Creating advocates for mammal conservation through citizen science
Creating advocates for mammal conservation through citizen science
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DOI：
10.1016/j.biocon.2016.06.025
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发表时间：
2017-04-01
影响因子：
5.9
通讯作者：
McShea, William J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Forrester, Tavis D.;Baker, Megan;McShea, William J.
公民科学倡议已显示出提供关于自然和保护的非正式教育并同时大规模收集科学数据的希望。eMammal是一个公民科学项目的平台，招募志愿者放置相机陷阱，以野生动物照片的形式收集数据。我们的项目通过培训材料、项目期间的反馈和自然历史博客向志愿者提供关于野生动物生态和保护的非正式教育。我们测试了我们的教育工作和志愿者活动是否影响了他们的项目特定技能，野生动物知识，保护态度，以及他们与社交网络分享的信息。志愿者准确地（>90%）识别了照片中捕获的20种野生动物中的15种，并随着时间的推移降低了相机放置的拒绝率。我们的调查显示，志愿者对保护的态度在加入项目之前是很高的，并没有改变后，参与。然而，在与eMammal合作后，志愿者对野生动物的了解更高。志愿者也通过分享他们的新知识成为哺乳动物保护的倡导者。大约有一半的志愿者报告说，在项目之前（50%）和之后（54%），他们都积极讨论与野生动物有关的某种信息。然而，在志愿者之后，他们有84%的可能性讨论当地哺乳动物或当地哺乳动物保护。讨论当地哺乳动物的可能性受到志愿者拍摄的捕食者照片数量的积极影响，这表明经验的类型可以影响信息如何通过志愿者的社交网络传播。公民科学可以将人们与自然世界联系起来，同时为保护提供可靠的数据。由爱思唯尔有限公司发布
Citizen science initiatives have shown promise to provide informal education about nature and conservation and simultaneously gather scientific data at large scales. eMammal is a platform for citizen science projects that recruits volunteers to place camera traps that collect data in the form of wildlife photographs. Our project offered informal education on wildlife ecology and conservation to volunteers through training materials, feedback during the project, and a natural history blog. We tested whether our education efforts and volunteer activities affected their project specific skills, wildlife knowledge, conservation attitudes, and what kind of information they shared with their social network. Volunteers accurately (>90%) identified 15 of 20 wildlife species captured in the photos and reduced the rejection rate of camera placements over time. Our surveys showed that volunteer's attitudes toward conservation were high before joining the project and did not change after participating. However, volunteer knowledge of wildlife was higher after working with eMammal. Volunteers also became advocates for mammal conservation by sharing their new knowledge. Roughly half of our volunteers reported actively discussing some type of information related to wildlife both before (50%) and after (54%) the project. However, after volunteering they were 84% more likely to discuss local mammals or local mammal conservation. The likelihood of discussing local mammals was positively influenced by the number of predator photos captured by volunteers, showing that the type of experience can influence how information is spread through a volunteer's social network. Citizen science can connect people to the natural world while simultaneously providing reliable data for conservation. Published by Elsevier Ltd.