Do Species Awareness Days Work?

New research into events like World Pangolin Day and International Tiger Day reveals how to make these celebrations more effective.

For those of us in the conservation community, there’s only one holiday each year that truly matters: World Pangolin Day.

No, wait, scratch that. It’s really Manatee Appreciation Day.

Oh, no, I forgot about Panamanian Golden Frog Day. That one’s important.

But what about International Tiger Day? Or World Otter Day? Or…

Okay, there are a lot of these “species awareness days” each year. They cover everything from birds to marine mammals and from big cats to tiny fungi. Some are established by international bodies like the United Nations. Others are declared by species’ home nations, while many are created by conservation nonprofits. In fact, just about anyone can declare a “holiday” and put it on the calendar. That’s how Earth Day got its start, after all. (We found enough environmental holidays to fill an entire calendar.)

These awareness days have obviously become a popular way to honor endangered species and fundraise for their conservation, but one big question looms over the concept: Do they work?

The answer, according to a paper published recently in the journal Biological Conservation, is yes — at least, to a certain degree.

Do Species Awareness Days Work? • The Revelator

 

I hate to go all Bill Clinton on ya but what does "works" mean?
The article points out greater mentions in social media but do endangered animals "care" how many "likes" they get?
The article states "And that sometimes generates cash for conservation efforts." Not a glowing recommendation

 

They would work better if people actually knew about them.

 

I might agree with that. The question now is how and where to continue spreading the word. I know social media sounds like an obvious answer, but I don't believe it'll always go far or wide enough...

 

I guess I am going to have to do a good deal of brainstorming on this one...

 

I wasn't aware of it this, but it is actually Sea Otter Awareness week this week.

Defenders of Wildlife on LinkedIn: #SeaOtterAwarenessWeek

 

I feel bad that I didn't get you a card

 

International Sawfish Day

17 October

Today is International Sawfish Day! That might not sound too exciting to you because the vast majority of people have never even heard of sawfish, let alone understanding why they have their own awareness day! But Sawfish are
so worth a few minutes of your time! They are absolutely fantastically bizarre animals! So please allow me to introduce you to these unique and wonderful creatures... I'm sure you will come love them!

https://www.sophiemaycocksharkspeak.com/post/international-sawfish-day

 

It happens... These species awareness days could give Hallmark a new idea haha...

 

Sawfish Day has its own website, which helps - https://internationalsawfishday.org/

It's all about the marketing. Getting zoos to push these holidays and do events in conjunction helps. International Cheetah Day is big, with events happening worldwide every December 4th. A lot of zoos do something for it, even ones that don't have the species. The website, International Cheetah Day , has images you can use on any social media platform, with some that are platform specific (like facebook frames and headers). There's a long list of tweets you can retweet just by clicking on them. They have a bunch of activities teachers can use with kids, as well, like coloring pages and masks.

 

Today is World Okapi Day.

Wildlife Conservation Society on LinkedIn: #WorldOkapiDay

 

Great points you made here.

 

My personal opinion is that this is all too much. I feels as though 365 lucky species have their own days, with a rather less lucky 366th having a day in leap years only. Overkill! Everything becomes diffused and superficial if attention expires after 24 hours. The principle is OK, but it will only make a real impact if the range is limited so that a proper programme of events can be organised to give the public a deeper understanding. A month or a fortnight would give so much more opportunity that a day. Obviously there would have to be a longer cycle and so a group would have to wait at least 5 years before its turn came round again. Who fancies Seahorse September or Mongoose Midsummer?

 

There are quite a few weeks/months, but they have *less* of an impact. Spreading it out means the social media hit isn't as big overall, so is less likely to stand out. I guess it depends on the goal - trying to reach people who already care about the species (or genus, etc), or people that don't know much or anything about them? Designating a week also means the dates rotate each year, which is a pain.

I have a google calendar layer that has all of the holidays I've found and there's plenty of dates with nothing animal related And a few dates with multiple. Some species have multiple days, too, like penguins and elephants.

 

Today is Hagfish Awareness Day.

 

I don't know how many ZooChatters have seen a live hagfish - but I suspect that those who have may agree that the only appropriate date for this day is October 31st, but also that they might prefer never to have been aware of them in the first place.

 

Happy International Sloth Day everyone! Go hug a sloth today.

 

Not sure how I’ll do that LOL

 

Ok, well I guess the closest thing you can do is visit your nearest zoo and/or aquarium that has sloths on exhibit so you can see them and photograph them. Or you can go to your nearest natural history museum that has fossils from a prehistoric ground sloth(s) on exhibit. Happy International Sloth Day!

 

Two years ago myself and a former member went to Smithsonian for sloth day. They did a whole thing for all of Xenarthra in the small mammals building. It was pouring rain so I hung out for several hours. They did presentations with animals, had different trivia games like a spinning wheel and a jeopardy-like one with different difficulty levels, lots of nice little things Xenarthra is one of my weakest mammal areas so I learned a lot!