Table 1.

Characterizing quotes for the themes within the landscape–bear coexistence strand. The respondents were grouped into two groups based on their perception of coexistence (positive or negative). The number of people mentioning a given theme is reported and the percentage within each group is given in parentheses. The “P” or “N” behind each quote indicates whether the person had a positive or negative perception of coexistence. Capital letters refer to a given respondent’s ID code

Landscape–bear coexistence strand
	Perception of coexistence		Characterizing quotes
	Positive (n = 43)	Negative (n = 18)
a. Bear resources	17 (40)	6 (33)	So long as forests remain I don’t think something bad can happen, I don’t think the bear will come down in the village (ALM4; P) As long as it has food in the forest it won’t eat up the people’s potatoes or corn. Then it has no reason to come into the village (SAC2; P) We have only a few, small forests here! There’s no place for the bear to stay there (BLA3; N)
b. Land use change	17 (40)	4 (22)	The deforestation. Because when you cut away the forests, they [the bears] come to the villages, the more forests you cut away, the less space and silence they have (GRA1; P) I’m thinking about deforestation. You destroy the bears’ habitat. It needs to adapt as well. It can’t hide anymore; it gets more and more in contact with humans, its hunting area disappears and that becomes a problem. This is how the bear may become a problem! (MAL1; N)
c. Bear behaviour	21 (72)	14 (78)	The bear is not an animal that attacks without being provoked (BLA1; P) The shepherd was always saying: “Hey, the bear is coming, the bear is coming!” [I answered]: “Let it come, man! Let it come” When it comes, it takes [one/a few]… It’s not like the wolf! A wolf, once it jumps into a compound, it kills 4–5–10 sheep, and then it takes one and leaves! But the bear takes one under its arm and leaves (DEA1; N)
d. The anteater vs. the carnivore	12 (28)	5 (28)	There are only ant-eating bears. They don’t attack the sheep (MAL2; P) Doesn’t matter what point of view we take on them: As long as they eat plants, there’s no problem with them, but once it gets to taste meat, it’ll get aggressive (SAC1; N)
e. Bear population	25 (58)	12 (67)	No, there aren’t ‘urgent’ problems—it’s just that they appear more and more often! (VAD3; P) Because there are more of them, it attacks animals and man more often! (SAC4; N) We have knowledge about the fact that bears have been brought here. There weren’t that many bears in the past, by far (ALE1; P) It has been brought here. And then it reproduced (VAL3; N)