Zoo veneers: Animals and ethnic crafts at the san Diego zoo

The author critically examines the juxtaposition of ethnic craft souvenirs with animals at the San Diego Zoo. The deployment of symbolic representations of animals and people at zoos are considered in the specific historical context of San Diego. While animals and people were displayed for tourists at expositions and world's fairs staged in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, today visitors to the zoo can find representations of exotic cultures and persons in the gift shop. Although ethnic craft souvenirs do not, on first impression, seem out of place to most visitors in the context of the zoo, they present a conceptual problem: What is their relation to either the San Diego Zoo or to the animals displayed there? Both the animals and the ethnic crafts souvenirs, it is argued, contribute to an illusion that there exists a pre‐capitalist sphere untouched by Western colonialism.     

The Zoo Science Program: A Successful Zoo/University Partnership

In 1988, Friends University and the Sedgwick County Zoo, both located in Wichita, Kansas, began a cooperative undergraduate program in zoo science. This program combines a modified biology curriculum offered through a medium‐sized, private university, with the specialized instruction and practical experience provided by curators and keepers at a zoo. Students who complete the zoo science curriculum meet the needs of zoos seeking to fill entry‐level positions. The program has grown in size, and now has more than 50 majors. About one‐half of all zoo science students come from outside Kansas, and about one‐half enter the program as transfer students. Graduates find entry‐level positions in zoos, aquariums, nature and environmental centers, and veterinary clinics; others go on to graduate or veterinary schools.     

Applying Visitor Preference Criteria to Choose Pro‐wildlife Behaviors to Ask of Zoo Visitors

Abstract Many zoos now emphasize that their role in conservation includes influencing the behavior of their visitors for the benefit of wild animals. However, there is limited evidence of behavioral change to support this emphasis; one reason may be that requested behaviors are not viewed favorably by zoo visitors. The purpose of the present study was to involve zoo staff in a process of identifying and prioritizing pro‐wildlife behaviors using a set of criteria that noted what zoo visitors prefer. This was achieved by replicating Smith’s (2009a) study but including visitor‐preferred attributes identified in Smith, Curtis, and van Dijk (2010) . Across several zoos in Australia, 152 staff members participated in seven Nominal Group Technique workshops. Initially over 500 behaviors were identified and prioritized, first by filtering behavior lists, then by participants voting on behaviors. When voting, participants tended to choose behaviors promoting wildlife‐friendly consumerism and donations.     

Identifying Behaviors to Target During Zoo Visits

Abstract Although many zoos and zoo associations state the capability and importance of influencing the behavior of zoo visitors, the little research conducted to date gives limited support for these statements. Addressing this deficit involves more research, but zoos also need to design communication strategies with the specific purpose of influencing visitor behavior. However, it's important, before designing a communication campaign, that zoos identify which behaviors to target. As a first step toward doing this, five nominal group technique (NGT) sessions were conducted with general staff from three zoos in Australia, as well as an executive body overseeing three zoos and members of a volunteer group for an urban zoo. Following NGT protocol, desired on‐site and off‐site visitor behaviors were identified and their importance prioritized. The most prioritized behaviors are presented here. The discussion in this paper focuses on the efficacy of the NGT sessions, the need for further capacity‐building in Australian zoos, and proposals for some areas of future research.     

Educating Zoo Visitors about Complex Environmental Issues: Should We Do It and How?

Modern zoos are committed to environmental education and thus have a mandate to inform the public about biodiversity and conservation. Historically, zoos have avoided complex topics like biodiversity loss from overpopulation and overconsumption in their educational materials, for fear of being offensive or creating a sense of hopelessness. To measure visitor attitudes towards educating about such topics and to help determine effective presentation techniques, we assessed people's knowledge of and attitudes towards the commercial hunting and consumption of wildlife in West and Central Africa (the bushmeat crisis) and examined how the use of different types of images affected these variables. Zoo visitors were exposed to one of six series of photographs, each accompanied by the same text. Photos in three of the series contained explicit, disturbing images of dead animals. The other three series presented benign images related to the bushmeat crisis (i.e., logging, changes in hunting practices). While 83 percnt of visitors had never heard of the bushmeat trade, 98 percent felt zoos should be educating about the topic. Ninety‐seven percent felt the disturbing images were appropriate for zoo visitors except for children under the age of 12. While people spent significantly more time looking at the disturbing images, this did not lead to increases in knowledge (factual or conservation‐related) on the topic. However, visitors who saw the disturbing images were significantly more likely to report being influenced by the images. While the type of image did not affect the frequency of conservation‐related behaviors, significantly more people engaged in a conservation‐related behavior when an opportunity was provided on‐site rather than off‐site. The results demonstrate that the public believes zoos should educate about bushmeat, and that realistic images influence people's perception of an issue. However, visitors' lack of knowledge gains, even when disturbing images are used, suggests that a static display of text with photographs may not be the most effective method for educating about complex issues like bushmeat. Finally, the results show that zoos should provide on‐site opportunities for people to turn their conservation interests into action.     

Zoo Exhibit Experiences and Visitors’ Affective Reactions: A Preliminary Study

The purpose of the present study was to explore the types of personal experiences that were related to zoo visitors’ empathic and affective reactions at an animal exhibit. Various studies have suggested the importance of emotional empathy in motivating concern for the biosphere and pro‐environmental behaviors. As such, identifying visitors’ personal experiences at an animal exhibit that may lead to empathic and affective reactions has a direct bearing on learning strategies at zoos, aquariums, and other nature‐based museums. Adult day‐visitors to a United States zoo were asked to provide written open‐ended comments describing any “extra special” experiences they had at an exhibit. These reported experiences were then found to be highly related to visitors’ quantitative ratings regarding their concern, empathy, and sense of connection with nature and wildlife. Preliminary findings are discussed while taking into consideration the additional research questions that remain involving visitors’ empathic reactions to zoo animals.     

What the Zoo Should Ask: The Visitor Perspective on Pro‐wildlife Behavior Attributes

Abstract Zoos have some choice about which pro‐wildlife behaviors to ask their visitors to do, but with this freedom comes the difficult task of choosing behaviors that are appropriate, effective, and that do not affect visitors’ experiences. This paper presents attributes of pro‐wildlife behaviors that emerged from self‐completed questionnaires administered to 114 zoo visitors. Questions sought to elicit attributes that visitors felt should be considered in the behavior selection process. The results say that behaviors should: have an on‐site option; be new, or if known, include new learning that underpins why they are needed; be easy to do; and have a clear link between the behavior and how it helps wildlife. Respondents also made comments about specific behaviors as well as how behaviors should or should not be requested. We suggest that visitors’ perspectives be incorporated into pro‐wildlife behavior selection in zoos, and we propose that these findings may be relevant beyond zoos.     

Observing Panda Play: Implications for Zoo Programming and Conservation Efforts

Abstract This study explores the effects of visitor observation of giant panda play on visitor concern for endangered species and satisfaction with seeing giant pandas. A total of 335 visitors to three institutions that house giant pandas participated in the study. These institutions are: the Chengdu Research Base of giant Panda Breeding, and the Chengdu Zoo, in China; and Zoo Atlanta in the U.S. After viewing the giant pandas, visitors were interviewed on whether they ever observed a panda play session, whether they observed panda play on the day of the visit, whether they wanted additional information on panda protection, and how satisfied they were with their visit to the pandas. An informational flyer was given to each interested survey participant after the interview. Visitors did not differ in their request for conservation information according to whether they had ever seen pandas play. However, visitors who observed panda play on the day of their visit expressed greater satisfaction with their visit. Implications for zoos and their conservation efforts are discussed.     

Signs Fail to Increase Zoo Visitors' Ability to See Tigers

ZOO exhibits have fairly high attractive power, but often do not engage visitors or hold their attention for long. A drawback of naturalistic zoo exhibits is the frequent inability of zoo visitors to find the animals, as increased animal visibility increases visitor stay time and engagement. Even visible animals can be difficult for visitors to find unaided. In this study, signs pointing out the animals' locations were added to a tiger exhibit at Zoo Atlanta, but they did not increase the number of visitors who found the tigers in the exhibit While the signs were accurate in pointing out the tigers' locations (due to the high predictability of the tigers' resting habits), very few visitors reported even using the signs. Interviews with visitors indicated that visitors did not read the signs, and that animal activity and children's ability to see animals may affect visitors' self‐reports of ability to find tigers.     

Emotional Dimensions of Watching Zoo Animals: An Experience Sampling Study Building on Insights from Psychology

Abstract There is little research about how visitors to zoos and aquariums respond emotionally to the animals they experience. The research that does exist has seldom been informed by current psychological literature on affect, which examines the nature and roles of sentiments, moods, emotions, and affective traits. Emotion is multidimensional: it focuses on a person's core goals; directs attention and interest; arouses the body for action; and integrates social group and cultural factors. It is thus a central component of meaning‐making. This article provides an overview of the literature on emotion as it applies to human emotional responses to animals. Informed by this literature, this paper presents results from a research study conducted at a zoo. Subjects (279 adults) were each electronically paged once while viewing one of three zoo animals (snake, okapi, or gorilla). Subjects completed scales on 17 specific emotions, seven items measuring evaluation and arousal, and other scales and responses to the animal. Four patterns of emotions emerged, ranging from “equal opportunity” emotions to “highly selective” emotions. The variables that were most important in influencing emotions were not demographic ones, but the kind of animal, subject's emotionality, relation to the animal, and other items predicted by emotion theory. Implications for biophilia, conservation, and the study of emotional responses to animals are discussed.     

The Future of Zoos: A New Model for Cultural Institutions

Abstract Over the last 30 years, the international zoo movement has gradually adopted conservation as its mantra. World‐class zoos have invested substantially in species conservation and animal research as part of their involvement in wildlife conservation. However, zoo exhibit interpretation, policy development, and strategic planning are yet to be organized around a well‐developed agenda with a clear set of conservation objectives. As museums increasingly redefine their role in society to speak about alternative futures for living with nature, zoos have the potential to become much more focused cultural change agents, potentially crafting a new vision for how society can live in a productive relationship with the world's remaining biodiversity. This article argues for an activist approach in which institutions with living collections would take on unique conservation tasks including scientifically grounded promotion of conservation values.     

Public Support for Biodiversity After a Zoo Visit: Environmental Concern,Conservation Knowledge,and Self‐Efficacy

The biodiversity crisis is not salient to many people. A zoo visit not only provides the opportunity to learn about the issue, but also provides direct experiences with animals that may increase public engagement. The present study used a nonequivalent pretest–posttest design to assess the impact of a zoo visit on conservation knowledge and engagement by comparing 88 visitors entering a zoo in Paris and 84 visitors on their way out. Those who had completed their visit scored higher on conservation knowledge, general concern about threats to biodiversity, and perceived self‐efficacy to protect biodiversity. Notably, conservation knowledge was not highly correlated with the other dependent variables, but self‐efficacy was significantly correlated with environmental concern, behaviour, and behavioural intent. We conclude that a zoo visit does have a positive impact on knowledge and concern, and by affecting self‐efficacy, it has the potential to influence future behavior.     

Mission,Message, and Visitors: How Exhibit Philosophy Has Evolved at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Since the Monterey Bay Aquarium opened in 1984, its exhibit teams have been guided by an exhibit philosophy that is mission‐driven, message‐driven, and visitor‐driven. Balancing mission, message, and visitors over the years has meant that the exhibit philosophy has evolved as the aquarium learned about their visitors, changed their mission, and kept the focus on the Monterey Bay. Like many aquaria and zoos, MBA's mission has shifted from raising awareness about nature to advocating and inspiring conservation of nature. This article reviews the history of these changes from a developer's point of view and reports on how the aquarium is continuing to examine how mission, message, and visitors interrelate. The current challenge of inspiring visitors to care about the ocean and to take action on its behalf is proving to be the most difficult challenge yet.     

动物园公众认知差异及其现阶段多媒介对策研究

随着历史的发展,动物园的含义早已从最初的饲养展示动物的娱乐场所,逐步改变成为一个具有博物馆性质的场所。但在这一背景下,园方与参观者之间对动物园的认知存在较大差异,并导致二者在管理运营与参观行为上产生较大矛盾。本文回顾了法国等欧洲动物园和原法属西非国家动物园的发展趋势和现状,分析了园方与公众的认知差异、行为冲突及园方的对策,发现多媒介(辅助展示装置和网络)为解决上述矛盾提供了新的可能,并可能在动物园运营管理中发挥越来越大的作用。     

The Anticipated Utility of Zoos for Developing Moral Concern in Children

Abstract This study asked why parents value zoo experiences for themselves and their children. It proposes a new theory regarding the psychological value of such experiences for the development of identity. The study used a constructivist grounded theory approach to explore parenting perspectives on the value of zoo visits undertaken by eight families from three adjacent inner‐city neighborhoods in a major American city. The results suggest that parents use zoo visits as tools for promoting family values. These parents felt that experiences with live animals were necessary to encourage holistic empathy, to extend children's sense of justice to include natural systems, and to model the importance of family relationships. The author concludes that parents find zoos useful as a tool for helping their children to develop skills with altruism, to transfer environmental values, to elevate children's self‐esteem, and to inculcate social norms that they believe will aid in their children's social success in the future.     

Learning for Fun: The Unique Contribution of Educational Leisure Experiences

Abstract What do visitors want or expect from an educational leisure activity such as a visit to a museum, zoo, aquarium or other such experience? Is it to learn something or to experience learning? This paper uses the term “learning for fun” to refer to the phenomenon in which visitors engage in a learning experience because they value and enjoy the process of learning itself. Five propositions regarding the nature of learning for fun are discussed, drawing on quantitative and qualitative data from visitors to a range of educational leisure activities. The commonalities between learning for fun and other theoretical constructs such as “experience,” “flow,” “intrinsic motivation,” and “curiosity” are explored. It is concluded that learning for fun is a unique and distinctive offering of educational leisure experiences, with implications for future research and experience design.     

Measuring Success in the “Congo Gorilla Forest” Conservation Exhibition

Abstract Most zoo visitors are primarily motivated by the joys of watching animals, which may preclude attention to major ecological issues that are the focus of research in biodiversity, habitats, and other matters pertaining to the survival of wild animals. The Wildlife Conservation Society exhibition Congo Gorilla Forest is a popular animal‐watching experience, but it also communicates considerable educational content, stimulating visitors' interest in and awareness of ecological relationships. This article reviews the phases of an evaluation process that assisted WCS staff in making decisions about exhibition design and interpretation; it discusses measurement challenges in assessing outcomes; and it uses key findings from the evaluation process to define and explain the interpretive success of the project. Success for this conservation exhibition is described in terms of achieving three educational goals while recognizing the diversity among audiences. The exhibition's effectiveness is attributed to understanding visitors' expectations and interests, creating an array of exhibit formats to engage people, and communicating conservation messages visually and experientially.     

Why Do They Come? Listening to Visitors at a Decorative Arts Museum

This article presents the background, methodology, and results of a yearlong study of visitor motivation conducted by the Visitor Research Team (VRT) of Winterthur, a Delaware decorative arts museum. The article details the VRT's use of focus groups to determine what really motivates visitors to attend museums. Study results are consistent with recent work in the field showing that learning and recreation are the primary motivations behind museum visitation. Visitors valued museums as places for active, personal learning through the observation of objects and as outlets for physical and mental relaxation and escapism. Results also show that Winterthur visitors ascribe meanings to the words learning and recreation that are different from education and entertainment. The author calls on museums to discover the needs of their audiences and to design marketing and programming using visitors' vocabularies to promote and provide meaningful museum experiences.     

Gaining Visitor Consent for Research III: A Trilingual Posted‐Sign Method

When studying museum visitors, researchers sometimes collect data by video‐ and audio‐taping large high‐traffic areas. In order to inform visitors that they are being recorded, researchers post signs in the area. This article describes the Exploratorium's efforts to design and test trilingual signs that would effectively inform visitors when video‐based research is in progress. Interviews with 255 adult museum visitors, conducted across six versions of the recording area's setup and signage, revealed several effective design elements. The posted sign was more noticeable and welcoming when it included a large headline, a realistic camera icon, and a colorful background. The most effective setup of the area contained many cues to videotaping beyond the large posted sign, such as visible recording equipment and small signs on exhibits and cordons. In the most successful trilingual setup we tested, 92% of visitors leaving the research area knew they had been videotaped.     

The Relative Credibility of Zoo‐Affiliated Spokespeople for Delivering Conservation Messages

Abstract Zoos aspire to be leaders in environmental conservation through their work in environmental education. This study examined whether a spokesperson's job title impacts credibility when conservation messages are delivered to the public. Visitors to a zoo were presented with seven environmental messages. They then selected—from a list of zoo‐related job titles—the one they deemed most credible and the one considered least credible. Statistical analysis established that three “credible” job titles were selected significantly more often, while three were generally selected as “least credible.” The authors demonstrate that some job titles have greater credibility than others among visitors, and recommend that more attention be given to this variable if attitude and behavior change are desired outcomes. They caution that while source credibility may vary based on job title, the influence it has on persuasiveness is yet to be determined.