Biologia dos morcegos: o que te contam por aí – o conhecimento dos alunos da educação básica

Abstract

Bats play an extremely important role in the environment. The great richness of species and their different types of feeding habits, which allow them to promote pollination, seed dispersal and pest control, among others, make them valuable indicators of environmental quality. However, due to their appearance and many misinformation circulated through social media, such as being associated with evil things, it makes people feel an aversion to these animals which results in persecution and deaths, culminating with the inclusion of species on endangered lists. Considering the above and being aware that the perception of a person will directly affect the beliefs, attitudes and actions of the same in the society in which they live, this work aims to know the environmental perception about bats of students from Itacoatiara - AM. The research was carried out with students from different levels of education, aged 11 to 17 years. The environmental perception was evaluated through the analysis of texts produced by the students and an interview mediated by a semi-structured questionnaire. The results obtained showed that although the students have correct information about the morphology, or the life habit of the bat, a considerable portion still has wrong information about this group, such as when they consider blood as their main food, or believe that batsare the main transmitter of rabies or that all bat species are hematophagous. Such observations show how necessary environmental education programs are, because through them it is possible to promote awareness so that there is a preservation and conservation of these valuable environmental indicators.