Visitor interest in zoo animals and the implications for collection planning and zoo education programmes

As zoos have sought to further their conservation missions, they have become powerful providers of environmental education. Outside of “formal” education initiatives, such as those designed for school and other organized groups, or structured public talks programmes, much of the learning potential that the zoo has to offer is around the viewing of animals and the response of visitors to them. In this, zoo learning is a very personal construct, develops from the previous knowledge, and experiences and motivations of each individual. In this article, we make the assertion that learning potential, although difficult to quantify, is very much related to the attractiveness of animal species and the interest that visitors show in them. Using standard behaviorist measures of attraction and interest (the proportion of visitors that stop and for how long), we analyzed the relative interest in 40 zoo species held in a modern UK zoo and the variables that are significant in predicting that popularity. Further to this, the suggestion is made that the zoo collection planning process could use such information to make more informed decisions about which species should be housed for their educational value. Taxonomic grouping was found to be the most significant predictor of visitor interest—that is, visitors were far more interested in mammals than any other group—although body size (length), increasing animal activity and whether the species was the primary or “flagship” species in an exhibit or not, were all found to have a significant bearing on visitor interest. Zoo Biol 29:715–731, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

西方生态学近况

本文对美英等西方英语国家的近期生态学研究的研究趋向、流行概念,研究方式、前沿领域及新方法、新技术进行了综述分析,近期、西方英语国家的生态学理论研究中最受重视的问题是：在一定时空尺度上生物物种组成和各物种种群丰盛度的动态规律和特征,以及决定这种规律和特征的内在机制。这些机制包括：个体发育、生理、行为和遗传过程对生物与非生物环境的反应及这些过程对自身所在的种群、种落和栖息地的影响;种内种间相似或相异个     

Towards a taxonomically unbiased European Union biodiversity strategy for 2030

Through the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) and the financial investments of the LIFE projects, Europe has become an experimental arena for biological conservation. With an estimated annual budget of €20 billion, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 has set an ambitious goal of classifying 30% of its land and sea territory as Protected Areas and ensuring no deterioration in conservation trends and the status of protected species. We analysed LIFE projects focused on animals from 1992 to 2018 and found that investment in vertebrates was six times higher than that for invertebrates (€970 versus €150 million), with birds and mammals alone accounting for 72% of species and 75% of the total budget. In relative terms, investment per species towards vertebrates has been 468 times higher than that for invertebrates. Using a trait-based approach, we show that conservation effort is primarily explained by species'' popularity rather than extinction risk or body size. Therefore, we propose a roadmap to achieve unbiased conservation targets for 2030 and beyond.