Beautifully dangerous or dangerously beautiful: perceptions of southern African pythons (Python natalensis) in southern African rural and urban areas
Kirsty J Kyle, Colleen T Downs · 2025
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Description
The southern African python is the region's largest snake, and people feel strongly about it, for good and ill. Kirsty Kyle and Colleen Downs surveyed those feelings in this 2025 study. Pythons help ecosystems by eating pests, yet they also take livestock and pets. The species faces heavy killing by people, and its numbers are falling.
From 2023 into early 2025, the team gathered views in town and country areas of South Africa. They mixed face-to-face interviews with an online version of the same questions. Their focus area was the province of KwaZulu-Natal. They asked what shapes a positive or negative view of the snake, such as past loss or fear. Knowing those drivers can guide campaigns that cut killing without ignoring real harms to farmers.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Kirsty J Kyle, Colleen T Downs |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 51 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |