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Empathy for wildlife: The importance of the individual.

ABSTRACT: Because climate change and the biodiversity crisis are driven by human actions, determining psychological mechanisms underpinning support for environmental action is an urgent priority. Here, we experimentally tested for mechanisms promoting conservation-related motivation and behavior toward a flagship species, wild Tamanend's bottlenose dolphins. Following evidence that empathy increases prosocial motivations and behavior, and that the ability to identify individual humans promotes empathy, we tested whether this relationship applied to the ability to identify individual dolphins. Participants identified dolphins from their dorsal fins at above chance levels, and better individuation correlated with higher empathy for dolphins and higher willingness to pledge environmental behaviors. Pairing a narrative with an image of an injured dolphin leads to higher donations relative to a narrative alone. Our novel finding that the ability to individually identify dolphins relates to empathy and conservation-related behavior suggests pathways for strengthening environmental attitudes and behavior.

SUBMITTER: Smith P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11300747 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Empathy for wildlife: The importance of the individual.

Smith Pauline P Mann Janet J Marsh Abigail A

Ambio 20240525 9

Because climate change and the biodiversity crisis are driven by human actions, determining psychological mechanisms underpinning support for environmental action is an urgent priority. Here, we experimentally tested for mechanisms promoting conservation-related motivation and behavior toward a flagship species, wild Tamanend's bottlenose dolphins. Following evidence that empathy increases prosocial motivations and behavior, and that the ability to identify individual humans promotes empathy, we ...[more]

PMID: 38795282

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Project description:The growing diversity of animal-borne sensor types is revolutionizing our understanding of wildlife biology. For example, researcher-developed sensors, such as audio and video loggers, are being increasingly attached to wildlife tracking collars to provide insights into a range of topics from species interactions to physiology. However, such devices are often prohibitively power-intensive, relative to conventional wildlife collar sensors, and their retrieval without compromising long-term data collection and animal welfare remains a challenge. We present an open-source system (SensorDrop) for remotely detaching individual sensors from wildlife collars. SensorDrop facilitates the retrieval of power-intensive sensors while leaving non-resource-intensive sensors intact on animals. SensorDrop systems can be made using commercially available components and are a fraction of the cost of other timed drop-off devices that detach full wildlife tracking collars. From 2021 to 2022, eight SensorDrop units were successfully deployed on free-ranging African wild dog packs in the Okavango Delta as part of audio-accelerometer sensor bundles attached to wildlife collars. All SensorDrop units detached after 2-3 weeks and facilitated the collection of audio and accelerometer data while leaving wildlife GPS collars intact to continue collecting locational data (>1 year), critical for long-term conservation population monitoring in the region. SensorDrop offers a low-cost method to remotely detach and retrieve individual sensors from wildlife collars. By selectively detaching battery-depleted sensors, SensorDrop maximizes the amount of data collected per wildlife collar deployment and mitigates ethical concerns on animal rehandling. SensorDrop adds to the growing body of open-source animal-borne technologies being utilized by wildlife researchers to innovate and expand upon data collection practices and supports the continued ethical use of novel technologies within wildlife studies.

Dataset Information

Empathy for wildlife: The importance of the individual.

Publications

Empathy for wildlife: The importance of the individual.

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