Students' Attitudes to and Knowledge of Brown Bears (Ursus arctos L.): Can More Knowledge Reduce Fear and Assist in Conservation Efforts?

Simple Summary Large carnivores distributed throughout Europe have interactions with people because their habitats often collide with human settlements. Since human behavior can significantly influence the conservation of these species, knowledge of certain behaviors and factors of influence are crucial. The present study included 534 students from lower and upper secondary schools. In this article, students' attitudes to and knowledge of brown bears and the indirect effect of teaching are examined. Factors such as gender and seeing a bear in nature were found to influence the students' attitudes and knowledge significantly, implying that they should be considered in any future educational actions. Other factors like residence, owning a dog, having a hunter in the family, breeding livestock and visiting a zoo had a smaller effect on the students' attitudes and knowledge in general. The results thus indicate that greater knowledge was correlated with proconservation attitudes and reduced fear among the students. The expansion of large carnivores across Europe is posing a challenge to their conservation. Since success with conservation may depend significantly on human behavior, knowledge of certain behaviors' emergence and all the factors that affect them are crucial. The present study included 534 students who were divided into a comparison group (n = 317) and a treatment group (n = 217) consisting of 309 lower secondary (LS, M-Age = 12.2, SD = 0.94) and 225 upper secondary (US, n = 225, M-Age = 16.5, SD = 0.99) school students. We assessed their attitudes to and knowledge of brown bears. An indirect effect of the workshops (instructions) is also described. Sociodemographic factors, such as gender and seeing a bear in nature, significantly influenced the students' attitudes and knowledge. Residence, owning a dog, having a hunter in the family, breeding livestock and visiting a zoo had a smaller effect on the students' attitudes and knowledge. The results thus show that greater knowledge is correlated with proconservation attitudes, and partly with reduction of fear. Therefore, future conservation and management should employ strong communication, especially education activities based on direct experiences and carefully designed information regarding species and socio-scientific issues.