Perceptions of nativeness shift quite rapidly over time

Abstract The spread of non‐native species has emerged as one of the most pressing challenges for conservation and ecosystem management. Yet attitudes towards species change, making it possible for non‐native species to be perceived as native after some time. However, no previous study has quantified shifting perceptions of nativeness, which is particularly important given labels such as non‐native and native undoubtedly influence how species are managed. We surveyed 1247 people across the southeastern United States and tested multiple hypotheses that could explain variation in their views on nativeness generally. We also asked whether or not they viewed armadillos and coyotes as native and quantified how those views shifted over time using georeferenced maps of coyote and armadillo expansion. Half of respondents said they would never consider a non‐native species native, while the other half said they would after a median of 106 years. Age had a positive relationship with time until native, where older people were less likely to say species can become native and, if they could, that it would take longer. Older respondents were more likely to say armadillos were non‐native but we did not find evidence for this for coyotes. Instead, time since arrival best explained views on coyotes and armadillos, where there was a clear shift (4%–7% per decade) towards majority ‘native’ views the longer the species had been established. Although a substantial portion of respondents indicated they would not change their views of nativeness in their lifetime, our findings show that collective views shift fairly rapidly over time. This could reflect generational differences in attitudes or shifting baselines, as younger respondents did not experience a time prior to the species being present. Our findings provide the first clear evidence for ‘shifting baseline syndrome’ in the context of non‐native species. Shifts towards nativeness over time likely contribute to the cultural integration of novel species, with important implications for management. Despite similarities in shifts for coyotes and armadillos, perceptions of nativeness are likely species‐dependent and future work could investigate how perceived impacts influence people's perceptions. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.