Assessing Attitudes Toward Wildlife Ownership in United States–Mexico Borderlands

Public attitudes toward wildlife ownership represent an important and poorly studied component of biodiversity conservation. We began addressing this knowledge gap by interviewing residents along 140 km of the United States side of the farthest southeastern border with Mexico (n = 402). After controlling for demographic variables, urban background (beta = 0.13) and land ownership (beta = 0.19) predicted attitudes regarding wildlife ownership (p < .05). Most exurban respondents considered wildlife public property (72%), and rural respondents were divided (48% considered wildlife public property). Non-Latino whites demonstrated a stronger positive correlation between land ownership and considering wildlife private property (r(p) = 0.81) than Latinos (r(p) = 0.23). These results suggest exurban immigrants will strengthen support for public ownership of wildlife in borderland contexts. The positive relationship between agricultural land ownership and thinking wildlife should be private property may weaken in borderland areas if Latinos regain agricultural land ownership.