Approach
For this study, we distributed a survey on Qualtrics. This study asked participants questions regarding their demographic background, which typology they most identify as, whether or not they understand what an accredited zoo is, and their previous experiences with zoos, as well as their overall perspective on the institutions.
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We sent out 110 surveys total, and we received 86 responses back. This means our response rate was 78.18%. Of respondents that elected to disclose their age, 72.6% were 18-25 (Figure 2), and majority of respondents were female (Figure 1). Our respondents represented 15 states, majority of which were from Louisiana (59.12%). Additional demographic statistically significant information, is shown below.
Results
Figure 1. Majority of respondents were female (60.27%).
Figure 2. Age distribution of respondents. The counts on the chart are number of individuals, not percentages. Of those that provided their age, an overwhelming majority (72.6%) were 18-25 years old. There were very few middle-aged to senior participants.
Figure 3. Distribution of respondents based on the population size where they grew up.
Typologies
Figure 4. Respondents indicated their view of nature by selecting one of the options on the x axis. From left to right the typologies read: naturalistic, ecologistic, humanistic, moralistic, biocentric, aesthetic, and neutralistic. The options "I am interested in having control over nature" (dominionistic) and "I dislike and/or fear nature" (negativistic) are not included in this table because no respondents selected these as their view of nature.
Table 1. Of the ecologistic respondents, 55.6% also somewhat agreed with trusting accredited zoos to contribute to the conservation of biodiversity. Individuals who value the way nature works would naturally be interested in protecting these natural processes and the biodiversity that comes with them.
Table 2. Statistical relationships between typologies and reasonings why respondents had a positive experience at a zoo. This chart demonstrates statistical significance of what different typologies noticed at the zoo during a positive experience. 75% of naturalistic individuals indicated "yes" for noticing animal enrichment activities. 66.7% of individuals that identified as humanistic did not notice animal enrichment activities. Of individuals that are moralistic, 93.8% did notice animal enrichment activities.
Table 3. Statistical relationship between ecologistic and moralistic typologies and educational experience being a reason why an experience at the zoo was positive. There is statistical significance found between these two typologies and a positive experience at the zoo involving educational experiences. 83.3% of ecologistic individuals included educational experience as a reason for their positive zoo experience, as did 87.5% of moralistic individuals.
Awareness of zoo accreditation
Table 4. Statistical relationship between the respondent's familiarity with zoo accreditation and a statement regarding zoo involvement in biodiversity protection. Although the marked percentage looks inconsequential because of its smaller size, it represents 5/5 "neither agree nor disagree" responses to the biodiversity statement. All of these responses are from individuals that were not familiar with what zoo accreditation is.
Table 5. Statistical relationship between the respondent's familiarity with zoo accreditation and a statement regarding motivation to visit a zoo based on its involvement conservation. 45.7% of individuals that answered as being familiar with what zoo accreditation is, strongly agree with the given statement about having the motivation to visit a zoo because of the institution's conservation efforts. On the other hand, 44.2% of respondents that were familiar with zoo accreditation took a neutral stance on the given statement.
Table 6. Statistically significant relationship between knowing what an accredited zoo is and likelihood of choose an accredited zoo versus and non-accredited zoo. 74.3% of individuals that indicated they were familiar with the meaning of accreditation strongly agreed with choosing an accredited institution over a non-accredited institution.
