Habitat preferences of ptarmigan hunters in Norway

Hunting for willow ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus) is a popular recreational activity in Norway, but studies of the hunters are limited. While large game management in Norway is based on sound models and research, management of small game hunters and hunting have not been subject to the same rigour. Compared to the extensive body of knowledge about ptarmigan behaviour and habitat preferences, the knowledge base on ptarmigan hunters is very limited. We surveyed the habitat preferences of 3,056 hunters to identify preferred landscape categories using pictures covering a range of landscape types. We also examined to which extent residence types and forms of hunting were related to habitat preferences. Through factor analysis, we identified three categories of hunting habitat; mountain forest, low alpine and high alpine. Mode of hunting is more important than residence status in terms of preferred habitat. Hunters using dogs preferred mountain forest and low alpine habitats more than hunters without dogs. Hunters without dogs had a higher preference than dog hunters for high alpine habitats. Hunters with mixed modes of hunting have wider habitat preferences. Residence status only affects the perception of the mountain forest habitat. The results may have implications for management as land use and place-based meanings are currently changing in many natural and rural landscapes, and hunting needs to be integrated with other recreational uses.     

Big game hunting in New Zealand: per capita effort,harvest and expenditure in 2011–2012

Recreational big game hunters make a significant contribution to conservation through kills of deer, pigs, chamois and tahr. New opportunities for managing recreational hunting through the proposed Game Animal Council underscore the need to understand the implications of potential changes in recreational hunting participation and harvests. Based on a survey of hunters' recall over a year, hunters averaged 15.63 (SEM = 0.58) big game hunts per year, spending 30.53 (SEM = 0.85) days hunting and killing 8.92 (SEM = 0.69) big game animals. Hunters commonly targeted several species on a single hunt, with highly skewed distributions for hunter effort and kills. Mean monthly expenditure on big game hunting items was $296.78 (SEM = $8.95). Results demonstrate that big game hunting is a significant activity in New Zealand, but this varies considerably among hunters with a small number responsible for the vast majority of kills. These are important considerations for future big game hunting management.     

Big-game,small-game,and gamebird hunting in New Zealand: Hunting effort,harvest, and expenditure in 1988

Abstract

A postal survey of 8639 licensed firearm owners in 1989 indicated that an estimated 117 200 ± 6300 New Zealanders (3.5% of the total population) did some hunting in 1988. An estimated 33 100 former hunters did not hunt in 1988 but thought it likely that they would hunt again in future. The survey provided useful estimates of 1988 national totals for hunting effort (4.4 million hunter days), gross expenditure ($NZ100 million), and harvest (6.5 million animals).

Small-game hunting dominated, involving 81% of hunters, 59% of total hunting effort, and 86% of total numerical harvest: rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) each comprised 40% of the national bag. Gamebird hunting involved 48% of hunters, 19% of effort, and 11% of total harvest: ducks comprised 73% of the gamebird harvest. Although big-game hunting attracted the fewest hunters (42%) it ranked second for hunting effort (21%). Big game formed 3% of the total numerical harvest: pigs (Sus scrofa), goats (Capra hircus), and red deer (Cervus elaphus scoticus) were the most commonly taken. Big-game were estimated to comprise 49% of total harvest biomass, followed by small-game (47%), and gamebirds (4%). Most deer (nearly 60%) were taken for recreation, with helicopter-based hunting accounting for only one-third the total deer harvest.

A quarter of those people hunting in 1988 hunted on five or fewer days that year, and a relatively small group of mainly professional hunters accounted for a disproportionately large share of the overall harvest Hunters reported spending an average of $851 each on hunting in 1988. Expenditure on big-game comprised 44% of the total, small-game 23%, and gamebirds 33%. Expenditure per animal harvested or per day hunted was greater for big-game animals (other than goats) than for gamebirds, which were more expensive to hunt than small-game. Total hunting effort was inversely related to the average expenditure per animal harvested, regardless of the type of game.     

Is hunting large carnivores different from hunting ungulates? Some judgments made by Norwegian hunters

The increase in large carnivore populations in a number of European countries causes numerous social conflicts and populations need to be kept at levels that are acceptable to the public. This may eventually require opening up or increasing public hunting of species like bear, wolf, wolverines and lynx as a management strategy. We surveyed a sample of 672 Norwegian hunters to examine how they judged a set of dilemmas associated with hunting carnivores versus ungulates. More than one-half of the sample would like to maintain or increase the current population sizes of the large carnivores (for wolverines: 57.5%; bears: 65.6%; wolves: 66.1%; lynx: 59.6%). A large majority of hunters (85.5%) emphasise not stressing the game over securing success in killing game, require adequate shooting skills (87.7%), linking harvest strategies to ecological principles (79.5%) rather than the level of conflict, and sustainable wildlife populations (95.1%) over optimum economic yield. Carnivore hunting is associated with a stronger preference for quotas based on science rather than local knowledge as well as paying more attention to the conflict level, compared to the judgments made for ungulate hunting. Positive attitudes toward maintaining or increasing carnivore populations are associated with a concern for animal welfare, and faith in scientific information, ecological values and sustainable wildlife populations.     

The optimal foraging theory, crowding and Swedish grouse hunters

Hunters that have options to hunt in different areas should evaluate their previous hunting success when they decide where to hunt. Following optimal foraging theory for non-human predators, we investigated if hunting success and density of other hunters on the hunting area will affect the probability of return to the same area, and if such behavioural changes will result in a higher hunting success compared to hunters that change to a new area. For this purpose, we used detailed information about willow grouse (Lagopus lagopus) hunters on state-owned land in Sweden. We found support for the optimal foraging theory application on grouse hunters’ behavioural changes according to hunting success. The return rate increased with increasing hunting success, and hunters that returned to the same area also increased their success compared to hunters that changed to a new area. Only one third of the hunters returned to the same area the subsequent year. We also found a negative effect of density of hunters in an area on hunters’ return rates and their hunting success, suggesting crowding among Swedish grouse hunters.     

Behind the economics of hunting in Andalusian forests

Hunting in Spain represents an imperfect market in which some hunters pay a price that is below what would be paid or they simply do not pay a market price. This article evidences the welfare that hunting activities provide to hunters in the forests of southern Spain. To do so, a contingent valuation survey of 557 hunters was conducted, and their maximum willingness to pay (WTP) to maintain their hunting activity over a hunting season was obtained. Bids were established according to the individual expenditure in the hunting market, thereby incorporating heterogeneity into the very design of the valuation exercise. The results show an additional WTP of 212 euros per hunter during the 2009–2010 hunting season, meaning 24% above their actual mean expenditure during that season. Likewise, the research shows how small game hunters are the ones who, in relative terms, would be willing to pay more for the hunting services.     

Attitudes of Missouri Small Game Hunters Toward Nontoxic-Shot Regulations

ABSTRACT Wildlife managers are becoming more concerned about the exposure of birds, in addition to waterfowl, to spent lead shot. Knowledge of hunter attitudes and their acceptance of nontoxic-shot regulations will be important in establishing new regulations. Our objective was to assess the attitudes of small game hunters in Missouri, USA, toward a nontoxic-shot regulation for small game hunting, specifically for mourning doves (Zenaida macroura). Most hunters (71.7–84.8%) opposed additional nontoxic-shot regulations. Hunters from rural areas, hunters with a rural background, hunters who hunt doves, hunters who currently hunt waterfowl, hunters who primarily use private lands, and current upland game hunters were more likely to oppose new regulations. For mourning dove hunting, most small game hunters (81.1%) opposed further restrictions; however, many non-dove hunters (57.1%) expressed no opinion. Because our results demonstrate that most small game hunters and dove hunters in Missouri are decidedly against further nontoxic-shot regulations, any informational and educational programs developed to accompany future policy changes must address their concerns.     

Hunting income patterns among the Hadza: big game, common goods, foraging goals and the evolution of the human diet.

The assumption that large mammal hunting and scavenging are economically advantageous to hominid foragers is examined in the light of data collected among the Hadza of northern Tanzania. Hadza hunters disregard small prey in favour of larger forms (mean adult mass greater than or equal to 40 kg). Here we report experimental data showing that hunters would reduce their mean rates if they included small animals in the array they target. Still, daily variance in large animal hunting returns is high, and the risk of failure correspondingly great, significantly greater than that associated with small game hunting and trapping. Sharing large kills reduces the risk of meatless days for big game hunters, and obviates the problem of storing large amounts of meat. It may be unavoidable if large carcasses cannot be defended economically against the demands of other consumers. If so, then large prey are common goods. A hunter may gain no consumption advantage from his own big game acquisition efforts. We use Hadza data to model this 'collective action' problem, and find that an exclusive focus on large game with extensive sharing is not the optimal strategy for hunters concerned with maximizing their own chances of eating meat. Other explanations for the emergence and persistence of this practice must be considered.     

Hunting as a Source of Local and Traditional Ecological Knowledge among Campesinos in Nicaragua

Campesinos are the most numerous hunters in Latin America. Yet, local and traditional knowledge (LTK) among campesinos about hunting is often invisible to conservationists who perceive them as nonindigenous or illegal hunters. Moreover, research and methods for accessing campesino hunting LTK are limited in theory and practice. Conservationists therefore know little about campesinos’ cultural understandings of hunting. We assessed the LTK of Nicaraguan campesinos to determine whether they shared cultural hunting knowledge. Through 11 months of ethnographic fieldwork, an ethnoecology framework, and cultural consensus analysis, we found that campesino hunting LTK was shared across the study community. This knowledge extended from a worldview that emphasized subsistence and hunting secrets to ensure bountiful harvests, expressed through folk taxonomies, hunting strategies, campesino-dog relationships, and preparation of hunted animals. Campesino hunting LTK emerged from campesino culture, yielding numerous implications for conservation in Latin America.

     

Household and Kin Provisioning by Hadza Men

We use data collected among Hadza hunter-gatherers between 2005 and 2009 to examine hypotheses about the causes and consequences of men’s foraging and food sharing. We find that Hadza men foraged for a range of food types, including fruit, honey, small animals, and large game. Large game were shared not like common goods, but in ways that significantly advantaged producers’ households. Food sharing and consumption data show that men channeled the foods they produced to their wives, children, and their consanguineal and affinal kin living in other households. On average, single men brought food to camp on 28% of days, married men without children at home on 31% of days, and married men with children at home on 42% of days. Married men brought fruit, the least widely shared resource, to camp significantly more often than single men. A model of the relationship between hunting success and household food consumption indicates that the best hunters provided 3–4 times the amount of food to their families than median or poor hunters. These new data fill important gaps in our knowledge of the subsistence economy of the Hadza and uphold predictions derived from the household and kin provisioning hypotheses. Key evidence and assumptions backing prior claims that Hadza hunting is largely a form of status competition were not replicated in our study. In light of this, family provisioning is a more viable explanation for why good hunters are preferred as husbands and have higher fertility than others.     

Diverse University Students Across the United States Reveal Promising Pathways to Hunter Recruitment and Retention

Declining participation in hunting, especially among young adult hunters, affects the ability of state and federal agencies to achieve goals for wildlife management and decreases revenue for conservation. For wildlife agencies hoping to engage diverse audiences in hunter recruitment, retention, and reactivation (R3) efforts, university settings provide unique advantages: they contain millions of young adults who are developmentally primed to explore new activities, and they cultivate a social atmosphere where new identities can flourish. From 2018 to 2020, we surveyed 17,203 undergraduate students at public universities across 22 states in the United States to explore R3 potential on college campuses and assess key demographic, social, and cognitive correlates of past and intended future hunting behavior. After weighting to account for demographic differences between our sample and the larger student population, 29% of students across all states had hunted in the past. Students with previous hunting experience were likely to be white, male, from rural areas or hunting families, and pursuing degrees related to natural resources. When we grouped students into 1 of 4 categories with respect to hunting (i.e., non-hunters [50%], potential hunters [22%], active hunters [26%], and lapsed hunters [3%]), comparisons revealed differences based on demographic attributes, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Compared to active hunters, potential hunters were more likely to be females or racial and ethnic minorities, and less likely to experience social support for hunting. Potential hunters valued game meat and altruistic reasons for hunting, but they faced unique constraints due to lack of hunting knowledge and skills. Findings provide insights for marketing and programming designed to achieve R3 objectives with a focus on university students. © 2021 The Wildlife Society.     

Promoting hunting tourism in north Sweden: opinions of local hunters

Hunting tourism can help to diversify local economies in rural areas. In northern Sweden, hunting tourism has the potential to counteract outmigration and unemployment, but may entail ecological and social risks. I used a mail survey of 2,110 hunters in rural northern Sweden to assess attitudes toward hunting tourism. Respondents emphasized the importance of hunting to maintain economical, social, and cultural values in the rural areas. Most hunters estimated that game contributed equal or larger amount of meat to their household than meat bought commercially. Few respondents had first hand experience of hunting tourism and they were divided on their attitude towards promoting hunting tourism. Many (46%) were uncertain about their attitude towards hunting tourism; 36% were positive and 18% were negative. Ethical values on using wildlife in hunting tourism and the attitude towards new hunters coming to hunt influenced attitudes on development of hunting tourism. Hunters that were positive to hunting tourism believed that it would create new jobs. Because hunting in Sweden is highly organized and collective, there are no models of hunting tourism adapted to the hunting culture in northern Sweden. The uncertainty of the potential local benefits from a development of hunting tourism should be placed within a research framework, especially in the northernmost parts where governmental undertakings are large and the state can influence land use.     

Attitudes of Norwegian ptarmigan hunters towards hunting goals and harvest regulations: the effects of environmental orientation

Ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus) hunting has long traditions in Norway. It is often assumed that hunters are more consumptively and less conservation oriented than other recreational groups. Considering the large numbers of hunters and the popularity of the sport it is more likely that hunters value both consumptive and appreciative aspects and represent diversity in their concern for the environment. In this study we surveyed 2,717 ptarmigan hunters to examine environmental orientation, and the effects of environmental orientation on different management regulations. Results showed that environmental concern is a discriminating factor for how the hunters rate hunting goals, harvest regulation measures, and acceptance of protecting parts of the bird populations in refuges. Increasing environmental concern is positively correlated with higher acceptance of regulatory management actions aimed at preserving the resource. Socio-demographic variables had limited effect on the relationship between environmental concern and attitudes toward management. Small game management needs to balance consumptive and appreciative experience dimensions, and degree of environmental orientation may be an indicator of acceptance of management actions.     

Hunting, social status and biological fitness

Hunting performance may be one of the most important routes to high prestige or social status among men in hunter-gatherer societies. Higher social status based on hunting performance has been linked to higher biological fitness outcomes almost everywhere this relationship has been investigated. This paper explores the proximate pathways underlying the positive correlation between hunting success and fitness, and discusses these in light of recent debates concerning the role of men in hunter-gatherer societies. Meat obtained from hunting directly provisions families and is also distributed to other group members, who may directly or indirectly pay back good hunters with meat, other food, services or favors. The display of hunting abilities may also increase men's fitness through extra-marital reproductive gains. We discuss prior results and provide a novel additional example using data collected among Tsimane horticultural-foragers of Bolivia. Despite the impression that most of the benefits that accrue to good hunters are in the form of extra-marital mating opportunities, we argue instead that most benefits may be gained within rather than outside marital unions.     

From opportunism to nascent conservation

Siona-Secoya hunters of the northwest Amazon strive to maximize short-term yields to provision their households with meat. The observed patterns of hunting more closely resemble the predictions of optimal foraging theory (OFT) than they do a conservation ethic. In the past the Siona-Secoya worried little about conservation because they believed that good shamans attracted abundant game. When hunting was poor, shamans performedyagé ceremonies and appealed to supernatural gamekeepers for the release of more animals from the underworld. The sustainability of Siona-Secoya hunting was aided by factors such as low human population density, dispersed settlements within large hunting territories, settlement movement, and limited hunting technology. Today, increasing involvement in the national economy is leading the Siona-Secoya to invest more time in agriculture and wage labor, and less in traditional foraging activities. Colonization, deforestation, and industrial pollution now pose the greatest threats to wildlife in eastern Ecuador. Because of these changes, the Siona-Secoya are becoming interested in environmental protection and conservation. Several of their efforts to protect forest resources and mitigate pollution are discussed and evaluated.     

Spirit and practical knowledge in the person of the bear among Wemindji Cree hunters

The multi-vocality of the black bear as a categoryin Cree hunting entails a melding of practical-empiricalrationality with ethicaland ‘spiritual’ understandings. On one level of attention in the hunter's world, the bear functions as a postulate in indigenous scientific ecology. It does so by assimilating the consequences of both efficiency and restraint in hunting, as hunters strive to maintain good relationships with others in the world (summarized and abstracted in the bear). At the same time, reflection on these issues via the bear as a spiritual ‘alter-’ endows hunters with profound senses of identity, value and personal meaning, so that action in the world is at once practical, social, ethical, and self-motivated. This outcome is a combination of cultural learning and life experience. As the weft of experience entwines the warp of culturally available categories, narrative is the weaver.     

Subsistence hunting and conservation issues in the game reserve of Gile, Mozambique

Ethnozoological research was conducted to gather information on the hunting activities and their relevance for the subsistence of local people in 8 villages around the game reserve of Gile, Mozambique. Two series of data were gathered by questionnaires to: (a) 510 householders from eight villages located in the outskirts of the Reserve; (b) 10 hunters from the village of Gile, the main centre of the study area. Several hunting techniques were recorded: spears, nets, traps (including gin-traps) and wildfires, while the use of guns did not appear relevant. The importance of subsistence hunting for local people was underlined by the high percentage of respondents who declared that they usually conduct this activity and sell bushmeat. The proportion of hunters per village was related to the village size but not to its geographical location of villages and the household composition. A positive relationship existed between the proportion of hunters, crop production and fishing activities, indicating that hunting is part of an integrated system of subsistence activities. Most animals harvested were mammals (89.5%, of which 46.7% were ungulates) and most were captured within the Reserve (96%). A higher percentage of animals was sold (56%), representing a relevant income source for the villagers. Small animals were mainly captured by traps during solitary hunting, medium-sized animals in collective net hunting; larger prey were captured by gin-traps adopted by both solitary and collective hunting. In the diet of the local people wild animals represented a higher protein source than domestic animals.     

Games as experiments to understand why wildlife devaluation may not reduce the number killed

Illegal hunting and trade might be reduced by devaluing the commodities of live animals. However, theory and anecdote suggest that the tactic’s success depends on the proportion devalued and may also generate unintuitive and counter-productive outcomes. Unfortunately, the difficulty of researching criminals limits empirical and experimental tests of theory and practice. We overcame those constraints by designing and conducting a competitive game; simulating criminal hunting of protected wildlife where the proportion of animals devalued across a meta-population increases at a cost to investment in security. We conducted 33 games each with 10 different volunteers from the public visiting five public events (fairs, gala, and carnivals) in different communities of the Wellington metropolitan area, New Zealand. Games confirmed the relative effectiveness of security over devaluation tactics. Even moderate security protected the majority of commodities, but only when devaluation reached extraordinary levels (≥90%) was it protective, and even then only partially. When the risk of hunting is low, reduced rewards were enough to still motivate hunting. Games also revealed that when security and devaluation tactics are mixed across a meta-population, elevated risk caused hunters to revise their valuation of devalued commodities upwards and hunt and harvest them anyway. Counter-intuitively, more valuable devalued commodities were preserved but those of lesser value harvested, then sometimes discarded but at other times their value claimed. And lastly, hunters choose to take greater risks, shifting their activities to adjacent populations where the returns could be greater even though known to be better protected. The survival of wildlife in those populations deteriorated, even as the number of hunters caught increased. In all these ways, our games demonstrated how the addition of devaluation tactics to strategies for protecting wildlife can incentivise and exacerbate, rather than mitigate, the illegal hunting and trade of wildlife, consistent with theory and anecdote.     

Willow grouse bag size is more sensitive to variation in hunter effort than to variation in willow grouse density

Annual variation in harvested animals (hereafter bag size) is often used as an index of population abundance when investigating population dynamics. Few studies have evaluated how well bag size tracks population change despite its widespread use. Two recent studies on grouse harvest statistics have reached contrasting conclusions. Th ere is limited information about the functional response of hunters in relation to varying game densities, and effort is seldom recorded. We investigated how much of the variation in bag size (total number of harvested grouse km^?2) is explained by variation in willow grouse Lagopus lagopus density (adult and young grouse km^?2) and hunting eff ort (total number of hunting days km^?2). We also evaluated catch per unit effort (CPUE) as an index of grouse abundance, and estimated the response in harvest rate (total bag size in relation to total grouse density) to varying hunting effort. We used data from the 88 management areas on state land in Jämtland county, Sweden (1996–2007), where hunting days and bag size are recorded in detail. Willow grouse density was estimated in four of these management areas in August using line transects and distance sampling. The hunting effort and total grouse density explained most of the variation in bag size (R²= 0.89). Bag size was twice as sensitive to changes in hunting effort compared to changes in grouse density. More than a ten times change in the grouse population density was required to one unit change in bag size. The use of CPUE did not provide a better alternative index of grouse density, and variation in density only explained 23% of the variation in CPUE. Harvest rate showed a strong relationship with hunting effort, and we suggest that an upper limit in hunting effort can be used to reduce the risk of high harvest rates. Hunters became more efficient at low densities and controlling hunting effort is most important when there are indications of population lows and/or poor breeding. CPUE may be less sensitive to changes in game abundance than previously assumed, and bag size as a proxy for population density would then depend on the ability of hunters to adjust their effort according to population change. We speculate that this ability will depend on whether or not hunters have long‐term experience of a hunting area where they can return to hunt throughout the hunting season. We propose that recording hunting eff ort should be encouraged and possible correlations with game abundance and other factors such as weather should be investigated for game species.     

The hierarchy of virtue: mutualism, altruism and signaling in Martu women's cooperative hunting

Cooperative hunting is often assumed to be mutualistic, maintained through returns to scale, where, by working together, foragers can gain higher per capita return rates or harvest sizes than they can by hunting alone. We test this hypothesis among Martu hunters and find that cooperation only provides increased returns to poorer hunters while disadvantaging better hunters. Even so, better hunters still cooperate as frequently as poorer hunters. We ask whether better hunters are advantaged in secondary sharing distributions or whether they bias their partner choice to kin or household members. We find that better hunters are not more likely to pair up with kin and they do not gain consumption benefits from acquiring more. They share a greater proportion of their harvest than poorer hunters: no matter how much one produces — better hunter, worse hunter, cooperator, solitary hunter — all eat the same amount in the end. Such a result suggests the hypothesis that cooperation might be a costly signal of commitment to the public interest on the part of better hunters, which generates trust among camp members and facilitates strong social networks, particularly among women, who cooperate more than men. While some foragers may benefit through cooperation from returns to scale or risk reduction, others may benefit more through signaling commitment and generating trust.