Developing Sense of Place in USA Zoos: Effect of Featuring Local Versus Exotic Species
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Zoos are already important institutions for educating the public to be effective stewards of the environment and passionate nature conservation actors, yet their influence could be increased. For example, the type of species exhibited can impact visitors differently: featuring exotic animals can provide broad knowledge, while focusing on species from local ecosystems can offer more relational and specialized information. The effect of varying emphasis on local versus exotic species remains unknown despite many papers analyzing zoo education. Research has shown that a stronger ecological sense of place (an individual’s connection to a space based on experiences and memories related to people, nature, or other local features) encourages more pro-environmental behavior. Therefore, promoting sense of place is one way zoos could motivate behavior changes in visitors. In this study, it was hypothesized that visitors at zoos that emphasize local species would exhibit greater ecological sense of place. Ecological sense of place was measured through Likert scale statements, whereby the more visitors agreed with statements on an area’s characteristics, the higher their sense-of-place score. These questions were disseminated through a survey at nine zoos across the country, matched geographically to contrast local and exotic species emphases and providing a substantial sample size (N = 1008 respondents). Based on a linear mixed-effects model, zoos with a local species emphasis significantly correlated with higher sense-of-place scores. Focusing on individual zoo pairs, the local-focused zoos in Nebraska and Arizona correlated with higher sense-of-place scores (a significant increase, in both cases) but those in New York and California did not. In addition, across all zoos, visitors who were local to the zoo’s area or who were zoo members had significantly higher sense-of-place scores. These results demonstrate that local-focused zoos, local visitors, and zoo members should be further investigated as promising catalysts for conservation. These groups could be targeted through outreach and educational efforts in order to maximize the development of pro-environmental behavior and to cultivate the animal conservation advocates of the future – a critical societal need in light of the current anthropogenic impact on ecosystems and wildlife in particular.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | June 17, 2018 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Bejjani, Mireille | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary advisor | Dirzo, Rodolfo | |
| Advisor | Daily, Gretchen | |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Department of Biology, 2018 |
Subjects
| Subject | sense of place |
|---|---|
| Subject | zoo |
| Subject | conservation |
| Subject | pro-environmental behavior |
| Subject | local species |
| Subject | education |
| Subject | survey |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-SA).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Bejjani, Mireille and Dirzo, Rodolfo and Daily, Gretchen. (2018). Developing Sense of Place in USA Zoos: Effect of Featuring Local Versus Exotic Species. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/jh877vc6375
Collection
Undergraduate Theses, Department of Biology, 2017-2018
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- Contact
- mbejj@stanford.edu
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