Understanding public attitudes towards wildlife recovery efforts

Black bears are returning to their historic ranges in places like southern Wisconsin and Eastern Texas. So how do local residents feel about the returning wildlife and what explains their attitudes?

A new study tries to understand what underlying socieconomic variables can help us predict whether or not someone supports recovery efforts for wildlife like black bears.  

A mosaic of land uses found in the former ranges of many large carnivores means that in most situations, habitat sufficient to support populations must include both protected preserves and privately owned properties. 

Therefore, predicting how local landowners and residents might respond to recovery efforts aimed at large carnivores is an essential step in any species management plan.

To try and develop a predictive model for community support, a team led by Anita Morzillo conducted a survey assessing the variables involved in degree of acceptance of recovery efforts of the Louisiana black bear. The survey was conducted among residents of a 12-county region of east Texas, where black bears have been extirpated for several decades. 

The surveys asked about support for three recovery scenarios – allowing the bear to naturally repopulate the region from neighboring states, actively reintroducing individual animals into the region, and actively taking steps to prevent the bears from repopulating.

Survey responses were then analyzed against socioeconomic data to identify characteristics that are significant factors in an individual’s likelihood of supporting bear recovery efforts.  The researchers anticipated that gender, number of years lived in the region, and general knowledge of black bears would be significant in levels of support.

In fact, the only variable that was significantly related to support or non-support across all recovery strategies was the degree to which the respondent was worried about the potential impacts and problems that might ensue from a resident population of bears.  Worry and knowledge about the species were two of the most important factors in predicting an individual’s attitude toward the three recovery options.

When asked about their support for the recovery scenarios, respondents who indicated less knowledge about black bears were more likely to answer “unsure” for all three options.  Higher levels of knowledge was correlated with higher levels of support for active reintroduction of bears, and lower levels of support for excluding bears.

Overall, passive recovery efforts garnered the greatest level of support among all respondents. An “increase in the number of black bear sightings” in the east Texas region under study may mean these animals are pursuing this strategy already. 

However, with increased education about black bears, it may be possible to increase overall public support for more active efforts to reintroduce this species to at least part of its former range.

--Karren Bassler is a contributing writer based in Madison Wisconsin and a consultant with Superior Nonprofits, LLC.

Morzillo, A., Mertig, A., Hollister, J., Garner, N., & Liu, J. (2010). Socioeconomic Factors Affecting Local Support for Black Bear Recovery Strategies Environmental Management DOI: 10.1007/s00267-010-9485-3