Vertebrate species knowledge, a key factor for conserving biodiversity, is a compulsory part of school curricula. This study evaluated the vertebrate species knowledge of sixth-grade German grammar school pupils (aged 11-13) to investigate the influence of sociodemographic factors (gender, size of hometown, mother tongue), personal expectations (favourite school subject, performance in biology, expected test results) and possibilities to do nature observations (favourite playing area, number of excursions to nature) on identification skills. In addition, the study examined whether schoolchildren's taxonomic knowledge changed over the years. In a species identification test, participants (N = 984) scored an average of 14.18 ± 3.82 out of 25 points. The results showed that their species knowledge was significantly influenced by their personal expectations on test performance, the school, favourite playing area, mother tongue and gender. Hometown size, the number of excursions to nature, favourite school subject and performance in biology did not significantly affect children's species knowledge. Mammals had the highest identification rates, whereas birds and reptiles were rather unknown. These results were compared with a similar dataset in 2006 indicating a 15% loss in pupils' species knowledge within the last decade. A change in the curriculum as a reason for this decline in taxonomic knowledge is discussed.

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Knowledge of species is the basis for involvement in biodiversity awareness and protection. For the first time, we investigated how bird species knowledge is spread among adults in Germany in a representative study. It was shown that of the 15 species presented, only 6 were recognized on average, and 4.5% of the tested persons did not recognize any species at all. Only 0.5% knew all presented species. Younger participants in particular knew significantly fewer species than the group over 60 years. We also tested if species knowledge has an impact on the motivation to act for nature conservation. In this study, knowledge of species correlated directly with the willingness to take action for species protection, e.g., through donating money for proactive nature conservation. Simply being in nature was meaningless for the test result. However, if one was actively involved with birds, e.g., via bird counts or bird feeding, species knowledge was significantly better.

Zusammenfassung Da Schüler nur noch sehr wenige einheimische Vogelarten bestimmen können, wurden in einem fächerübergreifenen Ansatz Unterrichtsmaterialien entwickelt, um ihre Artenkenntnis zu verbessern und sie dazu zu befähigen, am Beispiel der Vögel eigene Naturbeobachtungen durchzuführen. Dabei wendet sich der Fokus von der intensiven exemplarischen Studie eines einzelnen Vogels über die Nutzung spielerischer Online‐Bestimmungsübungen hin zu einem breiten Überblick über die Vielfalt der Arten, um diesen Grundstock an Formenkenntnis schließlich bei eigenen Freilanduntersuchungen anzuwenden.