Posted on August, 01 2000

Manaus, Brazil: The largest city and capital of the Brazilian Amazon State, Manaus is located in the heart of the largest rainforest in the world, the mighty Amazon. The forest provides shelter for half of the world's plant and animal species; however, local children seem to have difficulty recognizing native animals.

Erica Yoshida, a forestry engineer of the National Institute of Amazon Research (INPA), interviewed fifth grade teachers and students of the schools of Manaus to document what they knew about their surroundings. What she found was surprising.

The most startling outcome was the types of animals the students believed live in the rainforest. When asked to name an animal from theAmazon, 32% of the students first named hippos and rhinos, which were closely followed by the lion and tiger before naming macaws, parrots and toucans, the worldwide symbols of the Amazon. The elephant, the giraffe, and the bull were also mentioned before native species such as the pink river dolphin, the wild pig and the panther. When asked what animals they feared most, more than half of the students stated they fear lions, tigers, elephants, bulls, hippos, wolves or bears.

Why do South American children identify African or Asian animals before the regional fauna that surrounds them? Some of the more obvious reasons may be that African animals are larger, easier to see and follow, appear in greater numbers and tend to live in larger, communal groups than South American animals.

However, Yoshida's research also showed that most of the children interviewed (76%) had never visited the forests that surround and that the way local knowledge was taught needed significant improvement.

This lack of knowledge about native wildlife is not confined to the Amazon. Lions, elephants, bears and tigers were also animals mentioned by children interviewed in another study undertaken in Rio de Janeiro, one of Brazil's largest cities.

The problem is surely also historical. By the end of the 18th century, scientific research and the need for new markets motivated European exploration of the African interior. Ancient mysteries, like the unknown source of the Nile River incited people's curiosity. The adventures of explorers such James Bruce, Dr Livingston and Richard Burton created a surge of public interest about all things African in the 19th century. Many books, films and themes illustrated African natural wonders. Classics such as Tarzan, Lawrence of Arabia, and Out of Africa were set in regions of Africa where chimps, camels and elephants were common sightings.

The extensive use of African and Asian wildlife images by Western corporations has also helped to advertise these animals to the rest of the world. Disney's newest theme park, Animal Kingdom, has both African and Asian pavilions, but no South America section. African and Asian wildlife is represented in the most popular corporations, from Hollywood studios (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's lion), oil companies (Exxon's tiger) or cereal companies (Kellogg's tiger) to cigarettes (Camel).

South America does appear in brands such as Jaguar and the website Amazon.com. But Jaguar is one of the world's most exclusive cars and even Amazon.com sell only four books on South American wildlife, against two hundred for African wildlife.

This is hardly a fair representation. Latin America has more species of primates, birds, reptiles, amphibians and birds than anywhere else in the world. Brazil alone has 77 primates, more than in the whole of Africa (excluding Madagascar). But the hard fact is that in Latin America there are few large mammals and no great wild animal herds. Latin American wildlife blends all too well in the dense darkness of the jungle and one can search for days in vain to find a wild jaguar.

For more than two decades the conservation organization WWF has been working to help redress the balance. One of the projects WWF supports in Brazil is the Golden Lion Tamarin Project (GLT) in the State of Rio de Janeiro. Several national TV broadcasts depicting the plight of the golden lion tamarin have succeeded in capturing the public's attention. As Lou Ann Dietz, Senior Programme Officer for WWF-US, pointed out, "to respect or to value something, one has to know what it is." WWF-Brazil has also been marketing cuddly stuffed animals, games and puzzles depicting Brazilian fauna in stores throughout the country. This is the first time examples of Brazilian animals have been on display around the nation.

Other activities include a series of capacity building workshops for environmental educators working in parks and cities all over Brazil. WWF's work in education "provides people with the skills and interest to learn more about their environment, so it is one of the vital tools in getting people to take conservation action", says Jeff England, WWF-US's Environmental Education specialist.

It is time to turn elephants into panthers in Latin America.

(850 words)

* Christine Archer is an environmental writer based in Florida, USA, focussing on Environmental Education