Understanding human responses to wildlife in Malaysia

Understanding thought about wildlife can help managers and policy-makers to anticipate public responses. Previous research suggests that wildlife value orientations, emotions, and risk perceptions predict how people think about wildlife-related issues. This research makes a new contribution by combining these factors to understand Malaysians’ responses to wildlife management and policy. A pilot study and an elicitation study found that existing wildlife value orientation scales are applicable in Malaysians and reflect important beliefs about wildlife. A large scale survey in the state of Johor was conducted to test how well value orientations, emotions and risk perceptions predict evaluation of management and policy. Acceptability of management actions was mainly influenced by a domination orientations towards wildlife. Emotion towards wildife was the best predictor for conservation support. Overall, findings confirm the theoretical model. Also, comparison with previous research suggests that the structure of thought about wildlife in Malaysians is different from western populations