Commentary: Wildlife Tourism as Crop Protection? Double-goal Provisioning and the Transvaluation of the Macaque in Postwar Japan

Human–wildlife interfaces are often sites of friction and conflict in the form of crop and livestock depredations that can lead to negative local attitudes towards the animals responsible. This paper examines the use of provisioning to reduce wildlife damage through diversion (‘diversionary feeding’...

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Main Author: John Knight
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Utah State University 2017-09-01
Series:Human-Wildlife Interactions
Subjects:
Online Access:https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/hwi/vol11/iss2/12
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author John Knight
author_facet John Knight
author_sort John Knight
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description Human–wildlife interfaces are often sites of friction and conflict in the form of crop and livestock depredations that can lead to negative local attitudes towards the animals responsible. This paper examines the use of provisioning to reduce wildlife damage through diversion (‘diversionary feeding’) and to display the diverted animals for tourism. It focuses on a macaque (Macaca fuscata) provisioning initiative from the municipality of Ōita in western Japan that set out to achieve these two objectives of crop protection and tourism. Provisioning succeeded in establishing the macaques as a popular tourist attraction, but it has been far less effective in keeping farmland safe from crop-raiding. Owing mainly to macaque population increase and habituation, the early diversion effect waned and crop-raiding re-emerged as a problem. The Ōita vision of double-goal provisioning has proved to be flawed and the compatibility of diversionary provisioning with wildlife tourism highly questionable.
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spelling doaj.art-9a5021e674f44ae7adc31926e70defbe2022-12-22T00:56:31ZengUtah State UniversityHuman-Wildlife Interactions2155-38742155-38742017-09-0111210.26077/vef7-2v90Commentary: Wildlife Tourism as Crop Protection? Double-goal Provisioning and the Transvaluation of the Macaque in Postwar JapanJohn Knight0Queens University - BelfastHuman–wildlife interfaces are often sites of friction and conflict in the form of crop and livestock depredations that can lead to negative local attitudes towards the animals responsible. This paper examines the use of provisioning to reduce wildlife damage through diversion (‘diversionary feeding’) and to display the diverted animals for tourism. It focuses on a macaque (Macaca fuscata) provisioning initiative from the municipality of Ōita in western Japan that set out to achieve these two objectives of crop protection and tourism. Provisioning succeeded in establishing the macaques as a popular tourist attraction, but it has been far less effective in keeping farmland safe from crop-raiding. Owing mainly to macaque population increase and habituation, the early diversion effect waned and crop-raiding re-emerged as a problem. The Ōita vision of double-goal provisioning has proved to be flawed and the compatibility of diversionary provisioning with wildlife tourism highly questionable.https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/hwi/vol11/iss2/12macaca fuscataprovisioningdiversionary feedingcrop-raidingwildlife tourismtransvaluationjapan
spellingShingle John Knight
Commentary: Wildlife Tourism as Crop Protection? Double-goal Provisioning and the Transvaluation of the Macaque in Postwar Japan
Human-Wildlife Interactions
macaca fuscata
provisioning
diversionary feeding
crop-raiding
wildlife tourism
transvaluation
japan
title Commentary: Wildlife Tourism as Crop Protection? Double-goal Provisioning and the Transvaluation of the Macaque in Postwar Japan
title_full Commentary: Wildlife Tourism as Crop Protection? Double-goal Provisioning and the Transvaluation of the Macaque in Postwar Japan
title_fullStr Commentary: Wildlife Tourism as Crop Protection? Double-goal Provisioning and the Transvaluation of the Macaque in Postwar Japan
title_full_unstemmed Commentary: Wildlife Tourism as Crop Protection? Double-goal Provisioning and the Transvaluation of the Macaque in Postwar Japan
title_short Commentary: Wildlife Tourism as Crop Protection? Double-goal Provisioning and the Transvaluation of the Macaque in Postwar Japan
title_sort commentary wildlife tourism as crop protection double goal provisioning and the transvaluation of the macaque in postwar japan
topic macaca fuscata
provisioning
diversionary feeding
crop-raiding
wildlife tourism
transvaluation
japan
url https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/hwi/vol11/iss2/12
work_keys_str_mv AT johnknight commentarywildlifetourismascropprotectiondoublegoalprovisioningandthetransvaluationofthemacaqueinpostwarjapan