Children and adolescents across 23 communities learn about animals in diverse environments and through multiple activities

Children's interactions with animals shape their understanding of the biological world and humans' place in it. Understanding where children report they encounter and gain their knowledge of animals can provide insight into the early experiences that help shape human attitudes and connections to nature. To date, there is limited information on how children across diverse communities and age groups interact with animals and learn about them in their daily lives. Using a child‐centred approach, we interviewed 729 children and adolescents (aged 4‐to‐17 years) living in 23 diverse urban and rural communities worldwide and asked them where they saw and learned about animals. Children across diverse communities mentioned zoos, forests and family homes as key places to learn about animals. Across communities of low, medium and high population densities, children were more likely to report learning about animals in human‐built environments than in wild environments. Our data also revealed cross‐cultural variation in the most salient sources of animal knowledge for children in different communities. Children and adolescents from high‐density communities were more likely to mention learning activities, children in medium‐density communities more likely to mention technologies, and young children in low‐density communities more likely to mention wild environments relative to other children. This large‐scale investigation highlights that children's ecological learning is embedded within the cultural, social and environmental contexts they develop in. As interactions with animals provide a direct route to engaging with the natural world, understanding where and how these encounters take place may shed light on where children may build their early relationships with nature. Our findings suggest that environmental education and conservation programs may benefit from considering the local context and tying their activities to the locations and activities children find salient for learning about animals. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.