Formal education, previous interaction and perception influence the attitudes of people toward the conservation of snakes in a large urban center of northeastern Brazil

BACKGROUND: The attitudes and perceptions of people toward animals are influenced by sociodemographic factors, such as formal education and gender, and by personal experience. Understanding these interactions is critical for the establishment of conservation strategies for animals that have conflictual relationships with humans, such as snakes. Our study aims to explain how perceptions and the human fear of snakes vary and are influenced by formal education and gender. In addition, it aims to show how prior interaction with these animals influence these perceptions and the human fear toward snakes and how these perceptions and fear influence the importance of conservation of these animals. METHODS: We collected data from June 2010 to December 2013 using questionnaires given to 1142 visitors of a scientific serpentarium (Núcleo Regional de Ofiologia da Universidade Federal do Ceará) in the municipality of Fortaleza, northeastern Brazil. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Negative perceptions toward snakes were less frequent according to an increase in levels of schooling. Women had more negative perceptions and were more afraid of snakes than were men. Prior interaction with snakes decreased the occurrence of negative perceptions and reduced the level of human fear of these animals. People with negative perceptions classified the conservation of snakes as not important and were more afraid of these animals. Understanding the relationship between sociodemographic factors, prior experiences, perceptions, fear, and the importance given to conservation can help to better understand human attitudes toward snakes. CONCLUSIONS: Environmental education activities considering gender differences, involving preliminary interaction with snakes and focusing on priority targets identified in our study, such as people with low formal education, can increase the efficiency of measures for the conservation of these animals. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13002-016-0096-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.