A questionnaire survey was conducted in September and October 1996 on tourists' attitude toward nature and forest damage by sika deer (
Cervus nippon) in the Nikko National Park. Most of the 187 respondents came from the metropolitan districts ; Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba, and Tochigi. Nature, especially the landscape, attracted people's concern more than cultural, historic properties like shrines and temples. Most expected to hike, mountain climb, and go sightseeing rather than hot-spring bathing and visiting temples and shrines. The rate of photo-nature and nature observation was not high. People tended to favor beautiful landscape like colorful forests, waterfall, lakes and wetlands, but had little concern for individual creature. Half of them knew about forest damage by sika deer, but their information did not exceed the mass-media's one in quantities and quality. They understood that the damages probably affect the forest ecosystem, but most of them choose countermeasures other than killing the animals ; the agreement of sika control was less than 30%, nevertheless 60% of them accepted hunting in the national park.
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