Age matters: impact of live animal programmes for children on conservation intent and desire for exotic pets

Abstract Live animal programming is one way that zoos and aquariums can connect their visitors to wildlife. At The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in California, USA, children aged 7–15 years were assigned to different animal presentation styles as part of their participation in a 3-day summer camp involving ambassador animals. Children were either allowed or not allowed to touch a tortoise being presented to them, following current practices in zoos. We predicted that the ability to touch a tortoise would increase both the desire to conserve tortoises in the wild, as intended, as well as the desire to own a tortoise as a pet, reflecting an unintended descriptive norm. We found no overall effect of allowing children to touch a tortoise on their personal desire to own a tortoise or on making them think others could own them, although participating in the live animal programme at the summer camp reduced older children’s personal desire to own a tortoise and lowered all children’s belief that other people should be able to own tortoises. Across presentation styles, exposure to an ambassador animal encounter increased children’s conservation intent, suggesting that attending a nature-based camp increased their pro-conservation attitudes. Age moderated the effects: touching increased conservation intent and liking among younger children more than older ones, while they still expressed a desire to own tortoises as pets. We discuss the implications of our results for ambassador animal programmes with children.