Background: It is important that people know the fauna occurring around the city and within it, because people could present a more positive relationship toward animals and valorize the fauna. This knowledge may vary due to cultural features of the region, as well as social characteristics of the person, such as: educational level and frequency of visits to green areas. This study aimed to evaluate if the knowledge about the faunistic diversity of an urban park varied in relation to the profile of the visitors.
Methods: Parque Estadual do Cocó is a conservation unit, located in the Fortaleza municipality in Ceará state, which has a very diverse fauna. We collected the data between September and October 2018 using a structured questionnaire applied with 126 park visitors.
Results: We observed that visitors only know 31.57% of the fauna of the Parque Estadual do Cocó and usually find 1.05 ± 1.29 animals during the activities realized in the place. “Common marmoset” ( Callithrix jacchus ) and “Great egret” ( Ardea alba ) were the most cited species, with respectively 102 and 63 citations, while “Crab-eating raccoon” ( Procyon cancrivorus ) and “American purple gallinule” ( Porphyrio martinicus ) were the less cited, with 22 and 16 citations. We did not notice a relationship between the knowledge about the Park fauna with frequency of visitation, but we noticed a positive relation between the number of animals sighted and frequency. The most cited source of information about the Park native species was information boards, but there was no relation between the presence of boards with an animal species of the Park and the knowledge of visitor about them.
Conclusions: Visitors do not know the species richness of the Park, even with a high frequency of visitation and the presence of information boards about the Park fauna. However, a high frequency of visitation allowed people to see more animals throughout these visitations. Possibly, more direct alternatives to inform visitors about the native fauna of the Park can bring more positive results than just the sightings and simply the presence of information boards.