White-tailed deer hunters' perceptions of harvest reporting systems: An importance-performance analysis

Mandatory harvest reporting via self-reporting mechanisms (e.g. telephone, internet, and mobile applications) is becoming increasingly popular as natural resource management agencies seek to increase the efficiency of data collection while enhancing harvest reporting rates. Understanding perceptions of self-reporting systems from users who report harvests is important in developing strategies to improve reporting rates, which is vital to minimize errors in harvest estimates from population models. We conducted an internet-based survey of resident deer hunters in Georgia, USA to evaluate perceptions of mandatory reporting using an importance-performance analysis. Our analysis determined that the attributes of "information reported is beneficial to white-tailed deer management" and "provide updates on changes to the reporting system" needed the most improvement (n = 1,712 completed surveys). Other reporting aspects, such as access to harvest reports and system functionality, were of lower priority. Our results provide managers with insight to improve harvest reporting systems and potentially boost reporting rates.