Impact of animal programming on children's attitudes toward local wildlife

Jerger, Ashton D; Acker, Michele; Gibson, Stormy; Young, Anna M.

doi:10.1002/zoo.21702

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 53 publications

(88 reference statements)

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“…Since its inception, this theory has been used and refined in many studies to promote conservation or pro-environmental behavior [51]. Increasing positive attitudes towards the environment remain a common outcome of environmental and conservation education [52,53]. However, there is controversial evidence regarding the strength of association between attitudes and pro-environmental behavior [53][54][55].…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Engaging internal and external audiences to develop and promote zoo-based conservation efforts

Nageotte,

Steele-Inama,

Frederick

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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As place-based conservation organizations, zoos are in a central position to support individuals in making small changes in their lives that will support the protection of wildlife and their habitats. This paper describes the secondary analysis of data collected from multi-phase front-end, exploratory evaluation that informed the development of a conservation action campaign in association with a non-profit, urban zoo. In phase one, internal organization staff were invited to attend workshops during which they brainstormed potential conservation actions that they felt were important for the zoo to promote. They identified and ranked 164 unique actions. In phase two, the ranking was used to narrow down the 164 actions to 20 actions which were used to develop a survey administered to visitors who opted in to receiving online surveys from the zoo. The survey asked participants to state their interest in each of the 20 conservation actions. The Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change informed the analysis of responses. Through this approach we identified actions that people were already doing, interested in doing, and not interested in doing. The responses from this survey were used to narrow down the list further to 10 actions used in a survey in phase three. This second survey administered to zoo visitors on grounds asked participants which of the 10 actions they would be most interested in doing, and the perceived barriers and benefits of doing them. This process allowed us to use evidence-based decision making to choose which conservation actions would resonate most with the community for our conservation action campaign. We also were able to identify values visitors held that might influence environmentally friendly behaviors. Visitors who responded to this survey tended to respond in ways that aligned with self-transcendent values. The research suggests that the campaign should focus on habitat restoration and remediation and purchasing wildlife friendly coffee and other products.

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Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Engaging internal and external audiences to develop and promote zoo-based conservation efforts

Nageotte,

Steele-Inama,

Frederick

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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Impact of animal programming on children's attitudes toward local wildlife

Jerger

Acker

Gibson³

et al. 2022

Zoo Biology

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Attitudes toward wildlife can have direct implications on children's interest in conservation behaviors. Animal programs are an example of interactive, educational experiences that have the potential to change attitudes by providing individuals the opportunity to get close to animal ambassadors and participate in engaging conversations about them. We conducted an animal program assessment with summer camps at the Ohio Wildlife Center to quantify changes in children's affiliation with local wildlife and their willingness to live near local wildlife. Campers showed an overall increase in affiliation and willingness scores from before to after an animal program, although with a small effect size. Overall willingness scores were lower than affiliation scores, but there was a significantly larger increase in willingness following the program. We found a strong correlation between affiliation and willingness scores. Overall, the study found that these animal programs positively influenced children's attitudes toward local wildlife and increased their willingness to live near them, suggesting animal programming could be used to decrease human‐wildlife conflict. Visually seeing animals in the programs improved attitude scores, even for those not seen in this study, which suggests that program animals can act as an ambassador for other species. This opens the potential for utilizing animal ambassadors as powerful tools in conservation education about threatened and endangered species.

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Impact of animal programming on children's attitudes toward local wildlife

Cited by 2 publications

References 53 publications

Engaging internal and external audiences to develop and promote zoo-based conservation efforts

Engaging internal and external audiences to develop and promote zoo-based conservation efforts

Impact of animal programming on children's attitudes toward local wildlife

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