We're still finalizing our plans for 2008, as funding announcements have been very late this year. It is quite a challenge to plan everything, hire staff, etc. without knowing what funding will actually come through!
However, we continue to forge ahead, and at the moment it seems like we will depart from Orillia on July 7th, and spend about a week getting to Manitoba. We'll spend another week or so in each of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, before heading into Alberta. Alberta and British Columbia are the main focus of our western tour this summer, so we'll spend about 2 weeks in Alberta and then 3 weeks in British Columbia. We expect to finish up in the area where Sharp-tailed Snakes are found, on Vancouver Island, around Labour Day. Some of the staff will fly back to start school, and a couple of us will spend another 2 weeks driving the van and trailer back to Ontario, with a few school programs along the way.
We will then deliver some more school programs in Ontario throughout the fall and winter, until we run out of funding and shut down the project.
2008 has been intended to be the final year of the project. However, there is some possibility of it being extended, and discussions will occur in the fall about the future!
It's been awhile since I've updated this- lots of things on the go! I've been quite busy working on building our nature centre while the Reptiles at Risk on the Road project has been on hiatus. However, I really should present some final numbers for the project, so here goes...
Between June 2007 and March 2008, we presented 155 programs under the project across parts of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Approximately 14539 participants attended these programs. We think this is a pretty good measure of success, however we undertook a much more formal evaluation this year. Over 2925 students in Ontario schools were given pre- and post- program surveys to measure their changes in knowledge and attitudes. Return rates for post- surveys were lower than expected but we have complete data for ~1700 students. This may be the most comprehensive evaluation of a wildlife outreach program in Canada. The statistically signifciant (p<0.0001) results are as follows:
Snake knowledge: a 50% improvement
Snake attitude: a 17% improvement
Turtle knowledge: a 40% improvement
Turtle attitude: a 5% improvement
These results are very similar to those of 2006, when only ~400 students were evaluated. They are also very similar to our predictions- the program participants showed significant improvements in knowledge and attitude towards Ontario's snakes and turtles. Attitude towards turtles was the smallest improvement, however the scores were higher to begin with. This is an expected result. Attitudes towards turtles are generally much more positive than attitudes towards snakes. The greatest gains are to be had with snake species.
It is important to realize that these statistical comparisions use mean scores. Within each program, a number of participants that disliked snakes strongly showed much greater improvement. This small proportion of people accounts for a disproportionately high degree of persecution of wild snakes. We believe that reaching this proportion of participants and changing their attitudes should result in a greatly decreased level of persecution.
We're now gearing up for a high level of activity for 2008- the completion of our cross-Canada project with a tour out to the west coast this summer! Plans are underway, so stay tuned for more details.