Transcript Nature and Wildlife Experiences: Feelings of Well-being and Restoration Susanna Curtin, PhD 13th November 2008 www.bournemouth.ac.uk.

Nature and Wildlife Experiences:
Feelings of Well-being and Restoration
Susanna Curtin, PhD
13th November 2008
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
Overview

Aims of the research

Brief introduction to the study group

Methodological approach

Emotional responses to nature

Stop all the clocks: temporality and transcendence

Well-being and spiritual fulfilment
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Introducing the context
 A wide spectrum of tourist-wildlife opportunities exist (Orams 1996)
 An assumed growing demand met by a burgeoning supply of
opportunities (UNEP 2006).
 Not an homogeneous market.
 There are various typologies of wildlife tourist from the ‘serious’ to
the ‘casual’ and from the ‘generalist’ to the ‘specialist’
 However, it is distinct from other nature-based tourism insofar as the
main aim is to visit a destination in order to see and gain an
understanding of the local fauna and/or flora.
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Typical companies
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Aims of the research

The experiential and the psychological benefits of
wildlife tourism have not been adequately explored.

Therefore the intention of this research was to provide
a deeper understanding of what it means to enjoy
wildlife experiences, namely:


the content of what is enjoyed,
the process through which people attend to and
perceive wildlife and
the emotional responses it provokes.

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Choosing the approach

It follows that exploration of emotions and
connectivity to nature be in a qualitative subjective
manner which is grounded in language and
experience (Jardine 1998)

The philosophy behind the research is that: there
are multiple realities of an experience yet within
these are commonalities which may be exposed and
extrapolated and potentially quantified at a later
date.
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The three stages of ethnography
Implies a strategy of
immersion in the research
setting with the objective
of sharing in people’s lives
while attempting to learn
about their symbolic
world
Experiencing
(Participant
Observation)
Enquiring
(Interviewing)
Allows an emic
(inside) perspective
– i.e. experiencing
the phenomenon first
hand.
Examining
(Analysis)
(Wolcott 1992)
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Data collection
Involved the participation in two organised wildlife
holidays:
1.
The Autumn migration in Andalucia (which also included moths,
plants and butterflies as well as birds) and,
2.
A bird and whale-watching expedition in Baja California, Sea of
Cortez (also included other land and marine mammals)
Enabled insight across the dedicated wildlife-tourism product
spectrum from birding to general naturalist holidays (Curtin and
Wilkes 2005).
Both observations were overt. Data represents two field journals
(observations + reflections), photographs and 20 in-depth
narrative interviews with participants.
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The Migration in
Andalucia, Southern
Spain
On tour with
‘The Travelling
Naturalist’
Baja California
(Little Galapagos)
Baja California
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Participant profile
•
Aged 35+, high proportion of retired or older participants with post–
secondary education and higher than average incomes.
•
Also fit the notion of serious leisure participants (Stebbins 1992) in
that they display:
1.
perseverance in the activity;
2.
‘career’ or experience development;
3.
evidence of knowledge, training and development of skills;
4.
durable benefits such as a sense of accomplishment, enhancing
social image and facilitating social interaction;
5.
a unique ‘ethos’ or social world and idioculture, and finally,
6.
a tendency to identify with the chosen pursuit (social identification).
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Human- animal affiliations

Throughout history man has co-existed with animal
populations and has formed different relationships
with them (Ingold 1988)

Urbanisation and industrialisation has had a profound
affect on our relationship with nature (Gossling 2002;
Urry 1990; McCannell 1976)

Urban theory is anthropocentric as opposed to ecocentric: development is based upon the conquest of
nature by culture to satisfy utilitarian market values.

Paradoxically, this decontextualisation from nature
has fuelled a resurgent interest in biophilia (Wilson
1984) – an inherent biological desire to reconnect.
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Nature and human well-being

Wildlife and nature tourism arguably has extrinsic (monetary)
values.

But more importantly has intrinsic ones which are in danger of
being overlooked in the quest for economic and social
development.

Logic would suggest that after 10,000 generations having to
survive in a natural environment, human evolution would have
programmed our genes to perform best in this setting.

By the same logic, it would be surprising if the rapid
disconnection from nature in just a few generations did not cause
us some difficulty to adapt to a new environment (i.e. ‘affluenza’,
depression / mental disorders).
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The importance of
the natural world
• The shared instincts, behaviours and spaces of humans and
animals position nature and animality as an important part of
human culture and development (Ingold 1988).
• There is a whole body of literature which investigates the
psychology of the human need to commune with animals, plants,
landscapes and wilderness.
• The fields of eco-psychology, socio-biology, environmental
psychology and deep ecology reveal interesting findings with
regards to the relationship between human health and the
natural world; asserting as it does that being able to experience
nature is an important component of human well-being (Bird
2007)
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The importance of
the natural world

The human relationship with nature is one of individual,
intimate communication, often beyond accurate
articulation.

A sense of wonderment and awe is a principal theme.

Wonderment is an aroused state of cognition. There
are three perspectives to this state of wonderment,
namely: its beauty, nature’s design and a feeling of
being somehow connected.
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Beyond words…….
 Spontaneous, awe-inspiring and thought provoking wildlife
experiences remain on the edge of speech.
 Thrift (2000:36) reminds us that “95 per cent of embodied
thought is non-cognitive, yet academic attention merely
concentrates on the cognitive dimension of the conscious ‘I’”
which ignores the embodied dispositions, or instinctive responses,
which are biologically wired. Therefore much of human-life is
lived in a non-cognitive world.
 Therefore words often can fall short when describing human
experiences.
 In the existential, humanistic school of psychology Chawla (2002)
would argue that there is a ‘silent intuition’ of the union of self
and other, individual and world: an at-one-ness with nature.
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Beyond words…..
“It’s that precious moment and I know that people go ‘oh
wow - isn’t it fantastic’ and we all do that and we did that
yesterday but it doesn’t describe it, I mean words just….like
when I get home and email my friends and my family about
the trip there is no way that I can explain so I just say that
there are no words to describe what the whales were
like……..
It is sort of a feeling that you have…. a kind of real sense of
wellbeing and positive rush of being really really happy
(Tanya, Baja).
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Emotional response:
awe, wonder and beauty
“I loved watching the hundreds of seabirds which would
follow the boat in the Antarctic, there were albatross, skuas,
gulls, petrels, hundreds of them and I used to stand at the
back of the boat, I could watch them for hours it was like a
ballet. So beautiful” (Sophie, Baja).
“It’s like those Frigate Birds, they were so graceful and such
beautiful movements and everything You look at them and
you think isn’t that clever, isn’t that wonderful what they do”
(Dawn, Baja).
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Deep contemplation,
temporality and transcendence

Transcendency is a state of being or existence
above and beyond the limits of material
experience

A depth of concentration that prevents the
intrusion of unwanted thoughts into
consciousness

Transcendence of the self

A loss of time perception
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Stop all the clocks:
temporality and transcendence
• ‘How many times in a lifetime does one experience
nature at work like this? There are blows all in front of
the bow, right out to mid-horizon. A rough estimate is
30-35 Grey whales. We could hear and smell their
breaths. The synchronicity of the whales is beyond all
comprehension. One minute we are looking at all the
blows, the next flukes, and the next they are all gone as
they dive and surface in time with each other despite the
fact that they are spread over such a large area (Journal,
Baja)
• “I feel very relaxed and at awe with everything: one of
those truly happy moments when you are totally
unconcerned with the trivia” (Dawn, Baja).
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Temporality
“What is this world if full of care I have no time to stand and
stare’”….
 Price (1999:252) suggests that “nature is a ‘refuge from
modern life; a reprieve from irony and self-awareness”.
 It is a stepping outside of everyday trivia and into a different
world, a more real world where there is a natural rhythm to
events rather than a rhythm dictated by artificial time
constraints and socialisation (Durkheim 1968).
 Modern, fast time dissipates and is replaced by nature’s
‘glacial’ rhythms: real time as opposed to clock time
 Cyclical as opposed to linear time.
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Wildlife experiences and
the dimensions of time

Wildlife watching can fill in time;

Wildlife and nature mark the passing of time: the first
swallow, the last swift, the changing colours;

It allows the creation of time: “Just stepping out of the rat

Time is reflected in the length of the sighting

Wildlife watching can render one suspended in time –
reliving the moment

Time stops: : “You are so absorbed in what you are
race for a few moments to watch the birds on the feeder”;
doing” (Penny, DWT).
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Wildlife Watching and the Multiple Dimensions of Time
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Peak experiences
and animal encounters
 Peak experience is described as “moments of highest
happiness and fulfilment" Maslow (1964:73) in which an
individual might feel:
 “disorientation in space and time, ego transcendence and self-
forgetfulness and a perception that the world is good, beautiful
and desirable: feeling passive, receptive and humble and a
sense that polarities and dichotomies have been transcended
or resolved: and feelings of being lucky, fortunate or graced”
(Keltner and Haidt 2003:302).
 All these feelings are explicitly represented in the in vivo
responses from participants on tour.
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The animal or
nature-inspired ‘peak’
“Seeing a beautiful bird or animal is a moment of beauty, a
moment of insight, a moment of revelation and inspiration,
whatever and its gone sometimes in a flash, like a moment of
music which makes you shudder and then its over” (James,
DWT).
“I will remember the feeling of swimming with these sea lions for
ever; I feel very privileged” (Dawn, Baja).
“the humpback whale who breached no less than thirteen times
right next to the boat, the grey whales in courtship, the close
proximity of the humming bird feeding from the cactus flower and
seeing the tracks of the Iberian lynx and her cubs in Andalusia”
(Travel diary - Baja).
These are indeed extraordinary and deeply fulfilling experiences.
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Wider
benefits
Nature
as sustenance
“Not in the sense that you become euphoric and kind of go
round with a smile on your face all the time but nature gives
you that sort of contentedness ….. it is like it’s sustaining
you in a sense…(Peter, Andalucía)
I mean I like going away but also I like home but I think the
reason I want to go home is because you have been
nourished. I know it sounds corny but it is like nourishment
for me. Something to sustain me for when I go home and
until my next trip” (Tanya, Baja).
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Conclusions
This research suggests that experiences in nature, whether on
holiday (or at home), has the potential to:
Provide fulfilment, a heightened sense of wonder and awe
Can allow participants time to reconnect with themselves and
the world around them.
Allows time for contemplation, can halt time and sustain them
beyond the immediate experience of hum drum life.
And is important for sustenance, mental health and well-being.
Thus fitting Kaplan and Kaplan’s (1989) Attention Restoration
theory
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Conclusions
ART says there are four components present in a restorative
environment:
1.
Being away (Escape) - a psychological distance from routine
mental contents
2.
Extent - Orderly and understandable components
3.
Fascination - Effortless attention, absorption
4.
Compatibility - Person's inclinations match demands of
environment

Restoration is something which lets you reframe the situation
causing stress, with absorbing stimuli, giving a feeling of
escape, and that watching wildlife / nature tends to offer all of
these things.
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