Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1022720
ZOO NEWS MEMBER MAGAZINE 05 03 VOLUME 38 SEPTEMBER 20 18 into people's future intentions and help identify how to encourage a greater willingness to care for animals. "Surveys, such as the Conservation Caring scale, allow us to measures how connected people feel to a species and assess their willingness to take action to protect wildlife. People who score highly on this scale are more likely to report that they will take further actions to help protect this species," Emily says. "We humans are sometimes optimistic about our future behaviours and will say what we would ideally like to do rather than what we will actually do when the time comes. In other words, while we may have good intentions, they don't always match our behaviours. As such, where possible, it is always best to try to incorporate some kind of direct measure of behaviour into your research in addition to these surveys." Another important part of developing campaigns is the evaluation stage where researchers measure the impact of the campaigns once they're up and running. "This component of any campaign is essential as it ensures we are successfully engaging our community and achieving our campaign goals," Emily says. ARE YOU A CAT OWNER OR WANNABE CAT OWNER? We are building a community of cat owners who can provide their cat with the longest and happiest lives possible, while protecting local wildlife. Whatever stage of life your cat is at, with the proper care and attention they can thrive when safe at home. Let us guide you through simple things to try when transitioning your cat to a safer and more wildlife-friendly life. Join our Safe Cat Community at safecat.org.au THE SCIENCE BEHIND CONSERVATION CAMPAIGNS Saving wildlife can be quite the task but luckily Zoos Victoria has a range of experts to guide us through the process. Senior Social Science Research Manager, Emily McLeod is an expert in human behaviour and her insights allow us to improve our approach to changing behaviours for the benefit of wildlife. "Human behaviour is fascinating. It's messy and sometimes illogical!" Emily says. "The decisions we make to perform behaviours are influenced by so many factors, including the beliefs and values that we hold, our previous experiences, the context of our situation, the company we're in, or even our mood that day. Human behaviour is complicated and that's what makes it so enjoyable to study – there are so many variables at play and often there's not a clear cut answer to your question," Emily says. Emily describes her role at Zoos Victoria as a continuous investigation into how best to encourage our community to care for our native species and live wildlife-friendly lifestyles. Her social science research, combined with biological research, helps to inform the thinking behind Zoos Victoria's conservation campaigns. "In order to create behavioural change through our campaigns, we need to understand what people are already doing, what they think about the issue we're campaigning for, and what would help them change their behaviour," Emily says. Emily works with researchers from a range of institutions to identify the most important factors that will help make a behaviour change campaign successful to inform the messages that are delivered to people. Measuring human willingness to care for animals is also important work in the development stage of a campaign. The use of surveys can give Emily and the team insights into how much people are willing to do, give up or pay to help care for animals. This data helps the team gain insights RESEARCH IN ACTION – CREATING SAFE CAT, SAFE WILDLIFE Emily's latest research has helped gain key insights into cat owner beliefs and behaviours which has been very useful during the development and delivery of the Safe Cat, Safe Wildlife campaign. "We learned that many cat owners don't feel confident in their ability to keep their cat safe and happy while at home and so increasing this confidence was central to shaping the campaign's key messages." "We wanted to provide people with the tools and knowledge of how to keep their cats safe at home so our Safe Cat, Safe Wildlife website contains information on how to transition a cat to staying safe at home and gives owners fun and simple tricks they can do around the house to enrich their cat's life." "Creating a Safe Cat, Safe Wildlife community is what it's all about – helping people give their cats the best possible life while also protecting our wonderful wildlife." Human behaviour is fascinating. It's messy and sometimes illogical!