Representações sociais da população do município de Planalto, Paraná, sobre animais peçonhentos

Abstract

Venomous animals are decades related to mysticism, in symbolism in different times and regions of the world. These animals, like all others, play an essential role in the food chain, helping to control rodents and insects, many of them responsible for transmitting diseases. Allied to this, venomous animals cause feelings of repulsion and fear in many people. This feeling occurs because human beings feel that their lives are being put at risk. Thus, knowing how humans see and relate to these animals is essential to draw up plans for the management and conservation of venomous animal species and to inform local residents about the correct way to act upon encounter with these animals and thus be able to demystify several issues. In this way, the present work aimed to know the representation of venomous animals for residents of the municipality of Planalto, Southwest of Paraná. For this, two stages of data collection were carried out, the first related to the application of a questionnaire to 96 individuals in order to know the general characterization of the participants and the representation of the venomous animals. For the second stage, 5% of the participants from stage 1 were randomly chosen to be interviewed based on a semi-structured script. Most participants reported feeling afraid and repulsed by the encounter with venomous animals. Several interviewees did not know how to characterize a venomous animal and, in contrast, some used very appropriate technical terms for this answer. The instinct to kill these animals was reported by some people in the questionnaires and also for the interviews. The use of empirical knowledge to treat accidents with venomous animals was also observed, such as the use of garlic, “específico pessoa” and gel for pain. We conclude from this study that the results obtained are important to draw a profile of representation of venomous animals in individuals in the municipality of Planalto. These results can serve as subsidies for other research in the region, seeking to contribute to the low subtraction of venomous animals in nature. In addition, the importance of the biology teacher in the process of building scientific knowledge and environmental awareness is highlighted, as well as students and other professionals in the area who work in the dissemination of true information and demystification about venomous animals.