The biodiversity crisis is not salient to many people. A zoo visit not only provides the opportunity to learn about the issue, but also provides direct experiences with animals that may increase public engagement. The present study used a nonequivalent pretest-posttest design to assess the impact of a zoo visit on conservation knowledge and engagement by comparing 88 visitors entering a zoo in Paris and 84 visitors on their way out. Those who had completed their visit scored higher on conservation knowledge, general concern about threats to biodiversity, and perceived self-efficacy to protect biodiversity. Notably, conservation knowledge was not highly correlated with the other dependent variables, but self-efficacy was significantly correlated with environmental concern, behaviour, and behavioural intent. We conclude that a zoo visit does have a positive impact on knowledge and concern, and by affecting self-efficacy, it has the potential to influence future behavior.

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and seminar participants at Toulouse for long conversations and very thoughtful comments which have greatly improved the quality of this paper. All remaining errors are our own.