Identifying Wildlife Species Believed to be Deserving of Protection From Hunting by U.S. Residents

ABSTRACT

This article examines the perceptions of individuals toward protecting animals from hunting. Researchers surveyed 825 U.S. residents in an online survey about their views of whether 17 species of mammals should be protected from hunting. Over 85% of respondents believed elephant, white rhino, black rhino, hippo, leopard, lion, and polar bear species should be protected from hunting. Conversely, only 55% of respondents believed mountain lion and coyote should be protected. Cross tabulations and logit analysis were employed to explore relationships between believing an animal species should be protected from hunting and demographics. Older and female respondents more often agreed that species should be protected from hunting. Those who hunted or knew a hunter less frequently agreed that the species surveyed should be protected from hunting. Demographics and previous exposure to hunting appear to influence beliefs about what species should be protected from hunting.

KEYWORDS:

• Animal species
• hunting; hunting protection
• public acceptance
• public perception

Notes

1. The data analyzed for this article were generated using Qualtrics. Qualtrics and all other Qualtrics product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of Qualtrics, Provo, UT, USA. Retrieved from http://www.qualtrics.com

2. Respondents were required to be at least 18 years of age to participate in the survey.

3. Quotas were used in the programming of the survey to ensure that the sample represented the U.S. Census targets employed. Once a quota was full, no more respondents completed the survey with those demographics.

4. A sample of the survey instrument is available from the authors on request.

5. The list was adapted from Stedman and Decker (1996) and also included “a parent/grandparent hunts/hunted,” “there is currently a hunter in my household”, “I have friends/neighbors who hunt”, “non-household family member,” and “current household family member.” For brevity, these were omitted from the current analysis.

6. The list also included hunt for food, wildlife population control, reduce predator population, control crop damage, and sporting/recreation activity.

7. Elephant (χ² = 4.09, p < .05), bison (χ² = 5.35, p < .05), elk (χ² = 14.82, p < .05), white tailed deer (χ² = 10.75, p < .05), and wolf (χ² = 6.49, p < .05)

8. Bison (χ² = 18.13, p < .05), elk (χ² = 44.29, p < .05), white tailed deer (χ² = 52.86, p < .05), mountain lion (χ² = 11.97, p < .05), black bear (χ² = 32.36, p < .05), polar bear (χ² = 6.35, p < .05), wolf (χ² = 8.48, p < .05), coyote (χ² = 29.43, p < .05), grizzly (χ² = 21.60, p < .05)

9. Option, bequest, and existence values are non-use values. Option value is the value a person places on a resource even when the person may not utilize the resource. Bequest value is the value a person places on a resource so that it can be available to others in the future. Existence value is the value a person places on a resource based solely on its existence.

10. The only statistically significant difference was observed for elephant; 85.1% of respondents categorized as having high income agreed that elephants should be protected from hunting compared to 92.3% of those not categorized as having high income.