Norwegian preschool children's knowledge about some common wild animal species and their habitats

It is crucial that future generations have the knowledge about nature and the willingness to make right decisions for sustainable development, including the halt of global biodiversity loss. Perception of species and the ability to identify wild species (i.e. animals, plants and fungi) are fundamental for the understanding of biodiversity. Norwegian kindergartens are imposed to give children outdoor experience encouraging environmental awareness and contributing to sustainable development. We therefore interviewed 55 pre-schoolers from eight kindergartens about their ability to recognise a selection of twelve animal species from three different habitats. On average, the children identified four species correctly and they recognised more species from the forest habitat than fresh water and mountain areas. The children were also significantly better at assigning forest animals to the correct habitat compared to other habitats. The findings indicate that pre-schoolers` knowledge about local nature, in which they spend time on a weekly basis, is rather high compared to other types of nature. Despite a large variation in the amount of time adults spent in nature conversing with children about nature, these two variables were not significantly associated with children's species knowledge.