Through a 2021 AFWA MultiState Conservation Grant, Virginia Tech and the AFWA Wildlife Viewing and Nature Tourism Working Group conducted national and state level surveys to gather more data on wildlife viewers. This dataset is from the nationwide survey.
Wildlife viewing is among the fastest growing outdoor recreation activities in the United States, with significant implications for the work of fish and wildlife agencies. Wildlife viewers are those who intentionally observe, feed, or photograph wildlife; travel to parks, protected areas, or other natural spaces with the purpose of feeding, observing, or photographing wildlife; and those who maintain plantings or natural areas for the benefit of wildlife. To better understand wildlife viewers in the United States, the Dayer Lab at Virginia Tech in collaboration with the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Wildlife Viewing and Nature Tourism Working Group conducted a survey of more than 4,000 wildlife viewers nationwide. The study fills an important knowledge gap for wildlife agencies and illuminates how to better engage this broad constituency of wildlife recreationists, increasing agency relevancy to a wider array of people who enjoy the outdoors.
This survey was conducted in Qualtrics in summer 2021.
Publisher
University Libraries, Virginia TechCorresponding Author Name
Ashley DayerFiles/Folders in Dataset and Description
[National Results of the Wildlife Viewer Survey - Dataset] - Online survey data and survey instrument to accompany the report National and Regional Results of the Wildlife Viewer Survey: Enhancing Relevancy and Engaging Support from a Broader Constituency (2023) by Sinkular et al. Report accessible at http://hdl.handle.net/10919/111539. This online survey was conducted in summer 2021 via Qualtrics. All 4,030 survey respondents were over the age of 18, and reported participating in wildlife viewing (defined as closely observing, photographing, or feeding wildlife, maintaining plantings or habitat for the benefit of wildlife, or taking trips to parks or other natural areas with the purpose of observing, feeding, or photographing wildlife) in the past five years. The survey was conducted with approval from the Virginia Tech Institutional Review Board (Protocol #20-1018).
[2021 Multistate Wildlife Viewer Survey National Dataset Variable Guide.xlsx] - Codebook containing answer options for questions in survey instrument, in .xlxs format.
[2021 Multistate Wildlife Viewer National Survey.pdf] - Survey instrument containing all questions asked in pdf.
[2021 Multistate Wildlife Viewer National Dataset.csv] - Comma-separated value (CSV) file containing 4,030 individual and de-identified survey results.
[2021 Multistate Wildlife Viewer National Dataset.sav] - SPSS Data File (SAV) containing 4,030 individual and de-identified survey results.
