Encounters with wild animals provoke a sense of responsibility among 9th graders

Interactions with wild animals appear to provoke children's questions about relationships, interdependencies, and humans' responsibility toward the natural world. They can also foster feelings of empathy. A group of 9th grade students, during outdoor education field  trips to local wetlands, unexpectedly encountered three wild animals (a turtle, an eel, and a swamphen) which resulted in impacts to their environmental learning. In all three cases, youth engaged in behaviors which demonstrated a sense of responsibility for the animals' welfare, anthropomorphizing the animals, concern for the animals' well-being, and  empathy toward the animals. Notably, the animals which provoked the youth responses were large and relatively rare in comparison to the animals they had gone to the wetlands to study (macroinvertebrates and insects) suggesting that may be easier  for  children to empathize with larger and more visible animals

The youth were invited to write, draw, journal, and use other means to communicate their questions, feelings and understandings about the animals they encountered. The author interviewed  youth, observed them before, during and after the animal encounters, and reviewed  creative expressions of the animal encounters, such as illustrated storybooks, poems, and dance. The youths' expressions and behaviors indicated feelings of compassion and empathy toward the animals.

The study suggests that encounters  between children and animals can provoke  feelings of empathy, responsibility, and curiosity about animals, their dependencies and interdependencies on humans.