Learning Group: Building Empathy for Wildlife in Zoos and Aquariums
ACE for Wildlife® Network • January 2025
This webinar highlights the literature review: Building Empathy for Wildlife Conservation in Zoos and Aquariums: What We Know and How to Use It. This practitioners’ guide was developed by the Social Ecology Lab at Stanford University and Woodland Park Zoo in an effort to understand the most current research on the relationship between empathy and conservation action. The authors join us for a Learning Group to discuss this resource and answer any questions viewers may have.
This study developed a scale to measure guest connection to species and investigated the relationship between those feelings of connection and pro-conservation behaviors.
This learning group dives into differences between conservation actions and caring actions, including defining characteristics and how empathy-based programming can influence these types of behavior change.