# When nearly 1,500 UK adults watched coastal scenes on screens, shorelines with more visible wildlife and active behavior such as flocking, diving and play felt more fascinating, more restorative and more worth visiting than the same coast without animals

> Nearly 1,500 UK adults took part in a pair of screen-based experiments that asked a deceptively simple question: does a shoreline feel different when wildlife is part of the scene? Their answers suggest it does. Coastal views that included more animals and...

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Byline: ARGO.net Editorial Team
Published: 2026-08-09T08:00:02+00:00
Categories: Explainer, Humans

![A tranquil coastal scene with seabirds perched on a rocky shoreline, surrounded by ocean waves and mist](https://www.argo.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/coastal_seabirds_shoreline.jpg)

Nearly **1,500 UK adults** took part in a pair of screen-based experiments that asked a deceptively simple question: does a shoreline feel different when wildlife is part of the scene? Their answers suggest it does. Coastal views that included more animals and especially animals doing something easy to notice, were judged as more fascinating and more mentally refreshing than the same places without visible wildlife.

The work came from a [Marine Policy study](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0308597X16306686) led by researchers linked to the **University of Exeter** and the **European Centre for Environment and Human Health**. Instead of measuring what happened during a real beach trip, the team used photographs and short videos to isolate one factor at a time. That design let them compare the same coast with different amounts of wildlife and then test whether animal behavior changed people's reactions further.

The result was less about scenery in the broad sense and more about what living movement adds to a place. Participants gave higher ratings for **restorative potential**, fascination and willingness to visit when wildlife appeared more abundant. In the video study, behavior mattered too. Animals that flocked, dived, or played drew stronger responses than animals that simply remained present in the frame. Because the study relied on judgments about images and clips, the safest conclusion is narrow: visible marine wildlife can change how people expect a coast to feel.

## The experiment compared the same coast with and without wildlife

The first part of the research used still coastal scenes shown to a large national sample. By holding the shoreline background steady and varying the amount of wildlife people could see, the researchers could focus on **perceived biodiversity** rather than weather, travel hassles, or personal memories from a specific trip. That matters because a real beach visit bundles many influences together, while a controlled image can separate one visual ingredient from the rest.

Screen-based work also solves a practical problem for coastal research. Real wildlife appears unevenly, moves in and out of view and can be affected by season, tide and luck. A photo-based design lets every participant judge the same starting point. That does not replace field evidence, but it makes the comparison cleaner when the goal is to ask whether visible animals themselves change what people expect from a place.

Across those image judgments, higher perceived biodiversity went with higher ratings for fascination and higher ratings for restoration. In plain language, people expected wildlife-rich coasts to hold attention gently and to offer a better chance to mentally reset after ordinary demands. The article does not support clinical claims and it does not show treatment effects. It does show that the presence of animals changed how restorative the setting looked to viewers before they ever set foot on the shore.

## Behavior gave the shoreline another boost

The second part of the study moved from still photos to short videos, which is important because coastlines rarely feel static in real life. Motion can reveal whether an animal is feeding, grouping, diving, scanning the water, or interacting with others. Those cues seem to matter for human attention. The videos suggested that visible **species behavior** can lift fascination beyond the effect of simply knowing wildlife is there.

Participants responded more strongly when the animals were active in readable ways, including behaviors described by the researchers as flocking, diving and play. A shoreline with moving wildlife gave viewers more to follow and more to interpret. That fits later open-access work in [People and Nature](https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pan3.10616), which argues that attractive traits and fascinating movement can help determine whether wildlife encounters feel restorative. The coastal study reached that idea through a cleaner visual comparison: keep the place similar, then change what the animals are doing.

## Why fascination sits at the center of the result

Fascination is a technical word in attention restoration research, but the idea is familiar. Some settings hold the mind without strain. Waves, birds and shifting animal movement can pull attention outward in a light way, which may help people feel less mentally taxed. The coastal wildlife study links that concept to visible marine life by showing that richer animal scenes were judged as more fascinating and more restorative at the same time.

The broader blue-space literature points in the same direction. A classic [Journal of Environmental Psychology paper](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2010.04.004) found that water-related scenes often receive stronger preference, affect and restorativeness ratings than many built scenes. Another open study on blue spaces across 19 countries, available through [the University of Edinburgh](https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/files/678853850/Bell2026LUPRestorative.pdf), reports that beaches and shores rank highly when people recall restorative experiences. The coastal wildlife paper adds a sharper point within that larger pattern: a beach is one thing and a beach alive with visible animals may be another.

## Visit intention rose with wildlife as well

The study did not stop at whether the scenes looked calming. It also tracked **visit intention**, which makes the result more useful for coastal planners and restoration teams. Participants were more willing to say they would choose or return to a site when wildlife was present in greater amounts and when animal behavior made the scene more engaging. That suggests wildlife visibility may contribute to the public value of a shoreline, not only its ecological value.

For restoration work, that point is practical. Many coastal projects are judged by habitat metrics, species counts, or erosion outcomes. Those are essential, but public support also depends on whether people can notice the gains. If restored salt marsh edges, mudflats, or nearshore waters make **seabirds**, mammals, or schooling fish easier to see from land, the project may feel more rewarding to visitors. Sound may play a role too. A [Journal of Environmental Psychology study](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2013.08.004) on bird sounds found contributions to perceived attention restoration and stress recovery, which helps explain why active wildlife can influence a scene through more than one channel.

## What the study can and cannot tell us about real restoration

The findings are useful, but the boundaries matter. The experiments measured judgments about photographs and videos, not tracked behavior during actual trips. Participants reported what looked restorative and what seemed worth visiting, which is different from measuring how long someone stayed on a real coast, how much better they felt afterward, or whether they later booked a visit. The research also relied on **perceived wildlife richness**, which can diverge from ecological surveys. A place can look lively to a visitor without being biologically healthy and a healthy place can hide much of its life from casual view.

Another caution is that the public may respond most strongly to conspicuous animals and easy-to-read action. A site with subtle ecological recovery could improve nursery habitat, water quality, or food webs long before visitors notice any dramatic surface behavior. In that sense, the paper speaks most directly to the visible social face of restoration. It helps explain how wildlife sightings may translate into public enthusiasm, while leaving the slower ecological accounting to monitoring programs and habitat surveys.

Even with those limits, the paper gives coastal restoration a valuable human-facing clue. People appear sensitive to whether wildlife is visible and behaviorally active, even when they only encounter the coast through a screen. That means restoration may gain part of its social impact when ecological improvement becomes legible to ordinary observers. The study does not imply medical recovery and it does not prove that any new wildlife sighting will transform visitor experience. It does show that when a shoreline looks biologically alive, people are more likely to expect fascination, gentle attention restoration and a visit worth making.