Ethno-ornithology of the mushere of Nigeria: Children's knowledge and perceptons of birds

Abstract

Mushere children's ethno-ornithology was surveyed from October to November 2015 to find out their level of bird knowledge-as well as whether and how children valued and learned about birds-in order to determine the potental role such knowledge might play in Mushere biodiversity conservaton. Methods included picture elicitaton exercises, free-listng, and semi-structured interviews. Our results revealed a limited knowledge of birds in Mushere children, and that bird knowledge was gendered. Girls learned through observaton, while boys learned through practcal bird-related actvites. Learning was mostly horizontal for boys but vertcal and/or oblique for girls; the most reported learning mode was through oral traditon. Farmland and garden birds were the most common groups, with birds in the families Columbidae and Estrildidae having the highest salience and frequency of menton. We suggest that this reflects the importance of ecological salience, since both groups are relatvely locally abundant. The children also had a limited knowledge of cultural beliefs and uses of the birds, but valued birds as important. We argue that how much children will know and learn about any biological domain will be determined by the cultural attudes and perceptons of that domain, and the cultural importance atached to it. We conclude that the limited knowledge of birds in Mushere children reflects Mushere cultural indifference (ornithoapatheia) to birds. We suggest that a consistent and deliberate conservaton educaton program that will work towards encouraging ornithophilia, the love of birds, and biophilia, the love of nature, in Mushere children could be beneficial.