• Login
    View Item 
    •   Home
    • University of Alaska Fairbanks
    • UAF Graduate School
    • Biological Sciences
    • View Item
    •   Home
    • University of Alaska Fairbanks
    • UAF Graduate School
    • Biological Sciences
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of Scholarworks@UACommunitiesPublication DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsTypeThis CollectionPublication DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsType

    My Account

    Login

    First Time Submitters, Register Here

    Register

    Statistics

    Display statistics

    Motivations and drivers of trapper catch per unit effort in Alaska

    • CSV
    • RefMan
    • EndNote
    • BibTex
    • RefWorks
    Thumbnail
    Name:
    Dorendorf_uaf_0006N_10362.pdf
    Size:
    11.36Mb
    Format:
    PDF
    Download
    Author
    Dorendorf, Ross R.
    Chair
    Prugh, Laura
    Committee
    Kielland, Knut
    Brainerd, Scott
    Fix, Peter
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/11122/6081
    Abstract
    Indices of abundance based on harvest alone have long been used to track furbearer populations. However, abundance indices based on harvest alone do not account for variation in trapping effort. To my knowledge, adjusting harvest-based furbearer abundance indices to account for effort has not been previously examined in Alaska. Understanding how effort varies among trappers, and how social issues and external factors such as human conflict and fur prices affect effort, can give a clearer understanding of why trapping effort changes. A trapper's motivations may determine how strongly various external factors and social issues influence trapping effort. I sent a questionnaire to trappers of interior Alaska and used nine years of statewide data from the Alaska Trapper Questionnaire (distributed annually by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game) to address these issues. Across five regions from 2004-2013, I found that total fur harvest increased with per-capita trapper effort (R² = 0.125, p = 0.02). Variation in average winter temperature across game management regions explained 42% of variation in trapping effort, but annual variation in temperature, snow depth, fur prices, and fuel prices did not affect effort. Corresponding to these statewide findings, surveys of trappers in interior Alaska indicated that economic gain was not a strong motivation to trap, a finding that differs from previous studies. The most important social issues and external factors affecting trapping effort were access to land and the perceived abundance of furbearer populations respectively. To determine the motivations of interior Alaskan trappers, I used a k-means cluster analysis that identified four groups of trappers: management (17% of trappers), recreational (39%), subsistence (18%), and solitary (26%). Each group is represented by its strongest motivation for trapping. To improve the use of harvest as an index of furbearer abundance, I recommend accounting for trapping effort by calculating catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE), a metric commonly used in fisheries. I further recommend that resource managers should focus their efforts on reducing human conflicts while maximizing the non-monetary benefits of trapping. Resource managers should take advantage of questionnaires to help understand the fluctuations in furbearer populations and understand the motivations of trappers.
    Description
    Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015
    Date
    2015-08
    Type
    Thesis
    Collections
    Biological Sciences

    entitlement

     
    ABOUT US|HELP|BROWSE|ADVANCED SEARCH

    The University of Alaska Fairbanks is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and educational institution and is a part of the University of Alaska system.

    ©UAF 2013 - 2023 | Questions? ua-scholarworks@alaska.edu | Last modified: September 25, 2019

    Open Repository is a service operated by 
    Atmire NV
     

    Export search results

    The export option will allow you to export the current search results of the entered query to a file. Different formats are available for download. To export the items, click on the button corresponding with the preferred download format.

    By default, clicking on the export buttons will result in a download of the allowed maximum amount of items.

    To select a subset of the search results, click "Selective Export" button and make a selection of the items you want to export. The amount of items that can be exported at once is similarly restricted as the full export.

    After making a selection, click one of the export format buttons. The amount of items that will be exported is indicated in the bubble next to export format.