Does Otis the bear encourage assist for conservation?

By Mike Fitz

For those who watch any of the wildlife or animal-themed cams on discover.org, then that they supply an distinctive lens via which we are able to view the lives of particular person animals. The gorilla Pinga’s management and maternal devotion allowed her blended household group at GRACE to heal from trauma. The California condor Inikio survived wildfire solely to be prematurely evicted from her nest by one other condor. The legendary brown bear Otis is a quintessential instance of longevity and adaptableness in bears.

Throughout my bear cam reside chats, I focus rather a lot on the lives of particular person bears after which relate these bear’s experiences to larger concepts. Understanding how Otis has tailored to a decrease rank within the bear hierarchy, for instance, permits us to raised perceive how outdated bears adapt to alter and problem.

Nevertheless, there’s comparatively little within the scientific literature exploring how private connections to particular person animals have an effect on an individual’s assist for conservation. In truth it’s been argued that it is a myopic technique, and most conservation efforts give attention to the species degree. The person animals that we watch on discover.org every have a big and devoted following, so how would possibly our connection to particular person animals affect our assist for conservation of a species? A new paper, of which I’m a coauthor, finds that particular person and favourite animals can have a big, optimistic affect on our attitudes towards conservation efforts.

My analysis colleagues on this venture developed a web based survey of bear cam viewers that was obtainable in summer time 2019 and summer time 2020. When survey contributors had been requested if they may determine particular person bears 14% of viewers stated sure, 56% responded typically, and 30% stated no. Viewers who may determine particular person bears had been additionally requested what number of particular person bears they may determine. Twenty-one p.c of these respondents indicated they may determine one bear, 45% may determine 2–4 bears, 20% may determine 5–7 bears, and 14% may determine greater than 7 bears. When requested if they’ve a favourite bear 53% responded sure and 47% responded no.

So what do these outcomes imply? Not a lot till we examined the solutions to follow-up questions. Specifically, viewers had been requested to price their settlement with the assertion “the flexibility to find out about and/or determine particular person bears influences my willingness to assist conservation packages.” The query was on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Those that may determine particular person bears agreed with that assertion at considerably greater ranges (4.86 ± 1.86) than these respondents who couldn’t determine particular person bears (3.31 ± 1.80). Importantly, those that stated that they had a favourite bear reported even greater ranges of assist for bear conservation (5.01 ± 1.58). These outcomes are in keeping with one other research primarily based on the identical survey that discovered the flexibility to determine particular person bears positively influences an individual’s willingness to pay to guard particular person brown bears. Moreover, deliberately watching the bearcams when a particular bear was on display yielded higher conservation outcomes in keeping with the survey outcomes (that’s, for those who stated you watched the bear cams extra when Otis or 503 or one other favourite bear had been on digicam then you definately had been extra prone to state you supported bear conservation).

A separate sequence of questions within the survey aimed to judge an individual’s emotional connection to brown bears via a statistical technique referred to as conservation caring. This can be a numerical measure of an individual’s optimistic emotional connection to species or place. These questions had been on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 9 (strongly agree). The next rating indicated a larger emotional connection. Viewers who may determine particular person bears had considerably greater conservation caring ranges (7.06 ± 1.68) than viewers who may solely determine particular person bears typically (6.81 ± 1.54) and viewers who couldn’t determine particular person bears (5.85 ± 1.70). Conservation caring ranges additionally climbed with the variety of bears an individual stated they may determine.

For those who can’t determine bears on the bear cam, then don’t fear. It’s not a contest and I’ll proceed to work to offer everybody the instruments and tales that permit us to attach with particular person bears. I additionally know there are a lot of individuals who nonetheless take care of bears drastically however don’t place as a lot of an emphasis on attending to know people. What’s extra necessary is that we acknowledge the individuality of untamed animals and acknowledge that they aren’t automatons performing merely on intuition. They assume and really feel and their lives are necessary within the conservation of complete species. Different Otis-like bears doing Otis-like issues roam over wild areas of North America, and if we are able to safe and keep wholesome habitat for Otis then different bears will profit.

We hope to broaden on these outcomes and publish extra in regards to the affect of particular person bears on conservation. I’m additionally all in favour of exploring how interpretive occasions—such because the reside chats and Q&As that I lead throughout the bear cam season—provoke individuals to behave to preserve bears and different wildlife. In spite of everything, it’s one factor to say you assist wildlife conservation, nevertheless it’s one other factor to take motion.

Many viewers of discover.org know that watching wildlife via webcams generally is a highly effective and significant expertise. With the statistical assist of this and future research, maybe we are able to encourage extra parks and guarded areas to make the most of webcams and interpret the lives of particular person animals to construct larger assist for wildlife conservation.

I’d wish to thank the researchers who made this research attainable—Jeff Skibins (who drafted this paper and did the info evaluation) and Lynne Lewis and Leslie Richardson (who had been instrumental within the survey design and implementation). I’d additionally wish to thank the Katmai Conservancy for masking the expense to make the paper obtainable to everybody via open entry.