The influence of self-assessed skill level on segmented hunting motivations in Alaska

Abstract

ABSTRACT Understanding hunting motivations across skill levels is useful for addressing the decline in hunting participation in North America and allows managers to target their recruitment and retention strategies to hunters with different skill levels. We used principal component analysis and ANOVA to explore similarities and differences between three self-assessed hunting skill levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced) in six motivations: (a) cultural traditions, (b) being outdoors, (c) challenge, (d) solitude, (e) social, and (f) meat. Our research illustrates that “cultural traditions” as a motivation construct plays an important role for Alaskan hunters. We found that advanced hunters were motivated primarily by cultural and social factors, thus emphasizing the need to focus on retention management strategies around these motivations. Hunting for meat was the most important motivation for intermediate hunters. For the motivations of being outdoors and challenge, there were no statistically significant differences between the three skill levels.