A chance to participate in a new study on carnivore conservation and management

March 14, 2011 — Ralph Maughan

We are posting this intriguing research effort by Dr. Jeremy Bruskotter. You are invited to participate.

Readers of the Wildlife News:

My colleagues and I are preparing a nationwide survey to help us better understand people’s preferences for large carnivore conservation and management.  In particular, we are interested in understanding the attitudes and policy preferences of people who are knowledgeable and/or care deeply about these issues (if you’re reading this, you fit that description).

The survey consists of questions designed to assess your attitudes and preferences concerning large carnivore conservation, endangered species restoration, and gray wolf management.  If this topic interests you, we could really use your help!  The questionnaire should take you about 10 to 15 minutes to complete.

You can take the survey here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XKZ8PCL
(More information is provided if you follow the link)

Thank you for your interest!

Jeremy Bruskotter, PhD
School of Environment & Natural Resources, The Ohio State University

Contact: 614/247-2118

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , , . 33 Comments »

33 Responses to “A chance to participate in a new study on carnivore conservation and management”

  1. Mooseboy Says:
    March 14, 2011 at 4:00 PM

    Fantastic survey, I highly recommend it to those who are both for and against large carnivores(in particular wolves).

    • JB Says:
      March 14, 2011 at 4:36 PM

      Thank you! And thanks again to Ralph and company.

      I want to let folks know that I will send Ralph the summarized results of this survey (i.e., means and frequency distributions) to help him better understand the views of the readers of the Wildlife News. The other data will be used to help us develop measures for the upcoming survey.

      For those few social scientists lurking about–we will definitely not be making any claims about any particular population (beyond the readers of wildlife blogs, anyway). 😉

      Thanks again for participating!

      Jeremy Bruskotter

      • Phil Says:
        March 14, 2011 at 6:09 PM

        JB: I am a lifer of hating Ohio State, as I am a Michigan man (Go Blue). But, this was an excellent questionnaire. Thank you for making it.

      • JB Says:
        March 14, 2011 at 6:48 PM

        Phil: I grew up in Michigan and attended three Michigan Universities for my undergraduate degree (CMU, FSU, & WMU). Fortunately for me, I was never a football fan so the transition really wasn’t a problem. 😉

        Thanks for participating!

      • Phil Says:
        March 14, 2011 at 7:34 PM

        No problem JB.

      • Ralph Maughan Says:
        March 15, 2011 at 11:48 AM

        JB,

        We will appreciate that. I had thought of doing a web survey of our readers/participants. This will certainly be much better.

      • JB Says:
        March 15, 2011 at 12:11 PM

        Thanks, Ralph. Just checked and we now have 237 responses and climbing. Thanks again to everyone who has contributed!

  2. Immer Treue Says:
    March 14, 2011 at 7:19 PM

    JB,

    It will be interesting to see the results. Thanks for the opportunity.

  3. Doryfun Says:
    March 15, 2011 at 7:56 AM

    I too will find it interesting to see the results, specially when I am wondering how researchers are determining who is knowledgable enough about wolves, to send the survey to. Even trying to determine the level of interest one has for the subject seems pretty subjective. So, as a matter of curiosity, I am wondering (and guessing) if this survey is just directed at the extremes from both sides, and where are those people selected from?? And if so, how does this reflect the public at large? or is it applicable to such? And does it matter?

    I also found the questions involving all the emoti-cons with a range of facial expressions and corresponding feelings they represented, quite hard to answer.

    Social science is interesting in itself.

    • JB Says:
      March 15, 2011 at 8:13 AM

      Thanks, Doryfun. The intent of this portion of the study is to reach a motivated and/or knowledgeable group of individuals. Note, although we do have some items designed to assess factual knowledge about wolves, we are more interested in people who are knowledgeable about the wolf issue (we also have included items to assess issue importance).

      The survey definitely does NOT reflect the broader public, most of whom are uninformed about these issues. As you have guessed, we expect people who encounter and answer this survey to be on the extremes of the issue–in fact, that was one reason why we wanted to recruit on blogs. I don’t want to say too much more for fear of biasing people who choose to fill out the questionnaire; however, if Ralph permits, I will include a detailed summary of study objectives and hypotheses once we close out the study.

      Also, if anyone knows of people who have strong views about these issues (i.e., carnivore/wolf conservation and endangered species restoration), please feel free to pass the link along via email.

      • Doryfun Says:
        March 15, 2011 at 10:09 AM

        Thanks JB,
        For the clarifications and hopefully Ralph with ok the detailed summary, later on. Will be interesting. Will that include info like how many radicals on both extremes participated in the survey?

      • JB Says:
        March 16, 2011 at 10:49 AM

        I’ll let Ralph Determine what he wants to post here. However, we will be running some analyses over the next few months and I promise to update here once we’re reasonably confident in our results–and our interpretation.

      • Ralph Maughan Says:
        March 16, 2011 at 11:08 AM

        We will be very generous posting JB’s results

  4. Virginia Says:
    March 15, 2011 at 8:44 AM

    I could not get past the point of 33% completion. Wonder what I did wrong?

  5. Virginia Says:
    March 15, 2011 at 11:14 AM

    Thanks for the tip – I was able to complete the survey. It was quite interesting!

    • JB Says:
      March 15, 2011 at 11:44 AM

      Great, we are desperately short on female respondents!

      • Virginia Says:
        March 15, 2011 at 12:30 PM

        That seems strange to me!

      • Woody Says:
        March 15, 2011 at 1:38 PM

        I had problems early in the survey at the point after the first “what is your opinion” position, backed up, hit the next a few times, and eventually it went on from there with no problem; when finished, I used the “back” in the survey to return to the beginning to fill in the early questions as they had been wiped out up to the original glitch.

  6. Rick Hammel Says:
    March 15, 2011 at 11:40 AM

    Great survey! I will be interested in seeing the results. The results should be made available to all of the US Congress

  7. JB Says:
    March 15, 2011 at 11:46 AM

    Just wanted to mention that if anybody has ideas for additional items to include in the final mail survey, please let me know!

  8. JB Says:
    March 19, 2011 at 6:11 PM

    I just checked and we have over 700 people who began the survey, almost 600 completed surveys. I never expected that kind of response… Thanks to all who participated! I will post results, as soon as we’ve got things sorted out.

    Cheers,

    JB

  9. vickif Says:
    March 23, 2011 at 7:48 AM

    I know your gearing this toward carnivores. The question presented about economic loss was good to include. But it might be advantageous to include a few questions regarding “if preventative measures were take”, is in then appropriate to take lethal action.
    The verbage about removal might be a tad more specific, or perhaps a question…should they be relocated, or exterminated, should be included. Most of us here know there is really not much diversion when it comes to wolves., or middle ground action.

    I think what is done to protect private property, and pets, should impact action taken.
    Just a suggestion. But I was impressed with the varietu offered in the questions and the fact that social and familia impact was examined.

  10. vickif Says:
    March 23, 2011 at 7:52 PM

    JB,
    Wow, I should NEVER type without my glasses on. So, I apologize for all my typos.


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