Varying Interest in Wildlife with Different Characteristics of Countryside Visitors

Abstract

A total of 2,816 questionnaires were completed in the Dalby Forest Area in the period from March 1975 to March 1976. The answers to six questions were combined into a Wildlife Interest Index Value for each interviewee (Everett, 1977). The variations in the mean of this value are considered to indicate the wildlife interest of visitors in groups based on the following characteristics: income, occupation, age, party size, the visitors' attitude to the number of people present, their membership of wildlife organizations, the elements of the area that the visitors enjoyed, their activities, the benefits that the interviewees felt from visiting the area, the components of the area that were necessary to their enjoyment, the number of times that they visited the Dalby Forest Area per year, the day of the week, the month, the weather, the location of the interview, and the relationship to the visitor's home.