Interview surveys
Because there are no accurate records of wild animals that died of sarcoptic mange from 2013-2021, we had to acquire data via interviews. Data from 2012 were collected from the fourth giant panda survey of China but exclude Changan District and Zhashui County. The interviewees were mainly staff from the protection stations and farmers who often travelled to the mountains to collect herbs or Chinese chestnut. Whether an animal died of sarcoptic mange or not was confirmed by the presence of obvious, white and thick skin lesions, characterized by lichenification and alopecia (mite-induced lesions). The number of interviewees in each county/district and the questions are shown in S1. A total of 24 staff members from 14 protection stations and 53 farmers in 39 villages were interviewed.