Seres humanos e zoológicos: do resgate histórico aos mecanismos e fatores que atuam na mudança perceptual dos visitantes

Abstract

The complex relationship between humans and animals throughout history has built what we know today as modern zoos. Knowing the reason for the conditions of the animals in these spaces requires understanding how their visitors perceive this scenario. In this sense, perception studies have been used to analyze the relationship between visitors and the zoo and, ultimately, such studies can be reversed in programs for the conservation and welfare of captive animals. However, the proposal to insert a new reference on which visitors can base themselves to make their judgments and perceptions about the quality of the zoo (using the anchoring method), has not yet been tested. The importance of this test is due to a better understanding of which structural references are taken by visitors to form a positive perception and the possibility of creating critical biases regarding the quality of these spaces, which are fundamental for them to propose to help conservation projects. . That said, this Thesis sought to gather information on how human beings related to animals throughout history and what factors played a role in the construction of zoos, as well as investigating whether the perception of visitors to these spaces can be modified, creating critical biases, using the anchoring method. For this, in the first chapter, a historical rescue of the relationship between human beings and animals was made, from domestication to the present day, critically analyzing what human factors, whether cultural, social or economic, that led to the construction of what we know today like zoos. We also consider how human beings perceived animals (such as the utilitarian view in prehistory or the empathy that led to the creation of animal rights) and, from that point of view, they related to them. Finally, we evaluated how conflicts, such as land conquests and world wars, were significant in maintaining these spaces, in addition to predicting what factors will be important for zoos to become conservation centers in the future. In the second chapter, we present an experiment in which we tried to test the anchoring method in creating perceptual bias in visitors. The data in the second chapter were collected at the Parque Zoologico de Dois Irmãos (Pernambuco) and at the Zoologico de Salvador (Bahia) both located in Brazil and chosen because they do not belong to WAZA. Through interviews with a semi-structured form, visitors were asked when the quality of life and stress levels of the animals, as well as the availability to support conservation projects developed by zoos. During data collection, visitors were separated into two groups: Group I (control) did not receive a visual stimulus, responding only to the form, while group II (experiment) received a visual stimulus and then responded to the form. The visual stimulus consisted of a video from the Tiergarten Schönbrunn zoo (Vienna, Austria), a member of WAZA. The data were analyzed using Fisher's Exact Test, after creating a contingency table (given the non-normality of the data), in which for each question the responses of visitors who watched the video were compared with those who did not. to the video. All statistical analyzes were performed using software R 3.6.1, with a significance level of p≤0.05. The findings found in the historical rescue enabled us to better understand how human beings' perception of animals and sociocultural changes over time influenced the way people today relate to animals and build the zoo's structure. In this sense, we realize that the creation of the pillars that support the activities of zoos today is derived from the various changes of thought throughout history, as well as in the way we deal with nature. Finally, the future prospects are for the consolidation of zoos in conservation centers, they essentially depend on studies with the perception of visitors about animals in these spaces. With regard to the results found in the experiment in the second chapter, visitors who watched the video became significantly more sensitive to perceiving the problems of the zoos visited in terms of the animals' quality of life and stress levels, in addition to reducing the desire to contribute to projects conservation of these zoos. That said, we understand that the advance of research that access the perception of visitors to zoos can rely on the anchorage model to test and improve the positive experiences of visitors, possibly reverberating in the success of conservation activities in these institutions. A zoo essentially depends on its public, both for its survival and to fulfill its main role, which is to raise the awareness of visitors to environmental problems.