Two steps forward, one step back. That’s how it is in the

 beaver world. This morning there was a report from the Cook Inlet Agricultural Association in Alaska about notching beaver dams to help salmon. (!!!) but there’s also a Great Swamp festival in New York announcing ‘The Year of the beaver!” so I guess we should call it a wash,

And  then there’s this, which will give us lots to talk about.

The surprising ways that city and country kids think about wildlife

“Little research has been conducted on children’s attitudes toward wildlife, particularly across zones of urbanization,” write researchers led by Stephanie Schuttler, a biologist at the North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences, in the journal PeerJ. Their study found that “children across all levels of urbanization viewed wildlife in similar ways”—for better or worse.

Oh you can tell RIGHT away I’m going to just love this article. Another sad screed about how are young people are more familiar with their phones than they are with their local creek. Cue last child in the Wilderness right away,

The researchers asked 2,759 4th-through-8th grade North Carolina schoolchildren about the animals they liked most and those they found scary, and to rank their five favorite mammals from a list of 20 local and exotic species. Slightly more than half the students lived in suburban areas, while the rest were exurban or rural dwellers.

Dogs and cats proved to be the most-popular creatures. They were followed by pandas, rabbits, wolves, monkeys, and lions—all of them, with the exception of rabbits, exotics who would only be encountered on screen or in captivity. Local species registered in mostly negative ways; kids were three times more likely to find local animals—skunks and bobcats, coyotes and bats—frightening than to like. The students were also creeped out by invertebrates, reptiles, and fish.. 

Of course everyone on facebook gasped at this, and bemoaned the sad state of our children and wildlife. But as a woman who has thrown 12 beaver festivals, been a day care teacher for 10 years and a child psychologist for thirty I have my own response. 

Let’s start with that methods section. Kids between 8 and 14 are on different planets. Why use the same measure for each and assume it means the same thing? Why on earth would you approach children with a list of these species when you could just as easily hand them a stack of cards with photos of them and ask them to arrange them from most to least liked? Or show them a table of stuffed animals and watch which one they picked up first? Why did you decide that liking something is the same thing as being familiar with it or understanding it anyway? I may know all about my baby brother but it doesn’t mean I’m going to say I like him.

Then let’s talk about language. Are frightening things and creepy things REALLY the kind of things children avoid? I mean we all know how much children hate halloween, gummy worms and never ever tell scary stories at slumber parties, right? Sheesh, I wrote this on facebook but I’m just going to quote it again,

True story. Me and my best friend Yvette hated and were terrified of bugs, especially especially earwigs. On playdates we would spend hours turning over the rocks in my dads garden, until we found something truly horrible. Then we would scream – run into the house, slam the door, run down the hall to my room, push the door tight, throw ourselves on the bed, close our eyes shuddering…and then say breathlessly, “wanna do it again?”

You didn’t terrify yourself at slumber parties with bloody mary stories as a child because you hated religion or infanticide. You did it because being scared was an exciting feeling. Like turning in circles all those times and laying down looking up at the ceiling was an exciting feeling. 

And if you want to know how kids feel about wildlife you are going to have to use a different ruler to measure them by. Something that understands being afraid of something or creeped out means you’re paying A LOT of attention to it.  

Contrary to the researchers’ expectations, these patterns held fairly constant regardless of where kids lived. Though rural students, particularly those who hunted, were slightly more likely to appreciate local species, the difference was not great. “The presumed higher levels of familiarity children in more rural areas have with local wildlife is limited,” write the researchers. “Our results imply that it may not be urbanization alone that is driving the Extinction of Experience, as the disconnect with wildlife among children spans across areas of urbanization.”

Sure it could  mean that all children are having an extinction of experience of wildlife at exactly the same time. OR it could mean that your methods are WRONG and the non results are telling you that you need to rethink what you’re doing. You’ve created a measure that doesn’t differentiate between two pretty different groups. Test construction theory might suggest you need to design another measure.

Other measures of asking children about their interest in wildlife? Let’s brainstorm. It depends a lot on the age group and you might have to use different methods for 4th graders than you would for 8th graders. To an older child you might ask “If some one were writing a story where the animal was the hero, which one should they chose?  Think of your best friend, which of these animals would you say ne or she is most like? If you could ask one animal any a question and magically understand the answer which would you choose? How about if a magician could change you into one if these for a day, which would you pick? How questions that get to empathy too? What does this animal need?

You can see we’d have hours of fun redesigning this test. I know I feel better already.

“People tend to care about and invest in what they know. Children represent the future supporters of conservation,” they write. “ Intentionally providing children experiences in nature may be one of the most important actions conservation biologists can take.”

Finally. Something we can all agree on.