Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT, Australia.
Coastal Seas Ecology Team, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Penicuik, Midlothian, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2018 Jun 26;13(6):e0199253. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199253. eCollection 2018.
Understanding what people like about birds can help target advocacy for bird conservation. However, testing preferences for characteristics of birds is methodologically challenging, with bias difficult to avoid. In this paper we test whether preferred characteristics of birds in general are shared by the individual bird species the same people nominate as being those they consider most attractive. We then compare these results with the birds which appear most frequently in the imagery of conservation advocates. Based on a choice model completed by 638 general public respondents from around Australia, we found a preference for small colourful birds with a melodious call. However, when the same people were asked which five birds they found most attractive, 48% named no more than three, mostly large well-known species. Images displayed by a leading Australian bird conservation organisation also favoured large colourful species. The choice model results suggest conservation advocates can promote a much wider range of bird types as flagships, particularly smaller species that might otherwise be neglected.
了解人们喜欢鸟类的哪些方面可以帮助确定鸟类保护的宣传重点。然而，测试人们对鸟类特征的偏好具有挑战性，因为很难避免偏见。在本文中，我们测试了一般来说人们喜欢的鸟类特征是否与他们认为最有吸引力的鸟类物种相同。然后，我们将这些结果与保护主义者形象中出现频率最高的鸟类进行了比较。基于 638 名来自澳大利亚各地的普通公众完成的选择模型，我们发现人们更喜欢色彩鲜艳、叫声悦耳的小型鸟类。然而，当同样的人被问到他们认为最有吸引力的五种鸟是什么时，48%的人只提到了不超过三种，而且大多是广为人知的大型物种。一家领先的澳大利亚鸟类保护组织展示的图片也偏爱大型彩色物种。选择模型的结果表明，保护主义者可以推广更多种类的鸟类作为旗舰物种，特别是那些否则可能被忽视的小型物种。
