Authors: Ostermann-miyashita, Emu-felicitas; Kiffner, Christian;König, Hannes;Pernat, Nadja;Bellingrath-Kimura, Sonoko-Dorothea;Hibler, Sophia;

While the return of large mammals to their former habitats in central Europe is embraced as the result of successful conservation measures, it also is a controversial topic and bears potential for human-wildlife conflicts. As citizen science (CS) has been suggested to be effective for involving citizens in wildlife research and mitigate these conflicts, we conducted a survey in two wildlife parks located in different states of Germany. We assessed the visitors’ knowledge level of three returning species: European bison (Bison bonasus), moose (Alces alces) and grey wolf (Canis lupus) and respondents’ readiness to participate in CS for monitoring and managing these species. We developed generalized linear models to 1) understand how sociodemographic variables affected citizens’ knowledge of each species, and to 2) investigate if sociodemographic variables and knowledge influenced the likelihood of visitors to participate in CS activities. Almost all citizens were aware of the returning wolf, while knowledge and awareness about bison and moose were significantly lower. Younger interviewees and those with higher knowledge levels were more willing to participate in CS activities. Our analyses highlight how knowledge about wildlife and human demographics are interrelated - insights that are helpful for effectively recruiting citizen scientists for wildlife conservation.