Delivery of educational material increased awareness of the elusive Pallas’s cat in Southern Mongolia

Abstract

Public engagement and awareness programs are important components of many conservation programs today as such engagements are often critical for successful conservation. In this study, we examined if delivery of educational material increased awareness of the Pallas’s cat and its environment in a southern Mongolia herder community. We found that knowledge was greater and attitudes toward the Pallas’s cat and wildlife in general were more positive one year after the delivery of the educational material. This study thus suggests that educational material can be effective at increasing awareness of small and elusive species such as the Pallas’s cat.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Fondation Segré for financial support, the Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park for logistical support, and the respondents for participating in the surveys. This study was done as part of the Pallas’s Cat International Conservation Alliance (PICA) and the effort to raise awareness of the Pallas’s cat in both the range countries and the rest of the world.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Data availability statement

Supporting data for this research is not available to avoid compromising the privacy of the research participants.