A COMPARISON OF ATTITUDES HELD BY BLM BIOLOGISTS AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC TOWARDS ANIMALS

Abstract

Wildlife professionals have the difficult responsibility of making management decisions that are acceptable to publics with a diversity of needs and preferences. This role requires an understanding of perceptions held by various publics and may be more difficult when professionals do not share the publics' values and attitudes. Natural resource employees often have different preferences than the general public. For instance, campsite quality is rated differently by managers and by campers (Lucas 1970). Foresters have many misconceptions about the characteristics, attitudes, and preferences of wilderness users (Hendee and Harris 1970). Misconceptions about public needs and preferences may lead to decisions that reflect professional preferences, thereby affecting the benefits of natural resource management to clients. Such a process has existed in management of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (Peterson 1974), where values of canoeists were not considered when formulating policy. Public involvement procedures were needed to promote mutual understanding between professionals and canoeists. Some wildlife managers have values different from hunters and nonconsumptive wildlife recreationists. Idaho hunters had different preferences than employees of the Fish and Game Department (Bjorn 1975). Values between bird-watchers and traditional wildlife managers also differ (Shaw 1980). The current paper investigates the values held by wildlife biologists of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) relative to those of the general public. METHODS