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

Effective management of our National Park Service lands requires informatio n about the social aspects or human dimensions of wildlife. Understanding a ttitudes aids fish and wildlife professionals to predict public responses t o management strategies like species restorations. We documented visitor at titudes toward and knowledge of restored bobcats (Lynx rufus) 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 de er [Odocoileus virginianus] hunters [DH], day-only [DO] visitors, developed -site [DS] campers, and back-country [BC] campers) concerning their attitud es and knowledge, using a self-administered, drop-off questionnaire distrib uted on return ferries and at island campsites. We contacted 1,138 individu als. Overall response rate was 82.6%. Across 4 visitor user-groups, the mea n attitude-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 rep resented a negative attitude. Zero represented neutrality. Deer hunters had a statistically less positive mean attitude score (-0.1) than the 3 other visitor user-groups. Overall mean score for knowledge-of-bobcats was 3.8 ou t of a perfect score of 10.0. Deer hunters had a statistically greater mean knowledge score (5.1) than the 3 other visitor user-groups. Thus, our resu lts indicated that visitor altitudes toward and knowledge of bobcats on CIN S differed among the 4 visitor user-groups. Wildlife interpretive and educa tion programs should be specifically targeted to address the differences in attitudes and knowledge among visitor user-groups.