Wildlife festivals in Australia: Characteristics, purposes, and conservation potential

There is growing public interest in wildlife recreation activities worldwide (USFWS, 2006) and in Australia (Jones and Buckley, 2001). Most of those people-wildlife interactions take place informally in backyards or protected areas, but some interactions are becoming formalised through the offering of wildlife festivals (Hvenegaard, 2011a). Wildlife festivals are community-based celebrations of local wildlife that are open to the public (Lawton and Weaver, 2010). Wildlife festivals are offered to coincide with temporal and spatial concentrations of wildlife or natural history events (e.g., animals arriving on migration, wildflowers blooming,). Wildlife festivals are typically offered near natural habitats or public protected areas that support populations of wildlife that can be viewed reliably (Slotkin, 2005). Most festivals offer a variety of social, recreational, and educational activities that include guest speakers, workshops, hikes, competitions, children's activities, and trade shows (Hartley, 2005). Generally, wildlife festivals are one to seven days in length and attract visitors from the local and regional areas. These festivals are usually operated by volunteers and paid staff from a mixture of local conservation, government, tourism and community development organisations (Hvenegaard, 2011a). For broader context, festivals of all kinds (e.g., food, music, cultural) are available throughout Australia (Gibson and Connell, 2011).