Hunting behavior and wildlife value orientations of farmer-hunters

Abstract

ABSTRACT Hunting is a prevalent threat to wildlife conservation. Understanding hunting behavior and attitudes toward wildlife are instrumental to effective wildlife conservation. The concept of wildlife value orientation (WVO) presents an opportunity to understand how people value and want wildlife to be managed. Little attention has been given to how demographics influence wildlife value orientations with the hunting context. This article assessed hunting behavior and demographic dimensions of WVO of farmer-hunters. Using a survey, 140 respondents were sampled using convenience sampling. Differences in the important WVOs based on demographics were determined using independent-samples t-test and one-way between-groups ANOVA. Results indicated that farmers-hunters generally exhibit more of mutual belief orientation than domination orientation. There was a significant difference in value orientation based on education, indicating that education can influence the opportunity to actively engage them to support wildlife conservation.