Spontaneous Interpretation of Real Life Events : An Innovation in Conservation Education (original) (raw)
Related papers
Zoological education: Can it change behaviour?
Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 2019
The behaviour of zoo visitors towards captive animals is a largely under-studied area of research. Evidence is beginning to emerge that certain behaviours by visitors like shouting, banging and staring can negatively affect animals. Previous methods to minimise negative visitor behaviours have primarily focused on physical exhibit alterations, such as barriers. The current study used an educational intervention (EI) in an attempt to decrease negative visitor behaviour and promote positive animal welfare. The visitors were groups of children, while three species of captive animals were studied: ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta), Humboldt penguins (Spheniscus humboldti) and Gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua). The children were studied under two conditions: 1) control groups who did not receive an educational intervention and 2) treatment groups who received the educational intervention. Children's and animals' behaviour were simultaneously recorded using behaviour and scan sampling. The results showed a statistically significant reduction in negative behaviour by the children in the treatment groups at all three animal exhibits (ring-tailed lemurs: p = 0.020; Humboldt penguins: p < 0.001; Gentoo penguins: p = 0.031). Findings varied for the animals' behaviour. Generally, there was no corresponding change in the animals' behaviour associated with the presence of a treatment or control group. In conclusion, education programs in zoos could be enhanced by introducing programs aimed at reducing negative visitor behaviour.
Modalidade da apresentação: Póster Resumo Os educadores ambientais têm um papel educativo importante num ambiente de aprendizagem informal. Contudo, pouco se sabe sobre o que os motiva a trabalhar em parques zoológicos ou mesmo que estratégias educativas utilizam na sua rotina diária para facilitar os encontros entre humanos e os animais em cativeiro. Assim sendo, o nosso estudo foi concebido para compreender os métodos e as motivações destes profissionais. Entrevistas semi-estruturadas foram realizadas com educadores ambientais que trabalham em tempo integral no zoo de Ottawa (Canadá). Estas entrevistas foram transcritas e codificadas na tentativa de se identificar a emergência de temas. Os educadores ambientais usam as suas estratégias para potenciar eventuais benefícios advindos do encontro entre os animais selvagens, os visitantes humanos e os próprios educadores. Este estudo visa contribuir para a investigação no âmbito das interações interespecies com a finalidade de promover oportunidades ambientais e científicas para todos, especialmente as crianças. Palavras–Chave: educadores ambientais; educação informal da ciência; educação ambiental; encontros interespecies; investigação qualitativa. Abstract Zoo interpreters have an important role to play in enhancing the educational potential of an informal learning setting. Nonetheless, little is known about what motivates individuals to pursue a profession in zoo interpretation, or how these individuals account for their educational methods. Our study was designed to gain insight into zoo interpreters' self-reported methods and motivations for facilitating human-animal encounters as part of their daily work routine. Semi-formal interviews were conducted with full-time interpreters at a private zoo in Ottawa, and the transcribed data was coded for emergent themes. Overall, respondents consistently accounted for their facilitation methods by referencing potential benefits to wild animals, to the human visitors, and to the interpreters themselves. This study will contribute to the scholarly body of research that analyzes interspecies interactions for the purpose of providing enhanced environmental and scientific educational opportunities for all, specially children.
Data Collection in the Zoo Setting, Emphasizing Behavior
2010
Systematic observations and record keeping are essential for consistent advances in the management of zoos and related facilities. Casual observations of the outcomes of innovative exhibit modifi cations are of much greater value when supplemented by data collected using appropriate quantitative methods. Quantifi cation is important because qualitative observations may provide inaccurate estimates of what is really occurring. A great deal of “success” in zoo exhibitry may be serendipity—the right combination of individual animals that happen to be of a species able to thrive in marginal conditions. Only systematic data collection can lead to the conclusion that particular management decisions had anything to do with success. Th is updated chapter benefi ts from the expertise of a second author (RRH), who has taught a zoo behavior course incorporating new data collection technologies, and whose background includes teaching statistics. We provide an overview of techniques suffi cient ...
Looking at zoos from the perspective of zoo personnel, this article explores the importance of vision in the zoo’s presentation of its animals as well as the major technologies that the zoo uses to intensify such animal visions. On the one end of the spectrum, zoogeography and immersion design are used at the zoo exhibit to enable zoogoers to see animals in their naturalistic settings. On the opposite end of the spectrum, animals are caged and cared for in the highly artificial settings of the zoo’s holding area, with little or no exposure to the public gaze. In between these most visible and most invisible zoo spaces, the zoo also contains numerous other spaces with varying degrees of animal visibility. The zoo’s gift shops, carousels, and promenades, despite not being exhibit spaces per se, nonetheless relay an important message that translates the zoo’s mission of nature conservation into small acts of capital. Drawing on thirty-five semi-structured, in depth interviews conducted between May 2009 and December 2010, mostly with zoo directors, curators, registrars, and designers, the article moves beyond the established Foucaultian and post-Foucaultian notions of panopticon and exhibition to suggest that, rather than being an end in itself, the act of seeing practiced at the zoo serves to reify nature as a pre-existing entity and to reeducate the populace about the proper relationship between humans and animals.
The behavioral researcher and the zoological park
Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 1984
Ethologists and psychologists have traditionally taken different approaches to the study of animal behavior. Recently, there has been something of a rapprochement between these two schools of the study of behavior. The range of animals and the number of groups available in the zoo for comparison provide a wealth of topics for study by the behavioralist. At the same time, the new behavioralist is perfectly equipped to make important contributions to solving the problems that the zoo faces on a daily basis. Evidence provided by limited associations to date argues convincingly that more frequent and formal cooperation between the zoo and the behavioralist promises substantial mutual benefit.
Science at the Zoo. An Introduction
Centaurus, 2022
Was the zoological garden a place for science in the 19th and 20th centuries? This question cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. Rather, this Special Issue suggests, we need to reconstruct how the concrete conditions of the zoo as an institution influenced, enabled, triggered, facilitated, obstructed, or impeded scientific research. The zoo was and is a multifunctional space serving different constituencies, such as scientists of different disciplines, artists, breeders, and the general public. This collection of articles argues that despite or even because of its hybrid character, the zoo generated knowledge about exotic animals in often unexpected ways. This Special Issue conceives of “science at the zoo” as a an “impure,” yet very rich epistemic constellation with its very own dynamic, tensions, and contradictions. The first part of this introduction provides a historical overview of the topic. Synthesizing the existing secondary literature, it addresses the major themes of science at the zoo: the debate among scientists about the pros and cons of research conducted in and outside the cages; the gap between the promise of doing research at the zoo and the actual practices; and the emergence of new fields of knowledge such as zoo veterinary medicine, zoo biology, and conservation science. The introduction's second part draws out the common topics that connect the eight articles of this Special Issue: the multiplicity of spaces interacting with the zoo; the broad range of historical actors, including academics, animal traders, and zoo keepers; the changing roles of the zoo-going public; and the negotiation of authority and epistemic hierarchies in producing knowledge about zoo animals. The large numbers of zoos and the long temporal range these articles cover bring the constant evolution of “science at the zoo”—and hence its intrinsic historical dimension—to the fore.
Zoos as a Source of Free Choice Learning
Research in Science & Technological Education, 2003
This paper reports on an inquiry into the use of zoos as a source of informal or free choice learning. The study was contexualised within the zoo's environmental enrichment programme (an animal husbandry principle that seeks to develop species-typical behaviour for captive animals by using naturalistic enclosures or artificial items that stimulate animal interest). Visitor perceptions and actual use of the zoo were investigated using structured interviews based on an interview protocol that elicited their perspectives of the nature and character of zoo settings including the use of photographs of selected exhibits to induce stimulated recall. These data were triangulated with unobtrusive observation at the same exhibits (Bitgood et al., 1988). The visitors spent little time at a given exhibit, and rated the more naturalistic or enriched exhibits more favourably, but older visitors seemed less concerned with naturalness of exhibits. The zoo considers that it has an important role in education and provides many opportunities for learning for both general visitors and school groups. Both general visitors and school groups reported that the prime purpose of their visit was for entertainment. It appears learning of science at the zoo is limited for general visitors, however, the learning of science for school children is enhanced by pre-and post-visit activities and strong curricula links.