PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS AND VALUATION OF WILDLIFE IN THE U.S.

Chapter 1: Currently there is no hunting or trapping season on bobcats in Indiana. While a season is being considered by wildlife administrators, there is no basis for establishing a price or understanding potential demand for this species. We use contingent valuation to estimate furbearer hunter and trapper willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a hypothetical bobcat harvest permit in Indiana, USA. Using a mail survey of 2000 randomly selected Indiana registered hunters and trappers, we presented respondents with a description of a hypothetical harvest season, including season dates, equipment restrictions, check-in procedures, counties open for the legal harvest, bag limit (the number of animals that can be legally harvested per individual), and statewide quota (the number of animals that can be legally harvested in aggregate). Following the description, respondents were asked a single-bounded dichotomous choice question about purchasing the proposed permit. By applying the Turnbull estimation method to our collected data, we estimate mean WTP of $21.73 for the proposed permit. Our estimates are sensitive to scope effects, which may be linked to perceived congestion: if hunters believe the bag limit may not be filled, WTP may actually decrease with the bag limit due to perceived congestion, necessitating the simultaneous examination of the bag limit and statewide quota.

Chapter 2: One Health initiatives employed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention place emphasis on the interconnectedness of animals, people, plants, and the environment. As new disease threats emerge, the interactions of humans and animals with their environments becomes increasingly important. Deer represent a large, prolific, and suitable host for several diseases that are potentially threatening in the One Health context. Previous works have studied deer-related diseases, such as Bovine tuberculosis and Lyme Disease, and examined risks of transmission in households of varying compositions, such as with and without pets or children. However, research quantifying public perceptions of deer and their role(s) in modern society is lacking. Our research applies social media listening to study perceptions of deer among the general U.S. population through volume (number of mentions) and assessment of tone, in terms of positivity versus negativity (analyzed as online media net sentiment). We study media about five prominent deer-related diseases from January 2018 through December 2021 and demonstrate that while aggregate mentions of the deer diseases we study compose a small proportion of total mentions for deer, net sentiment surrounding outbreaks reflects the seriousness of the health consequences these present. Additionally, we explain fluctuations in deer-disease mentions and net sentiment through real-world events, and demonstrate seasonality in mentions and net sentiment for some diseases of interest. Better understanding of public perceptions of the roles of wildlife, particularly deer who are generally perceived as non-threatening wildlife, is particularly important in today’s One Health context.

Chapter 3: The presence of deer in shared environments with humans may result in both positive and negative affinity towards deer. While literature shows deer-related damages to humans and their property, literature also suggests that deer are a way for humans to connect with nature. Managing deer populations is vital to balancing the positive and negative impacts of deer. Currently, hunting is the most cost-effective way to manage deer populations. We are interested in how hunting impacts the affinity for deer, in addition to how the COVID-19 pandemic plays a role in the perception of deer. Online media posts were analyzed using a social media listening platform, NetBase, for the time period of January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2021. Volume of mentions and affinity via net sentiment were collected at the state level on a weekly basis, and the national level on a daily basis. We utilize an OLS regression with dummies for deer hunting season and COVID at the state level to determine the impacts of hunting seasons and the pandemic on net sentiment. We find that deer hunting being open negatively impacts net sentiment of deer. We utilize Pearson correlations to study the impact of deer management via OTC deer hunting privilege issuance in relation to affinity for deer. We find that OTC privilege issuance is positively correlated with affinity for deer in some states, but the impact on affinity may diminish over time.