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Emotions and aesthetic preferences evoked by animals in the context of nature conservation
Janovcová, Markéta
People have always seen animals as an important part of their lives. As a result of human activity and other factors, an increasing number of species are becoming endangered. Recently, nature conservation has become increasingly important, but conservation activities cannot do without public support, not only financial. For this reason, it is necessary to understand how people perceive animals and what implications this may have for planning conservation programmes. In this paper, we focused on positive perceptions of animals ascertained through aesthetic preferences (the beauty of the animal) and negative perception through emotions (fear and disgust). It was found that the beauty of the animal and attributed dangerousness have a decisive influence on the support of conservation activities in the preferred group of mammals, while body size and attributed intelligence do not. In contrast, reptiles are an often neglected group of vertebrates, yet they are perceived by humans quite consistently. Humans distinguish reptiles on the basis of external appearance, namely the presence of limbs. Thus, there is a separate group of legless reptiles represented mainly by snakes and legless lizards (e.g. Amphisbaenia), which have their own rules for evaluating beauty and emotions. As it was found in the...
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Emotions and aesthetic preferences evoked by animals in the context of nature conservation
Janovcová, Markéta ; Landová, Eva (advisor) ; Stibral, Karel (referee) ; Prokop, Pavol (referee)
People have always seen animals as an important part of their lives. As a result of human activity and other factors, an increasing number of species are becoming endangered. Recently, nature conservation has become increasingly important, but conservation activities cannot do without public support, not only financial. For this reason, it is necessary to understand how people perceive animals and what implications this may have for planning conservation programmes. In this paper, we focused on positive perceptions of animals ascertained through aesthetic preferences (the beauty of the animal) and negative perception through emotions (fear and disgust). It was found that the beauty of the animal and attributed dangerousness have a decisive influence on the support of conservation activities in the preferred group of mammals, while body size and attributed intelligence do not. In contrast, reptiles are an often neglected group of vertebrates, yet they are perceived by humans quite consistently. Humans distinguish reptiles on the basis of external appearance, namely the presence of limbs. Thus, there is a separate group of legless reptiles represented mainly by snakes and legless lizards (e.g. Amphisbaenia), which have their own rules for evaluating beauty and emotions. As it was found in the...
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Factors influencing worldwide zoo collections of lizards, snakes, turtles and crocodiles: effect of conservation status, body size and their attractiveness to humans
Janovcová, Markéta ; Landová, Eva (advisor) ; Komárek, Stanislav (referee)
There is a large number of species existing in the world; each year, however, the number of the endangered ones rapidly increases. Nowadays, captive breeding becomes an option for their survival in refugees. Sufficient population with satisfactory breeding management gives hope for survival to the endangered species (in mid-term) or even possible future reintroduction to their natural habitat. WAZA is currently the world's leading association of worldwide zoos and similar breeding facilities. Because these institutions operate as a network to facilitate the exchange of reared individuals, for conservation purposes, their captive populations may be seen as one large population characterized by its size, i.e., the total number of individuals. Such view is currently recognized by many conservationists as the so-called concept of Noah's Ark. The space on the Ark is limited, therefore it is needed to heed the characteristics of the species aboard to maximize the conservation potential. Many factors influence the presence of species in zoological gardens. Following previous studies we selected some factors that may be important, i.e., body lenght, taxonomy, and IUCN status. Analysis of these factors among the main reptile clades shall reveal the pattern of reptile composition in worldwide zoos. One of the factors...
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Factors influencing worldwide zoo collections of lizards, snakes, turtles and crocodiles: effect of conservation status, body size and their attractiveness to humans
Janovcová, Markéta ; Landová, Eva (advisor) ; Komárek, Stanislav (referee)
There is a large number of species existing in the world; each year, however, the number of the endangered ones rapidly increases. Nowadays, captive breeding becomes an option for their survival in refugees. Sufficient population with satisfactory breeding management gives hope for survival to the endangered species (in mid-term) or even possible future reintroduction to their natural habitat. WAZA is currently the world's leading association of worldwide zoos and similar breeding facilities. Because these institutions operate as a network to facilitate the exchange of reared individuals, for conservation purposes, their captive populations may be seen as one large population characterized by its size, i.e., the total number of individuals. Such view is currently recognized by many conservationists as the so-called concept of Noah's Ark. The space on the Ark is limited, therefore it is needed to heed the characteristics of the species aboard to maximize the conservation potential. Many factors influence the presence of species in zoological gardens. Following previous studies we selected some factors that may be important, i.e., body lenght, taxonomy, and IUCN status. Analysis of these factors among the main reptile clades shall reveal the pattern of reptile composition in worldwide zoos. One of the factors...
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Success of reintroduction and supplementation programmes and behavioural changes in captive birds and primates.
Janovcová, Markéta ; Landová, Eva (advisor) ; Kůs, Evžen (referee)
The aims of this study are to: 1) review and evaluate the data available in scientific literature about reintroduction and supplementation programmes in birds and primates. The success of founder population reintroduction into the nature was assessed by its population size, survival rate and other life history traits. The breeding in captivity vs. using wild-caught animals for reintroduction and breeding conditions (longevity of captivity) would be checked. Breeding in enclosure versus semi-captive conditions was also checked. 2) mainly, assess behavioural and morphological changes of populations in relation with captive breeding in relation to success of reintroduction. 3) Map the geographic distribution of reintroduction programmes of particular higher taxa and evaluate the IUCN species status of animals used for conservation programmes.
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