Understanding factors that influence people’s perceptions of human disturbance to wildlife using little penguins as a case study

As humans increasingly interact with nature, it is important to understand how humans perceive their impact(s) on wildlife. Using little penguins (Eudyptula minor) as a case study, we investigated which factors influenced self-reported understanding of human disturbance to wildlife and knowledge of species. We then determined whether participants changed their self-reported definition of what constitutes disturbance to wildlife following a behavioral evaluation of little penguin videos and assessed whether participants could be used to evaluate animal behavior videos. We showed that participants' demographics influenced self-reported knowledge regarding little penguins. We also found that participants' education levels correlated with their understanding of human disturbance and abilities to evaluate behavioral videos. However, we did not see a change in people's understanding of what constitute disturbance to wildlife following the behavioral evaluation. Our results demonstrate the impact that participants' education levels can have for both knowledge relevant to wildlife and behavioral studies.