Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 August 2009
A total of 2,816 questionnaires were completed in the Dalby Forest Area in the period from March 1975 to March 1976. The answers to six questions were combined into a wildlife interest index. These questions were concerned with: (1) the interviewees' commitments to a wildlife organization, (2) the interviewees’ activities in the Area, (3) the elements of the Area which increased the interviewees' enjoyment, (4) benefits that the interviewees felt from visiting the Area, (5) the wildlife that interviewees has seen or hoped to see, and (6) the interviewees' desire to use a hide.
The interviewees' interest in wildlife was made up of an appreciation of the aesthetic, emotive, and psychological, elements of wildlife, as well as a purely active pursuit in nature study. These attributes of wildlife are all aspects which should be taken into consideration when assessing the role of wildlife in the recreational qualities of an area.