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ABSTRACT
In 2012, Minnesota’s first-ever regulated wolf hunting and trapping season occurred. Research has suggested that beliefs about risks and benefits associated with carnivores affect their acceptance. Using results from a 2013 mail survey of hunters and trappers who participated in the season, we employed mediation analysis to examine how risk- and benefit-based beliefs influenced the relationship between attitudes about wolves and management preferences and behavioral intentions. Analyses differentiated hunters and trappers. Beliefs about risks and benefits partially explained the relationship between attitudes and wolf management preferences among hunters, while risk-based beliefs fully accounted for management preferences in the trapper sample. Beliefs about risks associated with wolves were most strongly related to management preferences among both hunters and trappers. Beliefs about the risks wolves present to desired game species may be symbolic among hunters and trappers, therefore, managers may be challenged to gain support for recovering wolf populations among these stakeholders.
Notes
1. On December 19, 2014, a federal judge issued a decision to immediately reinstate federal ESA protections for gray wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. In Minnesota, this ruling returned the wolf to threatened status under the federal ESA and returned management to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Citation2015).
2. Follow-up surveys are often employed to collect some key variables from all or a sample of nonrespondents (National Research Council, Citation2013). The shortened nonresponse survey was distributed to the 194 early season hunters, 103 late season hunters, and 145 trappers who had not responded to the earlier mailings.
3. Late respondents from all three groups reported less positive attitudes about wolves (early-season hunters 4.0 vs. 4.2, t = 2.131, p < .05) (late-season hunters 4.2 vs. 4.5, t = 2.091, p < .05) (trappers 3.9 vs. 4.4, t = 5.895, p < .001). However, response to how much hunters “liked” wolves did not differ between early and late respondents to the hunter surveys, while late respondents to the trapper surveys reported a lower level of “liking” wolves (4.2 vs. 4.7, t = 4.897, p < .001). Late respondents from all three groups reported greater satisfaction with wolf registration and inspection, compared with early respondents, See Schroeder (Citation2013) for specific comparisons and results.