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Publications (139)
Mourning doves are the most hunted game species in the United States. Mourning dove populations are declining, and the continued use of lead shot has been cited as one contributory factor. We examined the relationship between support for a ban on lead shot when dove hunting and 3 sets of variables: (1) beliefs about lead and steel shot, (2) prior d...
The human health impacts of lead have been known for millennia but the environmental impacts of lead ammunition have only received attention during the past 100 years. To a large extent the United States provided leadership in identifying and researching these effects and then spearheading campaigns to transition away from lead shotgun ammunition f...
Previous human dimensions articles related to changes in perceptions about chronic wasting disease (CWD) have focused on psychological variables (e.g., risk, trust). We expanded the scope of comparison and included 27 CWD management‐action variables. We obtained data from 2 mail surveys of resident deer hunters randomly sampled from the Illinois De...
Harvest of light geese (Anser caerulescens, Anser rossii) during the 2022 Illinois Light Goose Conservation Order was estimated at 60,768. An estimated 1,620 hunters participated in the 2022 Illinois Light Goose Conservation Order. Hunters spent an estimated 20,109 days afield during 2022, and the majority (55.2%) of the snow (light) goose harvest...
Context
Many terrestrial mammals have undergone substantial distribution changes in recent decades; yet collecting broad-scale occurrence data for carnivores is difficult due to their low densities and cryptic behaviors. Carnivore observations from community (i.e., citizen) science programs can be a potentially valuable approach for understanding c...
Illinois is approaching the end of the twentieth year of CWD in the state. First discovered in 2002, the number of counties with CWD cases has expanded to 17. The dynamic nature of CWD in Illinois necessitates periodic surveys of deer hunters to monitor hunter perceptions and attitudes toward management actions.
A random sample of 5,000 Illinois resident hunters was selected from adult 2021 Illinois resident Habitat Stamp and hunting license holders. Selected individuals were mailed an 8-page self-administered questionnaire designed to query hunters about their hunting activities and harvest in Illinois. We received 2,182 questionnaires, 1,974 of which wer...
We sampled 1,200 of 2021-22 resident Illinois trapping license purchasers from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources licensing database. Licensees were mailed an 8-page questionnaire, and we received 545 (45%) questionnaires. Trapping license sales decreased 2.8% from 2020-21 (7,217) to 2021-22 (7,016). Trappers set an average of 12.7 traps...
A total of 1,880 (38% response rate) Illinois waterfowl hunters returned usable questionnaires to the 2021-22 Illinois Waterfowl Hunter Survey. An estimated 42,839 adult waterfowl hunters spent ≥1 day afield during 2021-22, an increase of 8.4% from 39,525 hunters during the 2020-21 seasons. Waterfowl hunters spent 1,000,494 days afield, an increase...
Context The Illinois Department of Natural Resources was mandated by legislation to develop management plans for American Black Bears and needed Illinois residents’ preferences for bear management strategies. Aims The aim of this article was to examine how demographics, emotions and attitudes were related to support for three American black bear ma...
Interspecific interactions among predators can shape ecological communities across trophic levels, including among predator guilds. The strength and directions of these interactions, however, may vary spatially and temporally in regions undergoing widespread landscape changes (e.g., urbanization, agricultural production). We investigated intraguild...
The intent of this study was to (a) evaluate both recreation and landowner participants in the Illinois Recreation Access Program (IRAP), and b) investigate the attitudes and needs of Illinois recreationists and landowners as a whole toward access and enrollment of private lands for recreation use in Illinois.
Crippling loss (waterfowl downed, but not retrieved) is a recognized component of waterfowl harvest, but there are few contemporary estimates. We used a zero‐inflated negative binomial model to account for false reporting of zeros and estimated waterfowl crippling losses from harvest data reported in a 2018–2019 survey of waterfowl hunters in Illin...
This article examined the relationships between information sources (used and perceived importance) and factual knowledge about chronic wasting disease (CWD). Data were obtained from an online survey of North Dakota deer permit holders from the 2020–2021 seasons (n = 3,242, response rate = 29%). Over 90% of respondents knew that CWD exists in North...
Globally, there is increasing effort to transition away from the use of lead ammunition to mitigate its known risks to wildlife and human health. Whenever this transition is stated hunters frequently cite concerns about the effectiveness of non‐lead ammunition, how it will result in greater crippling rates, and associated animal welfare costs. This...
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) affects cervids. This research note described a U.S. national survey of ongoing management and communication efforts by state wildlife agencies in response to CWD. Questionnaires were distributed to all 50 states in 2020 (response rate = 76%, n = 38). States with CWD were predicted to differ from states with no known c...
A random sample was drawn of 3,000 Illinois residents with a 2018 Illinois deer hunting permit and/or were drawn for a 2019 deer lottery permit on public land. Selected individuals were mailed an 8-page self-administered questionnaire designed to understand attitudes, constraints, and related behaviors regarding deer hunting in Illinois. We receive...
We sampled 1,200 of 2020-21 resident Illinois trapping license purchasers from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources licensing database. Licensees were mailed an 8-page questionnaire, and we received 639 (54%) questionnaires. Trapping license sales increased 7.8% from 2019-20 (6,698) to 2020-21 (7,217). Trappers set an average of 14.7 traps...
A total of 1,805 (37% response rate) Illinois waterfowl hunters returned usable questionnaires to the 2020-21 Illinois Waterfowl Hunter Survey. An estimated 39,525 adult waterfowl hunters spent 1 day or more afield during 2020-21, an increase of 12.3% from 35,185 hunters during the 2019-20 seasons. Waterfowl hunters spent 837,609 days afield, a dec...
A random sample of 5,000 Illinois resident hunters was selected from adult 2020 Illinois resident Habitat Stamp and hunting license holders. Selected individuals were mailed an 8-page self-administered questionnaire designed to query hunters about their hunting activities and harvest in Illinois. We received 2,240 questionnaires, 2,052 of which wer...
Harvest of light geese (Anser caerulescens, Anser rossii) during the 2021 Illinois Light Goose Conservation Order was estimated at 90,392. An estimated 2,732 hunters participated in the 2021 Illinois Light Goose Conservation Order. Hunters spent an estimated 32,369 days afield during 2021, and the majority (55.7%) of the snow (light) goose harvest...
Indices of relative abundance are routinely used to monitor and manage wildlife, yet all indices contain observation error and have unknown relationships with true abundance. State-space models (SSM) allow estimation of observation error while concordance in trends among multiple indices from different sampling methods may reflect true trends in ab...
We examined the extent that hunters’ perceptions of risks related to chronic wasting disease (CWD) and trust in state wildlife agencies to address CWD were related to their demographic (sex, age, education, residence) and hunting (CWD presence, type of hunter, years hunting in state, harvest) characteristics. Demographic and hunting characteristics...
Predictive models analyzing relationships among emotions, attitudes, behavioral intentions have inconsistently examined the implied logical flow of the concepts. This article examined two research questions. When general attitude and general emotional dispositions are predictors of support for specific wolf management actions: (a) should a direct e...
To help the Illinois Department of Natural Resources develop a comprehensive wolf management strategy, a mail survey was conducted of non-hunters (n = 1,145) and hunters (n = 1,489). Results supported three bivariate hypotheses. Compared to urbanites, respondents who grew up in rural areas were more emotional toward wolves, held more negative attit...
Understanding social support for large carnivores’ recovery can guide policies governing human-predator interactions. We investigated the socio-psychological determinants of support for recovery of black bears, cougars, and gray wolves among residents of Illinois, USA. We contacted a random sample (n = 7,500) of Illinois residents using a repeat ma...
While most carnivore populations are declining worldwide, some species are successfully living in human-modified landscapes. For example, coyotes (Canis latrans) have expanded their range across North America and into many urban areas making it important to understand factors influencing broad-scale patterns of occurrence. We used citizen science d...
A total of 2,125 (44% response rate) Illinois waterfowl hunters returned usable questionnaires to the 2019-20 Illinois Waterfowl Hunter Survey. An estimated 35,185 adult waterfowl hunters spent 1 day or more afield during 2019-20, a decrease of 12.1% from the 40,047 hunters in 2018-19. Waterfowl hunters spent 841,828 days afield, an increase of 1.3...
A random sample of 5,000 hunters was selected from adult 2019 Illinois resident Habitat Stamp and hunting license holders. Selected individuals were mailed an 8-page self-administered questionnaire designed to query hunters about their hunting activities and harvest in Illinois. We received 2,406 questionnaires, 2,198 of which were usable, for a 45...
Anglers have been one of the major supporters of aquatic conservation activities in the USA through the Dingle‐Johnson Act and other programs. Declining rates of participation in fishing have spurred significant efforts to Recruit, Retain, and Reengage anglers: also known as “R3”. To make R3 strategies more effective, it is important to explore the...
ContextWild pigs (Sus scrofa) are a non-native, invasive species that can cause significant damage to agricultural crops, and native flora and fauna. In the United States, damage and control costs have been estimated at 1.5 billion USD. A combination of early sexual maturity, high fecundity, opportunistic eating and well established populations for...
Non-source nutrients (e.g., nitrogen, phosphorous) from agriculture have created a massive hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico. This zone contains no oxygen and is devoid of life. US Department of Agriculture programs provide direct payments to farmers to encourage adoption of practices that reduce nutrient pollution. Paying farmers to change behavi...
Trapping data have a long and rich history of use in monitoring furbearer populations in North America but understanding the influences of variation in trapper harvest is important. Many factors besides abundance can cause variation in trapper harvest, including socioeconomics, weather, and motivation. The relationships between these extrinsic fact...
An accurate understanding of harvest trends is required for effective wildlife management. Trapper harvest data represent valuable long‐term data for evaluating patterns and trends for wildlife species at broad spatiotemporal scales. Inferring accurate trends from harvest data, however, first requires identifying and controlling for confounding fac...
Long-tailed distributions can distort findings, influence statistical tests, and result in small effect sizes. This research note proposed a definition of long-tailed distributions (i.e., SD/M ≥ 1) and developed an alternative formulation of the Cohen’s d effect size based on percent differences. Three hypotheses were examined: (a) waterfowl hunter...
Wildlife management often requires accurate estimates of hunter participation and species harvested. Sending pre-season hunting cards for recording activity can improve the accuracy of estimates. This research note examined the influence of record cards on the shape of waterfowl hunting survey response distributions. Data were obtained from a 2013–...
Waterfowl management in North America is partially informed by hunter harvest data, which includes the number and sex of each species harvested. Self-reporting harvest via online surveys or paper forms is common for many agencies and at wildlife management areas. For these data to be useful to managers, however, it is critical that self-reported ha...
Fisheries managers seek information on the characteristics and needs of distinct groups of anglers. By examining perceptions in the context of angler groups, managers can anticipate reactions to fishery changes and avoid conflicts. The goal of this study was to identify groups of anglers who target salmonid species in the southern Lake Michigan fis...
A random sample was drawn of 5,000 Illinois residents with a 2019 Illinois spring turkey hunting permit. The sample included 3,000 turkey hunters with a spring turkey shotgun/archery permit (general hunters) and 2,000 hunters with a landowner spring turkey shotgun/archery permit (landowner hunters). Selected individuals were mailed an 8-page self-a...
A random, stratified sample of 6,102 current and past hunters were selected among Illinois hunting license purchasers across six license years (2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016) and three age categories (18 – 34 years, 35 – 54 years, 55+ years). Selected individuals were mailed an 8-page self-administered questionnaire designed to study hunter re...
Harvest of light geese (Chen caerulescens, Chen rossii) during the 2019 Illinois Light Goose Conservation Order was estimated at 86,683. An estimated 2,694 hunters participated in the 2019 Illinois Light Goose Conservation Order. Hunters spent an estimated 30,206 days afield during 2019, and the majority (64%) of the snow goose harvest occurred dur...
A random sample of 5,000 hunters was selected from adult 2018 Illinois resident Habitat Stamp and hunting license holders. Selected individuals were mailed an 8-page self-administered questionnaire designed to query hunters about their hunting activities and harvest in Illinois. We received 2,631 questionnaires, 2,284 of which were usable, for a 47...
Increasing wolf populations are a concern for wildlife managers in the Midwestern U.S. Understanding the psychological mechanisms that contribute to public perceptions of risk will enable development of strategies that seek to mitigate these risks, and suggest where outreach efforts may facilitate acceptance of wolves. We examined the psychological...
Risk sensitivity is a predisposition to rate all risks as large. Miller and Shelby (2009) examined hunters’ risk sensitivity relative to chronic wasting disease (CWD), Mad cow, E. coli, Salmonella, Lyme disease, and West Nile virus (WNV). This article replicated their analysis and compared risk sensitivity over time. Data from Illinois hunters in 2...
Understanding sources of difference in public attitudes toward wildlife is critical for the design of effective policy instruments. In this article we explored the role of wildlife value orientations and stakeholder group membership (general public versus agricultural producers) in shaping residents support for the natural recolonization of apex pr...
Hunting license sales have declined in many U.S. states over recent decades, and efforts are underway to recruit new hunters. Research suggests socioeconomic status influences hunting participation and license sales. A limited number of studies, however, actually connect socioeconomic status and license sales on an aggregated community level or spa...
We examined risk perceptions of chronic wasting disease (CWD) over time (2004 vs. 2012), and among hunters and non-hunters. Data were obtained from two mailed surveys in 2004 that included random samples of hunters (n = 1879) and non-hunters (n = 1122). We conducted two additional mail surveys in 2012 that also included random samples of hunters (n...
This article examined relationships among value orientations (mutualism, domination), property rights, responsibility, and farmers’ willingness to adopt Leopold’s land ethic. Data were obtained from a mailed survey sent to Illinois farmers (n = 974). Domination, mutualism, property rights, and responsibility were derived from previous research. The...
Analyzing the relationship of reported outfitter use in Illinois snow goose hunters and harvest survey responses
Harvest of light geese (Chen caerulescens, Chen rossii) during the 2017 Illinois Light Goose Conservation Order season was estimated at 133,629. An estimated 2,459 hunters participated in the 2017 Illinois Light Goose Conservation Order season. Hunters spent an estimated 32,931 days afield during 2017, and the majority (63%) of the snow goose harve...
We used risk perceptions to understand the acceptability of nonlethal and lethal management of coyotes in an urban setting. We conducted a self-administered mail survey (n = 1624) of residents of the Greater Chicago Metropolitan Region during 2012 and examined the relationship between perceptions of risk and acceptance of different management strat...
This article examined relationships between proximity to chronic wasting disease (CWD) and perceived risk and trust. The sample included 1,606 hunters in one of 10 northern Illinois counties with CWD, 1,958 hunters in a non-CWD county adjacent to these counties with CWD, and 2,099 hunters from the remaining non-CWD counties in Illinois. Compared to...
Analyzing the relationship of conservation order hunting method use and total season snow goose harvest
Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) populations in North America appear in decline in parts of their geographic range, prompting in-depth investigations into population trends. However, long-term data on muskrat population abundance are rare and managers often rely on harvest data to track relative changes in population sizes. These data are likely biased...
This article examined the influence of urban homeowners’ general wildlife value orientations (i.e., mutualism, domination) and their specific positive beliefs about coyotes on perceived risk from coyotes. Data were obtained from a mail survey of residents in the Greater Chicago Metropolitan Region during 2012 (n = 1,624, response rate = 34%). As pr...
A variety of problems are associated with wild pigs (Sus scrofa; e.g., crop damage, habitat destruction, transfer of infectious diseases to livestock). We contrasted stakeholder attitudes and beliefs toward wild pigs in 2 U.S. states: 1 with a long-established, widespread population of wild pigs (GA) and 1 with a recently established limited popula...
Although, there have been several studies in the US examining the financial impact of wild pigs, this presentation will present comparisons across several states of damage attributable to wild pigs. This presentation will compare financial damage across states and also examine public attitudes about wild pigs and control activities undertaken by th...
Wild pigs are an invasive species across North America, causing widespread ecological damage. Wild
pigs are present in the state of Illinois, USA, but populations are lower than those in most other
states. These lower levels are due in part to aggressive management actions and the later arrival of
pigs in the state compared to, for example, those f...
Management to reduce the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in northern Illinois includes a controversial sharpshooting program. A mail survey of northern Illinois deer hunters was conducted (n = 3,391, response rate = 58%) to examine support or opposition toward this program, and factors contributing to these reactions. Logistic regression re...
