Visitor attitudes toward and knowledge of restored bobcats on Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia.

Abstract

Effective management of our National Park Service lands requires information about the social aspects or human dimensions of wildlife. Understanding attitudes aids fish and wildlife professionals to predict public responses to management strategies like species restorations. We documented visitor attitudes toward and knowledge of restored bobcats (Lynx rubus) on Cumberland Island National Seashore (CINS). Bobcats were restored on CINS in 1988 and 1989. During fall 1997, we compared 4 visitor user-groups (white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) hunters IDH), day-only (DO) visitors, developed-site (DS) campers, and back-country (BC) campers) con- cerning their attitudes and knowledge, using a self-administeredt drop-off question- naire distributed on return ferries and at island campsites. We contacted 1,138 indi- viduals. Overall response rate was 82.6%. Across 4 visitor user-groups, the mean atti- tude-toward-restored-bobcat score was 0.8, with a range of -18 to 16. A positive score represented a positive attitude, and a negative score represented a negative attitude. Zero represented neutrality. Deer hunters had a statistically less positive mean atti- tude score (-0.1) than the 3 other visitor user-groups. Overall mean score for knowl- edge-of-bobcats was 3.8 out of a perfect score of 10.0. Deer hunters had a statisti- cally greater mean knowledge score iS.1) than the 3 other visitor user-groups. Thust our results indicated that visitor attitudes toward and knowledge of bobcats on CINS differed among the 4 visitor user-groups. Wildlife interpretive and education pro- grams should be specifically targeted to address the differences in attitudes and knowledge among visitor user-groups.