Wild Animals in a Wilderness Setting: An Ecosystemic Experience?

Abstract

AbstractThe role that animals play in human experiences of wilderness environments is a topic which has not yet received much attention from environmental psychologists. Laboratory based studies, mostly utilizing photographic stimuli, provide some evidence that animals perceived in a nonthreatening context enhance physiological reactions and contribute to the perceived aesthetics of different physical settings. Research on human experience of animals in wilderness settings is not freely available, however. This study deals with a group of respondents' experiences of nature, obtained in written form upon completion of a wilderness trail. Protocols were subjected to content analysis, providing the researcher with a number of categories of experience. These were abstracted into a smaller number of central experiential themes that occur during human interaction with the wilderness. One of these central themes was termed “The living environment,” and includes all references to mammals and birds. The different ...