Large-scale sociological changes affect the way people interact with and value wildlife. Commensurate with these geographical, demographical, and sociological changes, the beliefs and attitudes of stakeholders toward wildlife management and uses of wildlife are also shifting. Changes in societal attitudes toward wildlife could create an alignment issue between wildlife professionals and society. My objective was to assess and compare change-over-time from 1998 to 2020 in value orientations, beliefs, and attitudes toward uses of wildlife, and wildlife management practices of members of The Wildlife Society (TWS) as a proxy for practicing wildlife professionals toward wildlife. In addition, I explored factors influencing approval of legal hunting and trapping among professionals. I present results from a 2020 web-based survey (n = 3,247) that closely approximates TWS membership demographically and geographically. I compare these data to findings from a nearly identical 1998 mail-back survey of TWS members. My results indicate wildlife conservation professionals currently express a broad spectrum of beliefs about consumptive uses of wildlife with modest change over 2 decades. Two factors, 1 and 2, were found to be most influential in predicting approval of legal hunting and trapping by TWS members and are consistent with beliefs associated with current mutualistic and utilitarian wildlife value orientations occurring within the public. Research from this study provides insights into potential areas of training or education to focus on within the profession.
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