Alessandro Pirzio Biroli‡, Sarah L. Crowley§, Gavin M. Siriwardena|, Kate E. Plummer|, Julia Schroeder‡, Rachel L. White¶Corresponding author: Alessandro Pirzio Biroli ( apirzio@yahoo.com ) © Alessandro Pirzio Biroli, Sarah L. Crowley, Gavin M. Siriwardena, Kate E. Plummer, Julia Schroeder, Rachel L. White. This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Pirzio Biroli A, Crowley SL, Siriwardena GM, Plummer KE, Schroeder J, White RL (2023) Not in the countryside please! Investigating UK residents` perceptions of an introduced species, the ring-necked parakeet (Psittacula krameri). ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e110141 |  |
Wildlife management propositions can generate social conflict when stakeholder perceptions of the target species are not taken into account. Introduced Ring-necked Parakeets (RNP), which are established in the UK, have been added to the ‘general licence’ of birds that can be killed to prevent serious economic damage. We aim to better understand public perceptions of RNPs on a nationwide scale to mitigate potential future conflict over RNP management. We surveyed 3,947 UK residents to understand public awareness of, knowledge of and attitudes towards the RNP across the UK.
We found that most respondents (90.2%) were aware of the RNP. The majority of respondents knew the species’ name (54.9%) but many underestimated current population numbers in the UK (82.6%) and few knew its full native range (10.0%). Almost half (45.9%) of responses indicated negative attitudes towards the RNP. We found aversion towards the RNP’s presence in rural areas and indifference in urban areas, highlighting that landscape and socio-cultural contexts are associated with attitudes. Respondent preference for the RNP in relation to other birds in their local neighbourhood was low (7.8%), contrasting with previous RNP perception studies. Conversely, most respondents (83.0%) agreed that the RNP had pleasant aesthetics , suggesting nuanced views that separate appearance from impacts. We identified respondents’ preference for the RNP, ecological interest, age and education as significant factors associated with perceptions.
The RNP has a strong and complex public profile in the UK, and these perceptions and their drivers would be important factors in the popularity and success of any proposed management initiatives.