Comparison of entoherpetological knowledge between rural and urban students school

Abstract

Ethnoherpetology aims to understand the popular knowledge associated with amphibians and reptiles. The relationship of humans with the environment happens since childhood, when the process of interaction with the world begins. This intrinsic knowledge reinforced by common sense occur over time and can perpetuate simplistic or erroneous explications of biological processes that are not understood without scientific knowledge. With this, we investigated the popular knowledge of students from a rural and an urban school about snakes. We conducted the research during the second half of 2019 among students that not yet studied zoology. We investigated 52 students from schools in the state of Espirito Santo, being 27 from a rural school in Santa Teresa and 25 from an urban school in Cariacica. We found that all students understand that the main practice of first aid in snake accidents is to take the victim to the hospital. However, some students mention dangerous and homemade methods. We verify that large percentage of students whose experiences of encounters with snakes involved killing the animal, especially in rural areas, where encounters were more common. Only students who have never had contact with snakes not considered killing snakes as a primary action. Educational activities are important initiatives to minimize the threats suffered by snakes, since they still arouse feelings of fear and disgust, making them more susceptible to anthropic injuries, even when they do not confer any threat.