Motives for recreational hunting and alleged moral significance

Christian Gamborg

University of Copenhagen

Christian Gamborg, Ph.D. Associate Professor in Natural Resource Ethics, Dept. Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen. The main part of his research relates to ethical aspects in relation to the human use of the natural environment. He has been part of governmental agency advisory groups on wild boar and wolf management in relation to social and ethical aspects. Besides scientific communication on these issues, he has recently (2016) co-authored a book: ”Hunting: Nature, Humans, Animals and Killing” (in Danish), trying to understand hunting in a contemporary, urbanized society from different value perspectives.

Frank Jensen

University of Copenhagen

Ph. D. Frank Søndergaard Jensen (FSJ) is Professor with special responsibilities within Outdoor Recreation at the Dept. of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management at the University of Copenhagen, where he is head of the research group on Nature, Green Spaces and Outdoor Recreation (http://ign.ku.dk/english/research/landscape-architecture-planning/nature-green-spaces-and-outdoor-recreation/). FSJ’s research has focused on monitoring the use of nature areas for recreation and assessment of the general population’s preferences for different environments for recreational purposes. This experience has e.g. been utilised as expert member of Danish government commissions on access legislation and development of the first Danish national outdoor recreation policy. International research has been conducted in e.g. a number of Scandinavian and EU-funded projects, primarily focusing on outdoor recreation and forestry. Lately, research interest also includes values, attitudes and behaviour in relation to wildlife management and the impact of recreational activities on the GDP. For more information please see: http://ign.ku.dk/english/employees/landscape-architecture-planning/?pure=en/persons/269934

Abstract

For recreational hunters in the Western world today hunting is rarely, if ever, necessary for obtaining food or other necessities. Thus, the hunter’s primary motive for hunting is related to some form of personal satisfaction. In light of such ‘luxury’ motives for hunting, many non-hunters question hunting’s acceptability, and some see the recreational hunter as someone driven by morally dubious pleasure in chasing and killing wild animals.

The paper considers and builds on Kellert’s seminal studies where he pondered hunters’ motives and divided hunters into groups based on their main motives: “nature hunters”, seeking to be close to nature; “meat hunters”, aiming to obtain food; and “sports hunters”, where the motive is mainly recreational. We try to find out how well these categories fare today, how they fit in the context of a highly urbanized, European society, and how the motives bear on discussions concerning the morality of hunting.

We conducted an empirical study where we examined if, and to what degree, members of the general public think motives matter to the acceptability of recreational hunting, and aimed to discover what motives hunters actually have, or at least state that they have, and what motives members of the general public consider hunters to have. The study is a nationally representative survey of the general public (n=1,001) and hunters (n= 1,130) in Denmark.

Three clusters of motives – hunting motivational orientations – were identified: “action/harvest”, “management/care” and “natural and social encounters”. The general public ascribed action/harvest motives to hunters more than hunters did (a composite motivational orientation which is not aligned with Kellert’s 1978 motivational framework). Members of the general public who responded with a negative attitude to hunting placed greater emphasis on motives for hunting compared to those with more positive attitude.

The findings can assist in gaining a better understanding of current discussions about the legitimacy of recreational hunting, and may help to remove misunderstandings concerning the actual motives of recreational hunters, paving the way for a better dialogue on the future of recreational hunting.

Authors

Christian Gamborg (University of Copenhagen)
Frank Jensen (University of Copenhagen)
Peter Sandøe (University of Copenhagen)

Topic Area

Topics: Hunting and Fishing

Session

M-3A » Understanding the Connections Between Humans and Wildlife III (15:30 - Monday, 18th September, Assembly Hall A)

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