To protect nature, it is still necessary to know it.
While the human habitat is constantly moving away from natural areas, cartoons, books, stuffed animals, and even clothes are more than ever media that make it possible to make the little ones aware of the world that surrounded.
But is it used correctly?
This is the question that Michiel Hooykaas, a Dutch researcher, has been asking for years.
First field of investigation: children's books.
With his team, they seized 217 works for 3-9 year olds, published between 2010 and 2020 and having won distinctions.
They have identified 2200 animals through all these works, and even if the researchers are well aware that these books are not specifically written / illustrated to educate children about nature, they contribute to forging an image of animals and biodiversity. .
Of these 2,200 animals summoned within the pages, a very large majority of mammals: domestic animals or popular exotics (lion, bear, elephant, etc.) hold the leading roles.
In the background sometimes, birds, insects or fish, in front of which however,
numerically speaking, mammals don't measure up in real life.
Moreover, mammals have the chance to be precisely identified, for example “the tiger” (and not “the feline”), while the bird is very often “just” a bird;
he has no right to be specifically designated.
Not all housed in the same boat then!
Overrepresentation of exotic animals
But Michiel Hooykaas raises another pitfall in giving pride of place to animals, for example, of the African savannah: "If children see in these books only charismatic exotic animals, they could have the impression, unintentional, that the nature is something that is far from their own world”.
And not feeling very involved growing up.
Indeed, children are unbeatable on all these species, know the difference between a hyena and a wild dog, but more complicated to name a starling, a garden finch, a blackbird or even a magpie.
However, getting to know the wildlife that surrounds us directly gives a feeling of belonging and attachment.
On the other hand, animal protagonists are rarely depicted in their true habitat and are anthropomorphized.
However, for the researcher, it is a pity to deprive oneself of teaching children certain amusing natural behaviors: "We see a hippopotamus going to the toilet like a human, whereas in nature, it ejects its excrement and disperses it with its tail ".
Dinosaurs on sweatshirts for boys, butterflies for girls
Michiel Hooykaas has tackled a second field of study: children's clothing.
He went through the C&A, Zalando and H&M catalogs in Holland.
In total, just over 3000 references with animals, of which ... almost a quarter being the very popular dinosaurs, which all appeared on clothes for boys.
The rest: mostly mammals and exotic animals, like in the books.
On the clothes of little girls, an insect still has the wind in its sails: the butterfly;
and above all, the animals are very often humanized there (hair styled, dressed, etc.).
Is it necessary to go that far for the sweatshirt to be appreciated by the child?
And by making the represented animals cute, it is difficult to make the connection with the real animal and to arouse a transfer of attachment.
Here again, for the researchers, the representation of animals on children's clothing is a source of bias and distortions, whereas it could be an original and interesting cultural and everyday medium to enrich children's perception and openness to animals and to biodiversity!
