Understanding carnivore killing behaviour: Exploring the motivations for tiger killing in the Sundarbans, Bangladesh

This paper explores village-based tiger killing (TK) among communities bordering the Sundarbans mangrove forest, Bangladesh. We find that TKs are not purely retaliatory in nature (i.e. a desire for retribution following livestock depredation or attacks on humans by tigers) and that previous negative experience of tigers is not the sole determinant of villagers’ acceptance of TK behaviour. Inter-related social-psychological factors (risk perceptions, beliefs about tigers, tolerance for tigers), institutional failings (i.e. of the institutions villagers perceive to be responsible for resolving village tiger incidents), perceived personal rewards (financial rewards, enhanced social status, medicinal or protective value of tiger body parts), and contextual factors (the severity of a village tiger incident) motivate people to kill tigers when they enter villages and foster the widespread acceptance of this behaviour. Knowledge of these motivational factors can be used to develop conservation actions suitable for developing both communities’ capacity and, crucially, desire to co-exist with tigers and to respond with non-lethal action to village tiger incidents.