Oral Presentation The International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ): 27th Annual Conference 2018

Zoo visitor attitudes towards little penguins.  (#7)

Samantha J Chiew 1 , Grahame J Coleman 1 , Sally L Sherwen 2 , Vicky Melfi 3 , Alicia Burns 4 , Paul H Hemsworth 1
  1. Animal Welfare Science Centre, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  2. Wildlife Conservation & Science, Zoos Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  3. School of Life and Environmental Sciences (SOLES), University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  4. Taronga Conservation Society Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Introduction:

Assessing visitor attitudes towards zoo animals is an important area of research which can inform the way zoos manage visitor-animal interactions, by providing an insight on how visitors see and interact with animals and identify visitor interests. However, limited research has been conducted on this topic particularly for understudied taxa such as birds. The present study assessed visitor attitudes towards little penguins (Eudyptula minor) and their welfare at Melbourne (MZ) and Taronga Zoo (TZ).

Methodology:

Visitor attitudes towards little penguins and their welfare were assessed using an anonymous attitude questionnaire. Visitors were approached after they had finished viewing the penguins and were given two options to complete the questionnaire, either on an iPad on site during their zoo visit or online (URL sent via email) after their zoo visit. Descriptive statistics, principal component analyses (PCAs) and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were performed using SPSS to examine differences in visitor attitudes between zoos.

Main Results:

A total of 691 surveys (43% during zoo visit, 57% after zoo visit) were completed, 547 (79.2%) at MZ and 144 (20.8%) at TZ.  PCA analyses extracted four components (with eigenvalues greater than 1) which were labelled, based on the questions that loaded on each component, as ‘Negative penguin welfare’, ‘Positive attitudes towards little penguins’, ‘Positive penguin welfare’ and ‘Negative attitudes towards little penguins’ and accounted for 31.8% 13.4%, 7.4% and 6.6% of the variance respectively. There were significant differences between zoos for ‘Negative attitudes towards penguins’ and ‘Negative penguin welfare’ (F1,556=34.41, p=0.000 and F1,556 =5.79, p=0.016, respectively), with questions related to penguins being timid, aggressive, fearful and stressed, loading on those components. Furthermore, little penguin welfare which was rated in a separate question by visitors, differed between zoos (F1,653=5.11, p=0.024).

Principal Conclusions and Implications for Field:

These findings suggest there are differences between the two zoos in visitor attitudes which may be influenced by differences in visitor demographics, visitor experience, enclosures and visitor viewing areas and/or penguin behaviour. This highlights potential areas for further investigation to understand why there are differences and the possible implications this could have on visitor experience and behaviour.