Education of Zoo Visitors and Advocacy of Kea - Kea Conservation ...

Education was not seen as a popular reason for visiting in three quarters of the
sample. Zoos could improve this by promoting themselves more as centres for
learning and education.
Education/knowledge of zoo visitors
The level of general knowledge of this species by visitors varies. Most areas have the
need for improvement and include threat classification, habitat, range, and protection
status.
The majority of zoo visitors were aware Kea are New Zealand Native bird. Two thirds
of visitors knew Kea are protected, but just under one third were not sure of protection
status, this possibly could have been due to historic beliefs that this is a pest species.
Half of the sample knew that South Island is the area this species lives, but half were
either incorrect or were not sure, this is surprising considering the amount of press
Kea have due to their interactions with people and property at ski fields in the South
Island. Under half of the sample knew the normal habitat was either Alpine or beech
forest, again surprising that more people did not recognise Alpine area as habitat. The
lowest recognised frequency was given for the question “are Kea endangered?” this
question was the only one in which proved to be significant due to visitors listening to
a zookeeper talk, all of those who listened to a talk answered this correctly. As
mentioned in the introduction, there is currently no captive breeding taking place, as
such, this species are not specifically highlighted as endangered, when compared to
other species involved in active conservation measures.
The majority of visitors were aware that Kea are highly intelligent and curious. When
asked a behaviour change question “would you feed wild Kea” the majority answered
they would not.
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