Montanans’ Changing Attitudes Toward Wolves (2012 ‐ 2023)

Abstract

Many of the fundamental objectives guiding wolf management in Montana relate to the human dimensions, including maintaining positive working relationships, increasing public acceptance of harvest, and open and effective communication to inform decisions. To measure progress on these and other objectives, FWP and UM have partnered to conduct three large surveys of Montana residents overthe past 10 years to measure people’s attitudes toward wolves, theirtolerance of the species, satisfaction with wolf management and many other social variables.Here, we report results from the 2023 survey iteration (n=3,401; margin of error=+3.7%), including longitudinal data on how Montanans’ perspectives have shifted over time andcomparisons between general residents and some distinct groups including deer/elk hunters,wolf license holders, and large landowners. Results show that tolerance of wolves on the MT landscape has increased markedly for general residents, deer/elk hunters, and landowners while remaining stable for wolf hunters. In 2023, 74% of general residents were tolerant or very tolerant of wolves, up from 41% in 2012. Tolerance of wolf hunting has remained high for most groups, but dipped slightly for general residents (71% in 2012 to 58% in 2023). Wolf trapping receives less social support with only 36% of general residents finding it tolerant or very tolerant. The presentation will review these and other descriptive statistics, along with the methods used to collect, weight, and analyze these survey data, and a discussion of how social theory may explain why we’re seeing these changes and what we might expect in the future.