Tigers bringing risk and security: Gendered perceptions of tiger reintroduction in Rajasthan, India.

Human-wildlife conflict has been documented to impact some communities heterogeneously, particularly along gender lines (e.g., women experiencing inequitably increased workloads and economic hardship, and decreased physical safety and psychological wellbeing), leading to different attitudes towards wildlife. Despite possible gendered discrepancies, women's perceptions of conservation management are often insufficiently explored, leading to incomplete understandings of conservation dynamics, and unjust conservation policies. In an effort to investigate if and how perceptions of tiger reintroductions are disparate, we conducted focus group discussions with women and men living in and around Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan, India. Results demonstrate clear gendered delineations in perceptions, where male participants predominantly focused on economic and ecological benefits, and female participants highlighted threats to personal safety and hidden costs (e.g., potential abuse, dowry concerns). This research underscores the importance of documenting and understanding gendered perceptions of carnivores to achieve the broad community support necessary for successful reintroduction efforts worldwide.

Post-survey Likert constructions: an adaptive method for generalizing perceptions of environmental variability.

Environmental perceptions are inherently based on an individual's existing knowledge, experiences, and future expectations. Methods for measuring environmental perception, therefore, must capture a range of experiences while also being flexible enough to integrate these experiences into a coherent unit for analysis. Many research topics require cross-cultural comparisons in order to corroborate findings; however, assessments of environmental perception are often place- and context-specific. We propose here post-survey Likert constructions (PSLCs), using semi-structured interviews to construct a five-point scale system from multiple household responses after the completion of interviews. This method is able to capture the natural variability in the population using the respondents' own language and characterizations of phenomena. We applied this method to measure the perceived environmental variability of residents living in a dynamic flooding landscape in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. The PSLC method captures the differences in environmental perception in a location with different settlement and cultural histories, multiple language groups, and different environmental conditions. The method easily transfers to other environments and populations, allowing for potential cross-cultural comparisons of perceived environmental variability. This publication responds to calls for increased transparency in reporting the development, execution, advantages, and disadvantages of methods related to environmental change.