Evidence for a Relationship between Class Experience Handling Wildlife and Interest in Wildlife Careers

Instructors of organismal courses such as mammalogy often encounter challenges gaining approval from Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUC) to conduct class activities including live vertebrates. While many instructors believe class activities allowing interaction with wildlife (e.g., livetrapping) encourage students to pursue wildlife careers in a less biased, more time- and cost-effective manner than individual research internships, evidence is lacking. We developed a 52-question survey to examine the relationship between class experiences with wildlife and interest in wildlife careers. Factor analysis of 36 responses resulted in 6 internally consistent factors (range = 0.768 - 0.961) measuring aspects of attitude towards wildlife and wildlife careers. Students with prior class experience handling wildlife had greater values for factors representing confidence in attaining a wildlife career (M = 5.460, SD = 1.125) and desire for a wildlife career (M = 6.000, SD = 0.997) than students without such experience (Confidence: M = 4.242, SD = 1.163; Desire: M = 4.473, SD = 1.5470); differences were significant (Confidence: t(34) = 2.963, p = 0.006; Desire: t(34) = 3.010, p = 0.009). Results suggest class experiences handling wildlife play a role in encouraging students to pursue wildlife careers. Refining survey questions and increasing sample size may yield further evidence for the value of class experiences handling wildlife that instructors can present when seeking IACUC approval of such activities.