Students’ Attitudes to and Knowledge of Brown Bears (Ursus arctos L.): Can More Knowledge Reduce Fear and Assist in Conservation Efforts?
The expansion of large carnivores across Europe is posing a challenge to their conservation. Since success with conservation may depend significantly on human behavior, knowledge of certain behaviors’ emergence and all the factors that affect them are crucial. The present study included 534 students...
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ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2076-2615/11/7/1958/ 2023-08-20T04:10:16+02:00 Students’ Attitudes to and Knowledge of Brown Bears (Ursus arctos L.): Can More Knowledge Reduce Fear and Assist in Conservation Efforts? Vesna Oražem Tadeja Smolej Iztok Tomažič agris 2021-06-30 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11071958 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Ecology and Conservation https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani11071958 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Animals; Volume 11; Issue 7; Pages: 1958 brown bear ( Ursus arctos ) attitudes knowledge workshops conservation Text 2021 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11071958 2023-08-01T02:05:03Z The expansion of large carnivores across Europe is posing a challenge to their conservation. Since success with conservation may depend significantly on human behavior, knowledge of certain behaviors’ emergence and all the factors that affect them are crucial. The present study included 534 students who were divided into a comparison group (n = 317) and a treatment group (n = 217) consisting of 309 lower secondary (LS, MAge = 12.2, SD = 0.94) and 225 upper secondary (US, n = 225, MAge = 16.5, SD = 0.99) school students. We assessed their attitudes to and knowledge of brown bears. An indirect effect of the workshops (instructions) is also described. Sociodemographic factors, such as gender and seeing a bear in nature, significantly influenced the students’ attitudes and knowledge. Residence, owning a dog, having a hunter in the family, breeding livestock and visiting a zoo had a smaller effect on the students’ attitudes and knowledge. The results thus show that greater knowledge is correlated with proconservation attitudes, and partly with reduction of fear. Therefore, future conservation and management should employ strong communication, especially education activities based on direct experiences and carefully designed information regarding species and socio-scientific issues. Text Ursus arctos MDPI Open Access Publishing Animals 11 7 1958 |
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English |
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brown bear ( Ursus arctos ) attitudes knowledge workshops conservation |
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brown bear ( Ursus arctos ) attitudes knowledge workshops conservation Vesna Oražem Tadeja Smolej Iztok Tomažič Students’ Attitudes to and Knowledge of Brown Bears (Ursus arctos L.): Can More Knowledge Reduce Fear and Assist in Conservation Efforts? |
topic_facet |
brown bear ( Ursus arctos ) attitudes knowledge workshops conservation |
description |
The expansion of large carnivores across Europe is posing a challenge to their conservation. Since success with conservation may depend significantly on human behavior, knowledge of certain behaviors’ emergence and all the factors that affect them are crucial. The present study included 534 students who were divided into a comparison group (n = 317) and a treatment group (n = 217) consisting of 309 lower secondary (LS, MAge = 12.2, SD = 0.94) and 225 upper secondary (US, n = 225, MAge = 16.5, SD = 0.99) school students. We assessed their attitudes to and knowledge of brown bears. An indirect effect of the workshops (instructions) is also described. Sociodemographic factors, such as gender and seeing a bear in nature, significantly influenced the students’ attitudes and knowledge. Residence, owning a dog, having a hunter in the family, breeding livestock and visiting a zoo had a smaller effect on the students’ attitudes and knowledge. The results thus show that greater knowledge is correlated with proconservation attitudes, and partly with reduction of fear. Therefore, future conservation and management should employ strong communication, especially education activities based on direct experiences and carefully designed information regarding species and socio-scientific issues. |
format |
Text |
author |
Vesna Oražem Tadeja Smolej Iztok Tomažič |
author_facet |
Vesna Oražem Tadeja Smolej Iztok Tomažič |
author_sort |
Vesna Oražem |
title |
Students’ Attitudes to and Knowledge of Brown Bears (Ursus arctos L.): Can More Knowledge Reduce Fear and Assist in Conservation Efforts? |
title_short |
Students’ Attitudes to and Knowledge of Brown Bears (Ursus arctos L.): Can More Knowledge Reduce Fear and Assist in Conservation Efforts? |
title_full |
Students’ Attitudes to and Knowledge of Brown Bears (Ursus arctos L.): Can More Knowledge Reduce Fear and Assist in Conservation Efforts? |
title_fullStr |
Students’ Attitudes to and Knowledge of Brown Bears (Ursus arctos L.): Can More Knowledge Reduce Fear and Assist in Conservation Efforts? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Students’ Attitudes to and Knowledge of Brown Bears (Ursus arctos L.): Can More Knowledge Reduce Fear and Assist in Conservation Efforts? |
title_sort |
students’ attitudes to and knowledge of brown bears (ursus arctos l.): can more knowledge reduce fear and assist in conservation efforts? |
publisher |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11071958 |
op_coverage |
agris |
genre |
Ursus arctos |
genre_facet |
Ursus arctos |
op_source |
Animals; Volume 11; Issue 7; Pages: 1958 |
op_relation |
Ecology and Conservation https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani11071958 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11071958 |
container_title |
Animals |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
1958 |
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1774724339934953472 |