Exploring the complexity of community perceptions toward Przewalski's gazelle conservation

Abstract Przewalski's gazelle ( Procapra przewalskii ) inhabits Qinghai Lake National Nature Reserve and surrounding areas, with extensive range overlap between gazelle habitats and pastoral grasslands intensifying human–wildlife interactions. Given that local communities are directly involved in multiple conservation actions for Przewalski's gazelle, it is essential to understand community perspectives in order to promote coexistence, while recognizing that the differences among groups can facilitate the design of more targeted intervention measures. We conducted a study in two communities exhibiting significant overlap with the distribution range of Przewalski's gazelle. There we investigated residents' perceptions, including cognition, attitude, and behavioral intention toward conservation using semi‐structured interviews and questionnaires. Subsequently, we combined hierarchical clustering and k‐means clustering to identify distinct cognition‐attitude‐intention combinations and explored their associations with residents' socio‐demographic characteristics. Our results revealed four types of cognition–attitude–intention combinations among residents, which were respectively characterized by adequate cognition, supportive attitude, and positive intention (cluster 1); limited cognition, supportive attitude, and positive intention (cluster 2); adequate cognition, unsupportive attitude, and positive intention (cluster 3); and adequate cognition, supportive attitude, and negative intention (cluster 4). Cluster 1 had the highest proportion. Further analysis revealed that the level of conservation cognition was primarily correlated with direct exposure to Przewalski's gazelle. Livelihood dependence was associated with conservation attitudes, whereas economic incentives showed stronger links to behavioral intention, particularly among primary laborers within households. The influences exerted by religious belief, age, and educational attainment were not singular; rather, they interacted with each other. These findings provide insights for designing more effective intervention measures to promote coexistence.