I agree, but even then I don't think average visitors would appreciate it that much. All normal visitors want to see is something like a Lion or Giraffe.
What's something you heard at a zoo or aquarium from another guest that irritated you?
- Thread starter Davdhole
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I will even admit, before this cult called ZooChat took over me, I often skimmed past many animals because I was unaware of their rarity in captivity.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
I agree with you, but sometimes even when rare species held are "advertised" and highlighted by zoos for conservation outreach / environmental education purposes it just doesn't work with most of the general public. I'll give a couple of examples of this that I've noticed in zoos specifically here in Latin America to illustrate this.
In the three Mexico city zoos you can see this effect prominently because each institution has a logo which features an endemic and endangered native species. Chapultepec zoo has a prehispanic jaguar design as a logo but visitors tend to ignore these animals in favour of pandas, giraffes, tigers, lions etc.
In San Juan de Aragon zoo the logo is a Mexican wolf due to the successful captive breeding role of this species that this institution has had. However, once again the visitors tend to congregrate around enclosures such as those of giraffes, elephants, lions, hippos etc.
In Los Coyotes Zoo the logo is an axolotl but you don't often see visitors stopping to observe these or indeed the other endemic animals kept here. In fact most people actually only visit the zoo to exercise and jog around the paths and are apparently oblivious to the animals in spite of the best efforts of the staff to educate.
In Sorocaba Zoo here in Brazil the logo is a Southern muriqui. This animal is specifically used to highlight the impressive / singular captive breeding record the institution has had with this critically endangered endemic species. Nevertheless, when it comes to visitors they tend to flock around the elephant, tiger , lion and hippo enclosures despite all of the publicity and signage regarding the muriqui.
Lastly, I haven't personally observed this but I am reliably and recently informed by a Dominican friend that the same can be seen in ZOODOM in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Here the logo is a cartoon-like solenodon used to raise awareness of this endemic species but once again the public don't stick around the new exhibit to see the species. Instead they prefer to see the African and Asian megafauna on display like lions, rhinos, tigers, chimps etc.
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JurassicMax
Well-Known Member
This is something that I also see in most zoos, people are interested in the 'classic/common' zoo animals like lions, elephants, hippos, giraffes etc. The unique species however are ignored and 'only' known by the zoo-fanatics, which would go to a zoo to especially see a very rare animal. Honestly I think zoos gain the most by advertising common species, because that draws larger crowds. An alternative would be if they would 'educate' visitors more about the rare animals they house.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
I actually tend to think that it might be better for many zoos (specifically in Latin America) to phase out the keeping of this exotic megafauna as I don't think that this would really affect visitation ( visiting zoos is going to be a recreational activity with or without elephants and lions) and would have a number of other benefits too (ex-situ conservation for example).
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JurassicMax
Well-Known Member
That could perhaps help, however maintaining enough holders to sustain a healthy population of exotic megafauna is also important. Seeing an animal in real life also helps people to become more engaged with conservation/nature etc but exotic species are not necessarily needed for this, but could help to improve this.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Good point @JurassicMax , I somewhat agree with this statement. I wrote a little about this phenomena / situation a while back specifically in the case of Brazilian / Latin American zoos in this thread.
Pandas for Brazil!? [Rio de Janeiro Zoo]
When people call clownfish and blue tangs "Nemo and Dory". I understand why they do it but it's still very annoying.
While I do agree with your statement, I don't think it would be feasible to do that. Most visitors go to zoo to see well-known animals, or animals that are active and charismatic. Also, most visitors aren't going to go to a lot of zoos in their life so the rarity is not an important factor for them.
Maybe for some animals it may work, with a bit more advertising and public image. Take the example of fennec fox or meerkat, whose interest increase dramatically. But both of them are playful and unique animal, which make them good animals. In contrast, while seeing e.g. marbled cat in captivity is incredibly rare for us, most of the visitors will still think it is a normal cat, with not much difference as the domestic feline. These happen way too often.
Remember that "normal" zoo guest aren't us. They wouldn't care about rarity or such. "SDZ is the only place in the US with Tongan megapode." So what? It's just a normal pheasant by normal zoo guest. Even if visitors know they're rare, they still probably don't bother seeing them. They want to see animal they can see on TV, they want to entertain themselves with what they know.
Even inside us zoochatters, there are still a lot of us who are missing out on rare species. While I fully admire those who seek for every rare species out there, I can't see most of even us looking for e,g a rare species of stick insect or a rare variety of coral. To let normal visitors enjoying rare species is possible, but it will need a lot of work.
Salt Merchant
Well-Known Member
Some visitors called a varanus togianus a gecko and a mishmi takin a goat
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Well in a way it is a goat
Salt Merchant
Well-Known Member
Also, most average visitors here are more interested with common animals. I can't really blame them though, many rare animals exhibits in Indonesia zoos are placed in a "easy to miss" area. For example the bird of prey aviaries and seal exhibit at Taman Safari Bogor.
Also in the Reptile Tunnel and Nocturnal House area in Taman Safari, the visitors most of the time just walk right pass the nocturnal animals exhibit (which is home to most of the rare animals in Taman Safari). Which again, I can't really blame them. There are litereally no lighting at all, it's just pure darkness. The only animals I can saw during my visit on February was a Asian palm civet.
Also in the Reptile Tunnel and Nocturnal House area in Taman Safari, the visitors most of the time just walk right pass the nocturnal animals exhibit (which is home to most of the rare animals in Taman Safari). Which again, I can't really blame them. There are litereally no lighting at all, it's just pure darkness. The only animals I can saw during my visit on February was a Asian palm civet.
Salt Merchant
Well-Known Member
Oh, I actually forgot about thatWell in a way it is a goat
Me too. Sometimes I find out an aquarium/zoo (mainly aquariums) that I've been to have an extremely rare animal that I didn't know they had, and I completely missed it when I was there. Sometimes I did see it but overlooked it, not knowing what it was. Happens a lot with me and rare sharks. Completely overlooked both speartooth and indonesian whaler sharks thinking they were grey reef sharks. smh
Generally, they’d sit around the fire with a crate of beer, trying to work out who’d stolen the whisky while they were out in the snow.
Would somewhat obscure animals being featured in animated films or nature documentaries help boost their popularity and make the public want to see them? Ex: Dreamworks’s Madagascar with lemurs.
I would say no, because no one seems to know what a Fossa is.
JurassicMax
Well-Known Member
True, but they do know what ring-tailed lemurs are. I hear quite a lot of people (mostly children) yell 'King Julien!' when they see a ring-tailed lemur.
I think some animals may work, but it also depends on the animal. (And I mean both how the animal portrayed in movie and in real life.) Like active and playful animal=more public attention.
Surely Ring-tailed Lemurs were somewhat well-known before the movie came out!