Human-animal relationships in zoos: Optimising animal and visitor experiences. Extensive research on human-animal relationships in agricultural and domestic settings shows that human-animal interaction affects animal behaviour and welfare, which in turn affect human attitudes to animals. As conservation and welfare organisations, zoos aim to provide visitors with opportunities to closely interact with animals to improve visitor experience and conservation outcomes, whilst maintaining good animal ....Human-animal relationships in zoos: Optimising animal and visitor experiences. Extensive research on human-animal relationships in agricultural and domestic settings shows that human-animal interaction affects animal behaviour and welfare, which in turn affect human attitudes to animals. As conservation and welfare organisations, zoos aim to provide visitors with opportunities to closely interact with animals to improve visitor experience and conservation outcomes, whilst maintaining good animal welfare. Some visitor interactions may be stressful for some animals creating conflict between animal welfare and visitor experience. By determining visitor effects, this project aims to provide zoos with practical animal management and educational strategies to optimise both animal welfare and visitor experience.Read moreRead less
Promoting and managing national parks into the 21st century. National parks protect two thirds of Australia's biodiversity. If society does not regard parks as important, biodiversity loss through neglect is inevitable. This project aims to improve our understanding of the place of parks in society. Methods from marketing research, assessing and shifting the 'market position' of parks and managing the quality of visitors' experiences in parks to increase visitor loyalty, will be refined and appl ....Promoting and managing national parks into the 21st century. National parks protect two thirds of Australia's biodiversity. If society does not regard parks as important, biodiversity loss through neglect is inevitable. This project aims to improve our understanding of the place of parks in society. Methods from marketing research, assessing and shifting the 'market position' of parks and managing the quality of visitors' experiences in parks to increase visitor loyalty, will be refined and applied in two Australian states; Victoria and Western Australia. The project will build on and improve theories, methodologies and instruments for positioning and managing parks and visitors to parks in these two states and beyond, to achieve better knowledge and support for parks in 21st century society.Read moreRead less