Exploring Mountain Hikers' Wildlife Value Orientations and Disturbance of Birds of Prey: A Case Study from Norway.

Simple Summary: Outdoor recreationists might intentionally or unintentionally disturb birds or other wildlife. To better understand the unintended disturbance by mountain hikers of golden eagle breeding sites in a Norwegian national park, we studied hikers' willingness to accept measures to reduce their disturbance. Most of the hikers indicated that they were willing to change behaviors to avoid disturbing wildlife (or eagle breeding). By investigating the basic values towards wildlife among the hikers (e.g., to what extent they prioritized human interests over those of wildlife), we showed that people who cared more for wildlife tended to accept stricter measures and were more willing to change their behaviors. If the hikers had known beforehand that they could disturb wildlife, it is likely that many would have avoided the trip in periods of eagle breeding. Yet, there were some differences depending on peoples' values. Having knowledge of peoples' wildlife value orientations is therefore useful when aiming to manage human–wildlife interactions more sustainably. Wildlife value orientations (WVOs) are useful for gaining knowledge about how humans' relationship to nature, wildlife, and management differs between groups in society. Our study investigated the level of acceptance for the implementation of measures to avoid the disturbance of golden eagles among hikers with different WVOs. Our results indicated differences between WVO typologies regarding how they assessed the consequences of outdoor recreation on nature and wildlife, as well as measures to manage human traffic. These findings contributed to confirming our hypotheses that peoples' WVOs have an impact on how people assess wildlife and the natural environment, and that WVOs affect the acceptance of management measures. This study concluded that identifying and studying visitors' WVOs contributes to understanding the underlying dimensions that influence peoples' attitudes and behavior. WVOs has not been studied in a Norwegian context previously, and this study contributes new knowledge that is useful for managing human–wildlife relations in more sustainable ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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