Giant icons and lesser kin: Chinese public perception of panda welfare at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding

In this paper, we consider the extent to which wildlife tourism in China has become a nodal point where human-animal interactions have been consistently shaped and reshaped by the multiple layers of naturecultural complexity. We do this by investigating Chinese visitors' evaluations of animal welfare as they apply to red and giant pandas at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding (Panda Base). A survey of Chinese visitors indicated generally positive perceptions of the welfare conditions of pandas at the Panda Base. Visitors largely viewed the institution as providing excellent care to pandas, reflecting a high degree of public trust in the organization. While red pandas were perceived to experience slightly better welfare conditions, visitor concern and attention focused more heavily on giant pandas—possibly due to their iconic status. This study investigates how species status and environmental visibility influence Chinese visitors’ perceptions of animal welfare at a major w..., , # Giant icons and lesser kin: Chinese public perception of panda welfare at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.bk3j9kdq3](10.5061/dryad.bk3j9kdq3)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset is generated for the questionnaire, **Giant panda welfare and informed consent questionnaire**

### Files and variables

#### File: Pandas_consent_Submission.xlsx

**Description:** 

**Giant_Red**: 1 = Questionnaire collected for the giant panda; 2 = Questionnaire collected for the red panda

##### Survey Variables

* 1\. Your gender: [Single Choice]*

| ○ Male | ○ Female |
| :----- | :------- |

2\. Your age: [Fill in the blank] *

\________________________________\_

3\. Your occupation: [Single Choice] *

| ○ Full-time |
| :----------- |
| ○ Student |
| ○ Freelance |
| ○ Unemployed |
| ○ Retired |
| ○ Other |

4\. Your education: [Single Choice] *

| ○ Less than college |
| :------------------..., The questionnaire received consent to use the deidentified data in the public domain. All data are anonymized.