From beasts to beauties in a blink: reaching bats'conservation through public events of science communication

• Autor(a) principal: Freitas, Miguel Ângelo Silva
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/25306
• topic: Chiroptera; Biodiversity conservation; Environmental education and awareness; Knowledge and attitude relationship

Bats have an important role in the equilibrium of natural and urbanized ecosystems because of the ecological services they provide. Unfortunately, bats are associated with negative myths and beliefs that make people fear and have disgust about them. Environmental education activities are important to change this perception and contribute to the education of the public about the importance of these animals. This study had the objective of evaluate if short events of science communication could have a positive effect on the knowledge and attitudes of the participants toward bats. We also studied which factors influenced the knowledge and attitudes prior and after the formation, as well as the variables responsible for the evolution between both moments. From 2013 to 2017, were performed environmental education activities, which consisted in a theoretical introduction about bats and a field trip. After the activity, the participants were invited to respond to an online survey about the activity. We obtained data from 143 surveys that was posteriorly statistically analysed. The perceived and estimated knowledge increased, and the perceived and estimated attitudes of the participants improved after the participation in the activity. About one third of the respondents reached the maximum classification of knowledge about the ecology and diversity of bats, before the activity. However, after the activity, this percentage increased, with 90% of the participants achieving the maximum level of knowledge. A similar pattern was observed with the attitude. The percentage of participants with good attitude increased from 50% before the activity to 95% before the activity. The higher education on biological sciences (HEBS) was the variable that better explained the evolution of attitude of the participants prior and after to the activity. Knowledge, however, was better explained mainly by hybrid models combining education/profession and demography variables. These results show that short events of environment education can contribute to the increase of public knowledge and improve attitudes toward these animals that have a positive impact in the conservation of bats.