Abstract Although many studies explore characteristics of stakeholders or publics “for” or “against” large carnivores, disagreements among conservation professionals advocating different conservation strategies also occur, but are not well recognized. Differing viewpoints on whether and how humans can share landscapes with large carnivores can influence conservation policies. To characterize current viewpoints about terrestrial large carnivore conservation, we conducted an online survey assessing a wide range of viewpoints about large carnivore conservation among international professionals (n = 505). We explored how variation in viewpoints was related to expertise, background, and broader institutional contexts in which one lives and works. The majority of participants agreed people and large carnivores can share the same landscapes (86%). Human adaptation to carnivores (95% agreement) and acceptance of some conflict (93%) were the highest ranked requirements for human-carnivore coexistence. We found broad consensus regarding intrinsic value of carnivores, reasons carnivores are imperilled, conflict drivers, and importance of proactive solutions, such as adopting preventative livestock husbandry methods or avoiding situations that put people at risk. The greatest polarization was observed in issues related to lethal control, where we only found broad consensus for killing carnivores in situations where humans are in immediate risk. Participants opposed the killing of large carnivores when objectives were to decrease population sizes or increase human tolerance, profits, livelihoods, or fear of humans. Results point to considerable diversity, perhaps driven by local context, concerning how to proceed with large carnivore conservation in the increasingly human-influenced landscapes of the Anthropocene. The different observed viewpoints represent both different strategies about how to best conserve, but also different moral platforms about what, how, where, and for whom conservation should occur. Our study underlines that challenges to adopting and implementing long-lasting carnivore conservation strategies may well occur as much within the conservation community as outside it.

中文翻译：

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保护专业人士同意与大型食肉动物共存的挑战，但不同意解决方案

摘要 尽管许多研究探讨了利益相关者或公众“支持”或“反对”大型食肉动物的特征，但在倡导不同保护策略的保护专业人员之间也存在分歧，但并未得到充分认识。关于人类是否以及如何与大型食肉动物共享景观的不同观点会影响保护政策。为了描述当前关于陆地大型食肉动物保护的观点，我们进行了一项在线调查，评估了国际专业人士（n = 505）对大型食肉动物保护的广泛观点。我们探讨了观点的变化如何与一个人生活和工作的专业知识、背景和更广泛的制度背景相关。大多数参与者同意人和大型食肉动物可以共享相同的景观（86%）。人类对食肉动物的适应（95% 同意）和对某些冲突的接受（93%）是人类与食肉动物共存的最高要求。我们就食肉动物的内在价值、食肉动物受到威胁的原因、冲突驱动因素以及积极解决方案的重要性（例如采用预防性牲畜饲养方法或避免使人们处于危险之中的情况）达成了广泛共识。在与致命控制相关的问题上观察到了最大的两极分化，我们只发现在人类面临直接风险的情况下杀死食肉动物的广泛共识。当目标是减少种群规模或增加人类的容忍度、利润、生计或对人类的恐惧时，参与者反对杀死大型食肉动物。结果表明相当多的多样性，可能是受当地环境的驱动，关于如何在越来越受人类影响的人类世景观中进行大型食肉动物保护。观察到的不同观点既代表了关于如何最好地保护的不同策略，也代表了关于保护的内容、方式、地点和对象的不同道德平台。我们的研究强调，采用和实施长期食肉动物保护策略的挑战在保护社区内部和外部都可能发生。