Conservation Education at Zoos and Aquaria: Avoiding Long Distance Travel to Experience Wildlife

Raising awareness of biodiversity loss is an important goal of conservation science. Tourism observing wildlife in the natural habitat has long been believed to be the best way to convey conservation messages to the public. However, the often required long-distance journeys to wildlife tourism destinations are unsustainable. In contrast, zoos and aquaria provide an alternative to observe and interact with wildlife in a local context. Many zoos and aquaria see themselves as avenues for conservation education. Research demonstrated that the provided conservation education often does not appear to be effective. To understand the potential and gaps of conservational education, qualitative research was conducted. Results show that interpretation may contribute to conservation education and the content can influence visitors’ post-visit opinions. The main gaps include different understandings of definitions of conservation; and conservation issues were not the dominant category of the interpretation. This research proposes a model for better conservation education design.