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Hunter education classes are a compulsory education tool for all hunters in North America, Europe and some other regions. However, little research focuses on hunter education. We surveyed Swedish hunters, examining how they valued key aspects of hunter education, and identifying socio-demographic predictors for those preferences. Learning about dog handling and making friends in the hunting community were the least important aspects of hunter education. Information about firearms was most important followed by information about hunting ethics, hunting laws, and wildlife ecology. Agerelated positively to valuing most aspects of hunter education. Duration huntingrelated negatively to valuing those aspects. Hunters motivated by social interactions valued hunting ethics content more, and hunters motivated by obtaining trophies valued hunting ethics less than their counterparts. Hunter education in Sweden would benefit from changes aimed at highlighting aspects of hunting that students' value most. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding whether people view non-native species as belonging in a place will help guide important conservation efforts ranging from eradications of exotics to re-introduction of extirpated species. In this manuscript we describe the degree to which Swedish hunters perceive key wildlife species as belonging in Swedish nature. We surveyed 2014 Swedish hunters randomly selected from a database of all registered hunters with a 47.5% response rate. We measured hunters' perceptions of the belonging of 10 key species on the Swedish landscape, compared them with confidence intervals for proportions, and predicted them using regression models. Construct validity was assessed through pretesting and focus groups. Our results suggest Swedish hunters consider species introduced wholly by humans as less likely to belong in Sweden compared with species that evolved in situ, species with negative socio-economic impact as less likely to belong in Sweden compared with species with no impact or positive economic impacts, and species with wide distributions to be seen as more likely to belong in Sweden compared with those with narrow distributions. Perceptions of wolves, fallow deer, and European rabbits differed from these broad trends potentially due to unique cultural constructions of belonging for the species and the duration since anthropogenic introductions for the latter species. Age was generally negatively related with considering species as belonging in Swedish nature, whereas few effects were detected for other demographic variables. This study suggests multiple drivers of perceived belonging for species exist, and may include where species evolved, socio-economic impacts of species, breadth of distribution, cultural naturalization, and age of stakeholders making assessments. These findings highlight the importance of managing invasive species before they become culturally naturalized or gain broad geographic distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the highlights of the Nordic Hunting in Society Symposium in Uppsala, Sweden in February 2010. Representatives of national level hunters associations, agricultural landowners associations and researchers were among the participants. The topics tackled included the role of human within ecosystems and wildlife management, the role of hunting in rural socioeconomic development and hunting ethics. The results of the symposium is said to suggest that Nordic wildlife management shareholders should place more emphasis on social science.

Self-policing is essential for addressing wildlife-related crime where illegal activity is extremely diffuse, and limited resources are available for monitoring and enforcement. Emerging research on self-policing suggest key drivers including economics, folk traditions, and socio-political resistance. We build on this research with a case study evaluating potential drivers of self-policing illegal wolf killing among Swedish hunting teams. Swedish hunters marginally leaned toward considering illegal hunting of wolves an expression of resistance (10.30 out of a possible 17 on a resistance scale) and strongly believed outsiders had undue influence over hunting (15.79 out of a possible 21 on an influence scale). Most (73%) Swedish hunters stated they would report illegal wolf killing to authorities, but 20% stated they would handle the infractions through internal sanctions. Viewing illegal hunting of wolves as a form of political resistance, viewing wolf management as being controlled locally, and perceived prevalence of illegal wolf killing among hunting acquaintances were positive predictors of preferring internal sanctions to address illegal wolf killing over reporting the crimes. Resistance and perceived prevalence of wolf killing also predicted preferring no action to address illegal wolf killing. These results suggest that a counterpublic of marginalized ruralism may promote forms of self-policing that rely on internal censure for illegal wolf killing rather than using formal legal channels. Similarly, folk traditions within this counterpublic (e.g., perceptions of prevalence of illegal wolf killing) shape if and how internal sanctions are advocated. Re-engaging marginalized hunting groups and emphasizing the rarity of illegal wolf killing may promote wolf conservation, both in Sweden and in other democratic regimes.