Can Enhanced Awareness Change Local School Children’s Knowledge of Carnivores in Northern Tanzania?

ABSTRACT

We used a four-day program with a pre-test–post-test approach on 355 selected school children to investigate the influence of a wildlife education project on the acquisition of knowledge about large carnivores in Loliondo, Tanzania. After the school program was completed, a significantly higher number of school children correctly identified six carnivore species, compared to when the same identification task was administered prior to the initiation of the school program. This increased knowledge is important for the conservation of large carnivores in general and of African wild dogs, in particular, because the post-test results showed that most school children considered wild dogs to be an important part of the ecosystem. In areas experiencing human– carnivore conflict, it is important to include conservation education programs in school curricula as early as possible to enable students to gain knowledge of large carnivores and their role in ecosystems.

KEYWORDS:

• African wild dogs
• attitudes
• conservation education knowledge
• large carnivores
• school children

Acknowledgments

Special thanks should go to Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI) who granted permission to conduct research in the Serengeti ecosystem while Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) and Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) granted us entry permission to their respective areas. We are grateful to the Ngorongoro District Education Officer for his good support and without forgetting all colleagues at the Serengeti Wildlife Research Centre who in one way assisted us during the whole period of our data collection. Finally we are indebted to two anonymous reviewers whose constructive commends helped us to improve this article.

Funding

This study was funded by a grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Norway through the Environmental Agency of Norway to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) at the Department of Biology, and Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI). The project is a capacity building project under Intergovernmental Policy Platform on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services (IPBES) as a part of the project titled “The dynamics of large infrastructure development in conservation of the Serengeti Ecosystem—the case study of a road through Serengeti National Park.” The project provided logistical support.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by a grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Norway through the Environmental Agency of Norway to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) at the Department of Biology, and Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI). The project is a capacity building project under Intergovernmental Policy Platform on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services (IPBES) as a part of the project titled “The dynamics of large infrastructure development in conservation of the Serengeti Ecosystem—the case study of a road through Serengeti National Park.” The project provided logistical support.