Understanding People’s Relationship With Wildlife in Trans-Himalayan Folklore

摘要: People’s views and values for wildlife are influenced by the ecology of species type interaction between them. Local folklore provides a resource that can enable us to better understand these interactions underlying cultural values. Using archival searches semi-structured interviews, we collected narratives about ibex Capra sibirica (n=69), its predators, wolves Canis lupus (n=52) snow leopards Panthera uncia (n=43), in Ladakh, India. We compared stories those mythical carnivore called seng ge or lion (n=19), frequently referenced local Tibetan Buddhist believed share many traits commonly associated with (except livestock depredation). then categorized along social-cultural psychological dimensions found was predominantly utilitarianism positive symbolism. Both leopard wolf negative affective symbolic values, though more case wolves. Snow largely focused on utilitarian ecologistic In contrast, were mostly Our results suggest especially wolves, any potentially associations appeared be overwhelmed sentiments because their tendency prey livestock, unlike lion. Since reflect people’s real multifarious wildlife, recommend paying greater attention understanding overlaps natural heritage conservation facilitate human-wildlife coexistence.