Assessing Public Engagement with Science in a University Primate Research Centre in a National Zoo

Recent years have seen increasing encouragement by research institutions and funding bodies for scientists to actively engage with the public, who ultimately finance their work. Animal behaviour as a discipline possesses several features, including its inherent accessibility and appeal to the public, that may help it occupy a particularly successful niche within these developments. It has also established a repertoire of quantitative behavioural methodologies that can be used to document the public's responses to engagement initiatives. This kind of assessment is becoming increasingly important considering the enormous effort now being put into public engagement projects, whose effects are more often assumed than demonstrated. Here we report our first attempts to quantify relevant aspects of the behaviour of a sample of the hundreds of thousands of visitors who pass through the ‘Living Links to Human Evolution Research Centre’ in Edinburgh Zoo. This University research centre actively encourages the public to view ongoing primate research and associated science engagement activities. Focal follows of visitors and scan sampling showed substantial ‘dwell times’ in the Centre by common zoo standards and the addition of new engagement elements in a second year was accompanied by significantly increased overall dwell times, tripling for the most committed two thirds of visitors. Larger groups of visitors were found to spend more time in the Centre than smaller ones. Viewing live, active science was the most effective activity, shown to be enhanced by novel presentations of carefully constructed explanatory materials. The findings emphasise the importance and potential of zoos as public engagement centres for the biological sciences

Birds in the playground: Evaluating the effectiveness of an urban environmental education project in enhancing school children's awareness, knowledge and attitudes towards local wildlife.

Children nowadays, particularly in urban areas, are more disconnected from nature than ever before, leading to a large-scale "extinction of experience" with the natural world. Yet there are many potential benefits from children interacting with nature first-hand, including via outdoor learning opportunities. Urban environmental education programmes typically aim to increase awareness and knowledge of local biodiversity and to promote positive attitudes and behaviour towards the environment. However, limited research has been conducted evaluating to what extent these interventions achieve their goals. Here, we explore and assess the influence of a six-week bird-feeding and monitoring project conducted within school grounds ("Bird Buddies") on individual awareness, knowledge and attitudes towards birds by primary school children. This initiative was conducted across eight (sub-)urban primary schools within Brighton and Hove (UK), with 220 participating children (aged 7 to 10). Via pre- and post-project questionnaires, we found evidence for enhanced awareness of local biodiversity, alongside significant gains in both bird identification knowledge and attitudes, which were greatest for children with little prior exposure to nature. Many children expressed a keenness to continue improving the environmental value of their school grounds and to apply elements of the project at home. Student project evaluation scores were consistently positive. Mirroring this, participating teachers endorsed the project as a positive learning experience for their students. One year after the project, several schools were continuing to feed and watch birds. Collectively, the findings from this study highlight the multiple benefits that can be derived from engagement with a relatively short outdoor environmental activity. We therefore believe that such interventions, if repeated locally/longer term, could enhance children's experience with nature in urban settings with combined positive environmental impact

Decrease in alarm call response among tufted capuchins in competitive feeding contexts: possible evidence for counterdeception

Animal signals function to elicit behaviors in receivers that ultimately benefit the signaler, while receivers should respond in a way that maximizes their own fitness. However, the best response may be difficult for receivers to determine when unreliable signaling is common. “Deceptive” alarm calling is common among tufted capuchins (Cebus apella nigritus) in competitive feeding contexts, and responding to these calls is costly. Receivers should thus vary their responses based on whether a call is likely to be reliable. If capuchins are indeed able to assess reliability, I predicted that receivers will be less likely to respond to alarms that are given during competitive feeding contexts than in noncompetitive contexts, and, within feeding contexts, that individuals inside or adjacent to a food patch will be less likely to respond to alarms than those further from the resource. I tested these predictions in a group of wild capuchins by observing the reactions of focal animals to alarm calls in both noncompetitive contexts and experimental feeding contexts. Antipredator escape reactions, but not vigilance reactions, occurred significantly less often in competitive feeding contexts than in noncompetitive contexts and individuals adjacent to food patches were more likely to respond to alarm calls than were those inside or further from food patches. Although not all predictions were fully supported, the findings demonstrate that receivers vary their behavior in a way that minimizes the costs associated with “deceptive” alarms, but further research is needed to determine whether or not this can be attributed to counterdeception

PER2 Variation is Associated with Diurnal Preference in a Korean Young Population

The PER2 gene has been reported to influence diurnal preference. In this study, we have attempted to characterize the associations between the PER2 gene polymorphisms and diurnal preference in a population of healthy young subjects, controlling for the social and environmental confounding factors. Subjects were 299 students in a college, carefully selected to be mentally and physically healthy. All subjects completed the 13-item composite scale for morningness (CSM). PER2 gene polymorphisms were genotyped by PCR-based methods. Genotype and allele carrier status of a PER2 G3853A polymorphism (rs934945) were associated with CSM scores. Carriers of the 3853G allele showed significantly higher CSM scores (P = 0.004, P = 0.009, and P = 0.001; total, morningness, and activity plan, respectively). There were no significant differences on CSM scores among genotypes and allele status of PER2 rs2304672. This result indicates that rs934945 of PER2 may be associated with diurnal preference in a Korean healthy population

Gene Flow and Hybridization between Numerically Imbalanced Populations of Two Duck Species in the Falkland Islands

Interspecific hybridization is common in plants and animals, particularly in waterfowl (Anatidae). One factor shown to contribute to hybridization is restricted mate choice, which can occur when two species occur in sympatry but one is rare. The Hubbs principle, or “desperation hypothesis,” states that under such circumstances the rarer species is more likely to mate with heterospecifics. Here we report interspecific hybridization between two waterfowl species that coexist in broad sympatry and mixed flocks throughout southern South America. Speckled teal (Anas flavirostris) and yellow-billed pintails (Anas georgica) are abundant in continental South America, but in the Falkland Islands speckled teal outnumber yellow-billed pintails approximately ten to one. Using eight genetic loci (mtDNA and 7 nuclear introns) coupled with Bayesian assignment tests and relatedness analysis, we identified a speckled teal x yellow-billed pintail F1 hybrid female and her duckling sired by a male speckled teal. Although our sample in the Falkland Islands was small, we failed to identify unequivocal evidence of hybridization or introgression in a much larger sample from Argentina using a three-population “isolation with migration” coalescent analysis. While additional data are needed to determine if this event in the Falkland Islands was a rare singular occurrence, our results provide further support for the “desperation hypothesis,” which states that scarcity in one population and abundance of another will often lead to hybridization

Discovery and population genomics of structural variation in a songbird genus

Structural variation (SV) constitutes an important type of genetic mutations providing the raw material for evolution. Here, we uncover the genome-wide spectrum of intra- and interspecific SV segregating in natural populations of seven songbird species in the genus Corvus. Combining short-read (N = 127) and long-read re-sequencing (N = 31), as well as optical mapping (N = 16), we apply both assembly- and read mapping approaches to detect SV and characterize a total of 220,452 insertions, deletions and inversions. We exploit sampling across wide phylogenetic timescales to validate SV genotypes and assess the contribution of SV to evolutionary processes in an avian model of incipient speciation. We reveal an evolutionary young (~530,000 years) cis-acting 2.25-kb LTR retrotransposon insertion reducing expression of the NDP gene with consequences for premating isolation. Our results attest to the wealth and evolutionary significance of SV segregating in natural populations and highlight the need for reliable SV genotyping

Animal welfare attitudes: Effects of gender and diet in university samples from 22 countries

Animal Welfare Attitudes (AWA) are defined as human attitudes towards the welfare of animals in different dimensions and settings. Demographic factors, such as age and gender are associated with AWA. The aim of this study was to assess gender differences among university students in a large convenience sample from twenty-two nations in AWA. A total of 7914 people participated in the study (5155 women, 2711 men, 48 diverse). Participants completed a questionnaire that collected demographic data, typical diet and responses to the Composite Respect for Animals Scale Short version (CRAS-S). In addition, we used a measure of gender empowerment from the Human Development Report. The largest variance in AWA was explained by diet, followed by country and gender. In terms of diet, 6385 participants reported to be omnivores, 296 as pescatarian, 637 ate a vegetarian diet and 434 were vegans (n = 162 without answer). Diet was related with CRAS-S scores; people with a vegan diet scored higher in AWA than omnivores. Women scored significantly higher on AWA than men. Furthermore, gender differences in AWA increased as gender inequality decreased

Secondary students' values and perceptions of science-related careers: responses to vignette-based scenarios

There has been concern about the attractiveness of science-based careers to many adolescent learners, and it has been suggested that school science may not always recognise or engage personal values that are important to young people in making life choices. The present study discusses interview comments made by upper secondary level students in England when 15 young people were asked to give their personal responses to brief vignettes describing scientific careers. Using an interview-about-scenarios approach, the students were asked about whether they would feel comfortable working in the scientific careers represented. The career areas were purposefully selected because they might be considered to potentially raise issues in relation to personal values or commitments that some students might hold. A range of student perceptions relating to the mooted careers were elicited (positive, negative and indifferent), but all of the participants raised issues that impacted on the acceptability or attractiveness of at least one of the mooted scientific careers, in terms of aspects of their own personal beliefs and values systems. It is recommended that teachers and career advisors should be aware of the range of value-related considerations that influence student views of science-related careers and should consider exploring aspects of science-based careers that link to values commonly shared by young people. This exploratory study also offers indications for directions for further research exploring how learners' value systems impact upon their perceptions of science and scientific work