Assessment of the awareness and practice of people's towards protection of endangered Persian wild ass (Equus hemionus onager)

The aim of this study is to determine the level of people’s awareness and willingness towards the protection of Persian wild ass (Equus hemionus onager), to recommend solutions that can improve management and conservation of this species. In this descriptive-analytical study, 660 people from Fars province were chosen via the clustered method. A questionnaire comprising items about the people’s demographics as well as their knowledge and cooperation regarding to protection of Persian wild ass was completed for all the study population through interviews. Subsequently, descriptive statistics, x2, ttest and Kruskal-wallis test were employed for analysis using SPSS Software (version 21). Result showed that, 63.6 percent of the cases had poor knowledge and 40.5% had no desire to support of this species. On the other hand, there were a significant correlation between knowledge and sex and awareness and age (P < 0.05). The highest level of knowledge was found among those with university levels of education. There was not a significant correlation between willingness to supports of Persian wild ass and educational levels (P < 0.05). Consequently, given that the majority of the people’s under study had poor knowledge and function about Persian wild ass protection and conservation, it seems advisable that regular and systematic training programs be devised in relation to population decrease prevention strategies such as practical classes on protection of Persian wild ass.