The best-known plants included dandelion, common poppy, cornflower, common daisy and stinging nettle. Among birds, sparrows, crows, tits, blackbird and white stork were mentioned most frequently. In contrast, many other species that regularly occur in agricultural landscapes hardly played a role in the respondents’ knowledge.
“Our results show that many people are familiar with only a small fraction of the species that shape their landscape. Plants and birds that are particularly characteristic of the agricultural landscape are also particularly culturally significant. They are increasingly being overlooked, which points to an ever-more-disconnected relationship between our culture and our landscapes,”
Younger adults overlook nearby biodiversity as species names fade from memory
Not a surprise.
This was prophetic.
I walk a mile or so in the mornings; part of the walk takes me on a local “nature” trail. The amount of people on the trail with stuff stuck in their ears listening to podcasts or audio books or music or…? amazes me. If they don’t have earbuds they have a phone in their hand and spend most of the time looking at it. Most of them never even look outside of their little path on the trail. It’s not surprising that very few know anything about the natural world around them.