Abstract
Social norms are commonly used to investigate visitor beliefs about acceptable wildlife encounters in parks and protected areas. However, there is little information detailing if self-reported norms match actual behaviors. This study compared self-reported norms (n = 304) for viewing distances of adult and cub black bears with behavioral observations (n = 355) of actual encounters at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, North Carolina, USA. First, we conducted a crossover design to examine the impact of viewing different groupings of bears at varying distances on acceptability values. Our design significantly affected self-reported, minimum acceptable distance thresholds for an adult bear with cubs (Sequence 1 = 40.69 meters; Sequence 2 = 48.24 meters). Next, we found self-reported thresholds strongly differed from actual behaviors: 45% of observations documented visitors closer than 40.69 meters from bears. These findings illustrate the value of mixed-methods approaches to understand wildlife viewing behaviors and inform management.