Local Insects as Flagship Species to Promote Nature Conservation? A Survey among Primary School Children on Their Attitudes toward Invertebrates

Schlegel, Jürg; Breuer, Gabriele; Rupf, Reto

doi:10.1080/08927936.2015.11435399

Cited by 58 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Emotive images of animals have the greatest effect on the most involved environmental supporters, and watching a nature documentary may only increase pro-environmental donation behaviour for viewers who already have a strong sense of connectedness (Huddy and Gunnthorsdottir 2000;Arendt and Matthes 2016). Few significant gender differences were found, with the exception of emotional reactions to different species in children (Schlegel and Rupf 2010;Borgi and Cirulli 2015;Schlegel et al 2016). Young girls showed greater fear and disgust to images of certain animals, such as spiders, and this was associated with lower levels of affinity.…”

Section: Variation Across Demographics and Culturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A scoping review into the impact of animal imagery on pro-environmental outcomes

Thomas‐Walters

McNulty²,

Veríssimo

2019

Ambio

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With the recognition that most global environmental problems are a result of human actions, there is an increasing interest in approaches which have the potential to influence human behaviour. Images have a powerful role in shaping persuasive messages, yet research on the impacts of visual representations of nature is a neglected area in biodiversity conservation. We systematically screened existing studies on the use of animal imagery in conservation, identifying 37 articles. Although there is clear evidence that images of animals can have positive effects on people's attitudes to animals, overall there is currently a dearth of accessible and comparable published data demonstrating the efficacy of animal imagery. Most existing studies are place and context-specific, limiting the generalisable conclusions that can be drawn. Transdisciplinary research is needed to develop a robust understanding of the contextual and cultural factors that affect how animal images can be used effectively for conservation purposes.

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Section: Variation Across Demographics and Culturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A scoping review into the impact of animal imagery on pro-environmental outcomes

Thomas‐Walters

McNulty²,

Veríssimo

2019

Ambio

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“…And in the end, it may be educating children that is the most important set of actions. Remember, children had negative attitudes to non-mammals but had no direct encounters with them [35], and the more children knew about insects, the better their attitude to them [29]. Attitudes of children to snakes were the result of culturally induced biases [33] and education could overcome these biases.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Remember that if we do not care about an animal species or group, we will not care for it. Ranking within the arthropods by children showed that the most positive ones were for butterflies, the most negative to earwigs [29]. This negative viewpoint of these 'lower' animal starts in childhood, as Swiss children showed disdain for land invertebrates [30], less so for those that fly than animals that creep.…”

Section: Attention Guides Consideration: See Popular and Unpopular Anmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Most of the children, however, had nearly no direct experience with frogs or toads-or for that matter with the highly feared wolves and scorpions, so the biased attitudes were socially acquired, and education can reduce them. Proof of this is that Schlegel et al [29] found that children who could recognize animal species had a more positive attitude to them.…”

Section: Attention Guides Consideration: See Popular and Unpopular Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The situation for welfare of insects is far starker, possibly because, with few exceptions, they are perceived as nuisance or pests. Butterflies are seen as attractive [29] and bees as useful [61] and the latter therefore as an important target for welfare consideration [50]. However, Cunningham [61] points out that the public attention has resulted in some speciesism, skepticism, narrow focus and sometimes human-interest pragmatism, this last echoed by Garrido and Nanetti [50]; welfare should not be about 'how we can get the most gain from the situation'.…”

Section: What Of Decapod Crustaceans?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ethics and Care: For Animals, Not Just Mammals

Mather

2019

Animals

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In the last few decades, we have made great strides in recognizing ethics and providing care for animals, but the focus has been mainly on mammals. This stems from a bias of attention not only in research but predominantly in non-scientists’ attention (to ‘popular’ animals), resulting partly from discussion about and depiction of animals in publications addressed to the public. This is somewhat due to political pressure, and can result in uneven conservation efforts and biases in targets for welfare concerns. As a result, there has been a huge backlash again, with concerns about pain sensitivity and welfare in fish, and a less focused but more pervasive omission of consideration of all invertebrates. That means welfare efforts are focused on 0.2% of the animal species on the planet, and education about non-mammals, particularly addressed to children, is necessary to broaden this focus and care more fully for the inhabitants of the planet.

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The rare and enigmatic mayfly Prosopistoma pennigerum (Müller, 1785): Habitat characteristics, recent records from the Volga (Russia) and Vjosa (Albania) rivers, and a proposal for flagship species status

Schletterer

Weiss

Kuzovlev

et al. 2021

Aquatic Conservation

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Nymphs of all 29 described Prosopistoma species share a conspicuous synapomorphy: a round mesonotal shield, the carapace. They occur in the Palaearctic (nine species), the Oriental (12 species) and the Afrotropic as well as Australian regions (six and two species, respectively). Relatively little is known about their ecology, but past and extant distribution patterns indicate an association with undisturbed conditions. Prosopistoma pennigerum is a rare European mayfly with conspicuous nymphs. Formerly common in large rivers, it has been extirpated from central Europe over the last century. This study evaluated general habitat characteristics and human pressures for historical and current records of this rare species. Prosopistoma pennigerum is currently known from only three European rivers, all with gravel substrates, naturally dynamic discharge regimes, summer‐warm water temperatures, and little human pressure. This study showed that nymphs from the Vjosa and upper Volga rivers, two relatively natural watercourses 2,000 km apart, are morphologically indistinguishable, and show no variation across a ca. 600‐bp fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I gene. Flagship species were first designated in the 1980s, when charismatic species with high habitat requirements such as the Bengal tiger or the giant panda, but also invertebrates are used to communicate conservation and protection needs. We propose that Europe's rarest mayfly P. pennigerum, with its unusual nymphs and remaining populations in naturally dynamic river courses, can serve as a flagship species promoting the preservation of ecological integrity in European rivers.

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Local Insects as Flagship Species to Promote Nature Conservation? A Survey among Primary School Children on Their Attitudes toward Invertebrates

Cited by 58 publications

References 54 publications

A scoping review into the impact of animal imagery on pro-environmental outcomes

A scoping review into the impact of animal imagery on pro-environmental outcomes

Ethics and Care: For Animals, Not Just Mammals

The rare and enigmatic mayfly Prosopistoma pennigerum (Müller, 1785): Habitat characteristics, recent records from the Volga (Russia) and Vjosa (Albania) rivers, and a proposal for flagship species status

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