Living with Black Bears? Understanding Landowner Intentions and Acceptance in a Recolonizing Landscape

Authors

• Basant Pant, Mississippi State University
• Kevin M. Hunt, Mississippi State University
• Dana J. Morin, Mississippi State University
• Andy J. Kouba, Mississippi State University
• Raymond B. Iglay, Mississippi State University
• Anthony Ballard, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks
• Russ Walsh, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks
• Amy Blaylock, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks

ORCID

Pant: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5045-7971; Iglay: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7300-7244

MSU Affiliation

College of Forest Resources; Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture

Creation Date

2026-07-30

Abstract

The American black bear (Ursus americanus) is recolonizing in Mississippi, which may positively or negatively impact people. Therefore, it is important to understand the acceptance capacity and intentions of people to accept black bears. We used a self-administered mail survey of 4080 Mississippi landowners in ‘frequent black bear encounter counties’ and ‘infrequent black bear encounter counties’ to assess their intention to accept black bears. Based on the 1266 returned surveys, we found perceived behavioral control was the strongest determinant of landowners' intention to accept black bears, followed by their attitudes towards black bears. In addition, landowners' social trust in the state wildlife agency was instrumental in determining their intention to accept black bears. Landowners who have higher social trust, lower perceived risks, and higher perceived benefits were more likely to accept black bears. Overall, the weighted least square means and variance adjusted model explained about 70% of the variation in acceptance, and the determinants influencing the intention to accept black bears remained consistent across the two county categories. Local management strategies need to be employed to educate landowners on black bear ecology, risk mitigation measures, and approaches to maximize appreciation of black bears.

Publication Date

7-4-2026

Publication Title

Biological Conservation

Publisher

Elsevier

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Rights

© 2026 The Authors

Recommended Citation

Pant, B., Hunt, K. M., Morin, D. J., Kouba, A. J., Iglay, R. B., Ballard, A., Walsh, R., & Blaylock, A. (2026). Living with black bears? Understanding landowner intentions and acceptance in a recolonizing landscape. Biological Conservation, 321, 111999. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2026.111999