Predicting private landowner hunting access decisions and hunter density

ABSTRACT

Urbanization and shifting landowner demographics are changing how and where hunting occurs. We surveyed nonindustrial private landowners (N = 1,843) in North Carolina, USA to examine how demographics and land-use predict whether hunting occurred and hunter density. The optimal logistic regression model correctly predicted whether hunting occurred on 96% of properties. Larger properties, male property ownership, longer ownership tenure, income generation from a property, and landowners originating from rural environments were positively related to whether a property was hunted. Properties with older landowners and properties surrounded by greater housing and road density were less likely to be hunted. Hunter density declined with property size, longer ownership tenure, and the presence of a landowner or family member(s) hunting the property. In the future, increases in hunter density on small properties may facilitate wildlife management through hunting as landscapes become more urbanized.

KEYWORDS:

• Hunter access
• hunter density
• landowner decisions
• nonindustrial private land
• North Carolina
• urbanization
• white-tailed deer

Acknowledgments

North Carolina State University, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, and the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program funded this research. We thank the private landowners of North Carolina that took the time to complete our survey. We thank K. Pacifici for his help with statistical analysis. We appreciate the numerous people that helped implement the survey, including W. Casola, M. Drake, M. McAllister, R. Valdez, and A. Fish. We thank the Associate Editor and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.