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The public opinion survey administered by the Maine Wolf Coalition revealed some interesting information about the Maine public's knowledge of and opinions about wolves. The survey was written by MWC president John Glowa, with consultation form the Maine Department of Inland Fish and Wildlife. A total of 2400 surveys were mailed out, with 389 returned, or 16%. The margin of error is +-5%. Of the 389 respondents, 106 held a current hunting license.
To the question "To what extent do you support natural recolonization of wolves in
Maine?" the response was positive for wolves. A full 32% of hunters said they "very
much" supported, and about 19% said they supported it "some." Another 11%
expressed "very little" support, and the remaining 38% said they did not support it at
all. That means a total of 51% of hunters were fairly supportive, with 49% rather negative
regarding wolves recolonizing Maine.
The respondents who were not hunters responded even more positively to wolves returning to Maine. A full 48% of this group were in the "very much" category, and another 30% supporting wolf recolonization "some." This means that with all of the survey respondents put together, there was 43.5% supporting recolonization "very much," and another 27% supporting it "some." Only 21% of the total said "not at all."
When asked if they would support wolf reintroduction if recolonization seemed to be unattainable, there was less support. More than 73% of hunters did not support reintroduction at all. When counting all respondents 45% were not in support of reintroduction, and another 15% supported this idea very little. However, 20% supported reintroduction "very much," and 19% "some."
To the question, "Do you think there are wolves in Maine?" there was overwhelming agreement that there are, an interesting bit of information. A total of 77% of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that there are wolves in Maine, with the percentage of hunters being even higher.
To the true/false question, "It is illegal to kill a wolf in Maine" the answer was revealing. For the hunters, about 30% either responded "false" or "I don't know." This means that one third of the hunters do not know that wolves are protected, both by being on the federal endangered species list, and on the state's own list. The non-hunters were even less aware, with a full 58% saying the statement was false, or they did not know. The total then, is 50% of Maine citizens, if judged by this poll, do not know that wolves are a protected species in their state.
Glowa mentioned one other interesting answer in the poll, to "Would you kill a wolf if you saw one?" The hunters responded with a full 31% saying "yes." Were these some of the respondents who do not know wolves are protected........?
It is reprinted from the Summer 1997 Issue of WOLF! Magazine. This unique and comprehensive magazine is not supported by advertising, but by subscriptions. Please help keep this much needed resource alive!
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Images used with permission of the Artist