Wild animals connect us with nature

About awe and ecopedagogy

Abstract

In recent years, children’s experiences with nature have been connected to their understanding of sustainability. According to the research, positive nature experiences and the experience of being part of nature lead to caring for it. The care motivates to act sustainably, a relationship described by ‘connectedness with nature’.
However, the research literature often refers to nature as a green (or blue) area, i.e. a place that, unlike urban areas, has properties that stimulate positive experiences of nature. The connection between experiences with wild animals in nature (invertebrates, like snails and spiders, and vertebrates, like mammals and amphibians) and positive nature experiences is not covered. Therefore, in their capacity of being creatures with their own goals, we lack insight into whether wild animals stimulate the experience of being part of nature and sustainable behaviours. The underlying assumption is that animals are easy to feel connected to and care for because they exhibit behaviour that shares similarities with our own that might stimulate interest and lead to a budding understanding. This essay offers an initial theoretical framework for how children’s experiences of wild animals influence their opportunities to develop the nature association. The essay unfolds how observations of wild animals and their purposefulness in their natural environment potentially stimulate emotions and cognition. We point to three effects, namely 1) Stimulation of curiosity
through animal sensation and action, 2) Insight into the diversity of nature through the recognisable and yet different behaviour of animals and 3) Dependence on the specific environment. We end by discussing the effects of the experiences concerning children’s connection to nature and understanding of sustainability.