dogs to the public can reduce the traditional negative
 connotation for this species and promote the coexistence of people and
 raccoon dogs in the Shanghai urban environment. Based on our
 understanding of how raccoon dogs were culturally constructed and the
 willingness of residents to share landscapes with the species, we advocate
 that relational values play an important role in future urban biodiversity
 conservation planning. We also advocate for education programs that
 familiarize the public with raccoon dogs as well as other species, which
 can turn urban human-wildlife conflicts into harmonious relationships in
 Shanghai and other urban areas.
description: We developed a questionnaire and conducted a survey during
 April-June 2021 to investigate people’s knowledge, attitude, and tolerance
 towards raccoon dogs. Because the Wildlife Tolerance Model (WTM) described
 by Kansky et al. (2016) provided a theoretical framework for identifying
 the key drivers (e.g. cost, benefits) of people’s tolerance for wildlife,
 we followed and revised Kansky et al. (2016) to develop our questionnaire.
 We considered demographic variables including gender, age, and education
 as external variables because we hypothesized that these factors
 potentially influence residents' familiarity with raccoon dogs and
 their trust in the ability of wildlife management authorities (Table 1).
 We also included four variables of human dimensions, including familiarity
 with raccoon dogs, trust in the ability of wildlife management
 authorities, and perceived benefits and risks of raccoon dogs, to explain
 the tolerance of residents toward raccoon dogs (Table 1). We designed
 multiple corresponding questions for each dimension to quantitatively
 score participant responses (Table S1, S2). During the
 survey, the questionnaires were collected from a convenience sampling due
 to respondents’ geographical proximity, availability, and willingness to
 participate (Farrokhi, F., & Mahmoudi-Hamidabad 2012). All
 questionnaire surveys were conducted in 10 residential districts that had
 the most human-raccoon-dog conflict cases according to the Shanghai
 Forestry Bureau database (Shanghai Forestry Bureau, unpublished data). We
 started our surveys at the residential district at 6 pm and spent the next
 2-3 hours interviewing passers-by at the roadside. We chose to survey
 people at this time because residents walk after dinner and the nocturnal
 raccoon dogs start to come out. In each residential district, we randomly
 stopped passers-by to ask about their willingness to participate in the
 survey. Each participant was informed that the questionnaire survey was
 anonymous. We received written informed consent from all participants to
 participate in this research, and the questionnaire was approved by the
 Ethics Reviewing Committee of Fudan University (FDU220901a). We generated
 a QR code so that participants could open the questionnaires on their
 mobile devices and submit their responses anonymously. When interviewing
 the residents, we distributed stickers with the QR code of the
 questionnaire and invited participants to share the QR code with their
 neighbors on social network platforms. We also
 conducted a second survey during October-December 2021, after Shanghai
 wildlife management authorities and environmental organizations initiated
 educational activities that aimed to inform the public about urban
 wildlife in their areas. During these educational activities, staff
 distributed science brochures (Fig. 1a) and placed urban species bulletins
 in residential districts that had raccoon dog distribution, with specific
 guidance on how to keep a safe distance and coexist with raccoon dogs.
 Four educational talks were organized for the communities (Fig. 1b), and
 volunteers from these communities were invited to participate in raccoon
 dog surveys. Because the Chinese pronunciation of raccoon dog “貉” sounds
 exactly the same as “和”, which means peace and harmony, we utilized the
 homophonic stem and designed raccoon dog emoji (Fig. 1c), and distributed
 raccoon dog window decoration paper-cut (Fig. 1d). Because the goal of the
 second survey was to evaluate the effect of these educational activities
 on tolerance, we surveyed the same districts as the first survey by the
 same surveyors to achieve compatibility.
description: # Shanghai residents attitudes towards raccoon dogs
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fj6q57430](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fj6q57430) ## Description of the data and file structure Latent variable Measurement variables Questions in Survey Scale Gender: What is your gender? 1=Female 2=Male Age: What is your age? 1=18-30 2=31-50 3=51-70 4=70+ Education: What is your highest degree? 1=High school education and below 2=College degree 3=Bachelor's degree 4=Master's degree 5=Doctoral degree and above Familiarity contact: Have you had any contact with raccoon dogs in your life? What level of contact? 1=No contact at all 2=I heard that the community has, but have not seen it in person 3=Seen with my own eyes, but did not touch 4=fed 5=touched/chased by raccoon dogs knowledge: Which of the following statements do you think best fits what you know about raccoon dogs? 1=I don't know anything about raccoon dogs at all. 2=I know enough about raccoon dogs to make a judgment. 3=I have a basic understanding of the habits of raccoon dogs. Trust obedient: I will comply with wildlife measures established by wildlife management authorities. 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree measure: I will be concerned about the wildlife management practices of the wildlife management authorities. 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree reporting: In the event of a wildlife-related incident, I will respond to the appropriate authorities. 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree Risk dirty/smelly: I am concerned that the raccoon dogs are deteriorating the environmental conditions of the neighborhood. 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree diseases: I am concerned that raccoon dogs can carry zoonotic diseases. 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree traffic: I am concerned that raccoon dogs may cause traffic accidents. 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree bite: I am concerned that raccoon dogs may bite people or pets. 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree noise: I am concerned that the raccoon dogs will make noise and disturb the residents. 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree Benefit self: Do you agree with the following point: protecting wildlife is good for us? 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree community: Do you agree with the idea that the presence of wildlife is a sign of a good community environment? 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree nature: Do you agree with the view that the presence of wildlife is beneficial to nature? 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree Tolerance number: How many raccoon dogs are you comfortable with in your neighborhood? 1=I can't accept the existence of raccoon dogs at all 2=I can accept the existence of raccoon dogs in situations where I would never encounter them at all 3=I can accept the presence of one or two raccoon dogs in my neighborhood on very rare occasions 4=I can accept that sometimes I encounter a small number of raccoon dogs in my neighborhood 5=I can accept encountering packs of raccoon dogs in my neighborhood lethal: Do you agree that drugs, hunting, and other lethal methods should be used to kill raccoon dogs in your neighborhood? 1=Strongly disagree 2=Somewhat disagree 3=It doesn't matter 4=Somewhat agree 5=Strongly agree