A systematic review of zoo education research reveals what actually achieves conservation behavior change in visitors and how to deliver it with minimal welfare cost to animals.
The evidence review of zoo education reveals a welfare opportunity: the elements that most effectively produce conservation behavior change in visitors are not those that impose the greatest welfare costs on animals. High-quality interpretation, conservation action messaging, and technology-enhanced exhibits can achieve educational goals that justify zoo conservation missions while reducing the welfare burden on individual animals used in high-contact educational programs. This evidence should empower progressive zoo educators to redirect resources from welfare-costly contact programs toward evidence-based programming approaches that achieve better outcomes for both visitors and animals. The welfare case for technology-enhanced education is strengthened when it demonstrably produces equal or superior conservation advocacy behavior.