Proceedings of the Ninth Mountain Lion Workshop - Carnivore ...

to education the public; the top 5 methods were brochures or pamphlets, newspapers or
press releases, department website, individual landowner contact, and radio or television
(Fig. 11). We asked agencies to rate which education materials they thought were most
successful. Eighty-seven percent said contact with individual landowners was the most
successful, followed by brochures/pamphlets (67%), press releases (53%) radio/television
(53%), and outreach to user groups (47%) (Fig. 12). Forty percent of agencies had staff
whose duties included a focus on public education and outreach regarding cougars. Of
those with outreach staff, most devoted 1-5 hours per week on preventative education; 1
agency reported 8 hours per week. Sixty-seven percent of agencies conducted
surveys/questionnaires to gauge their publics’ knowledge or concerns regarding cougars.
Of the agencies that conducted surveys, 56% had done so in the past 5 years, 11% in the
last 10 years, and 44% said it had been more than 10 years (Table 11). Eighty percent of
agencies worked collaboratively with Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) (i.e.,
conservation and sporting groups) to help meet their public education and outreach
regarding cougars. Aside from providing preventative information, we also asked
agencies which approaches they would like to see used more when actually responding to
cougar-human complaints in the field; education materials (79%) and outreach to user
groups (79%) were the most common answers followed by outreach through TV, Radio,
and newspaper (71%), aversive conditioning (29%), and the ability to fine people for
creating the problem (29%) (Fig. 13).
Table 10. Status of cougar education programs, by jurisdiction, as reported in a
survey of North American wildlife agencies, 2008.
Jurisdiction
Do You Have a
Cougar
Education
Program?
How Would You
Describe Your
Agency’s Efforts?
Proceedings of the Ninth Mountain Lion Workshop
Is the Need For
Education Increasing
or Decreasing?
Alberta Yes Needs attention Increasing
Arizona Yes Comprehensive Increasing
California Yes Adequate Stable
Colorado Yes Comprehensive Stable
Florida Yes Adequate Increasing
Idaho No Needs attention Increasing
Montana No Needs attention Increasing
Nevada Yes Adequate Increasing
New Mexico No Minimal Increasing
Oregon Yes Needs attention Increasing
South Dakota Yes Adequate Stable
Texas No Minimal Increasing
Utah Yes Adequate Increasing
Washington Yes Needs attention Increasing
Wyoming Yes Adequate Stable
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