Snake Conservation Attitudes in The Philippines, A Global Biodiversity Hotspot

Habitat destruction and snake persecution are the leading causes of the decline of snake populations worldwide, highlighting the need to formulate scientifically robust conservation management plans that incorporate an understanding of local public attitudes toward snakes. We conducted an in-person survey of 968 residents of Maguindanao Provinces, Mindanao Island, Philippines, to investigate attitudes toward snakes and assess the effects of knowledge about snakes, worldviews, and demographic characteristics on the support for snake conservation. Survey participants were primarily intolerant of and aversive to snakes but generally supported their conservation. Additionally, they were knowledgeable about the behavior of snakes, and shared either highly moralistic or dominionistic worldviews of nature, while most did not believe in folklore traditions. High levels of knowledge about the behavior of snakes, positive folkloric beliefs, high tolerance and low aversion to the presence of snakes, and moralistic worldviews positively affected support for snake conservation. Female participants were less tolerant and more averse to snakes than males. Participants with higher levels of education were more tolerant and supportive of snake conservation than those with little or no education. Farmers were less supportive of snake conservation than non-farmers. Our survey results provide important information to understand how cognitions, folklore, and demographics influence snake conservation on an island in the Philippines. This information may be valuable to government agencies and various stakeholders that could use it to design effective strategies for promoting snake conservation in the country, or other countries with similar societal systems and cultures.