Animal Interp. Signs in zoos

J

Johnny Morris.

Well-Known Member
What i'd like to see more at zoos, is more information on the individual animal on display, you know their personal info, name, age, sex, interesting facts such as if they were hand reared, where they came from, parents. I'm sure this happens at Howletts and Port Lympne, but nowhere else apart from maybe monkey world, who give out info on their animals history.
 
I would like to see this at more zoos, too. Toronto Zoo is good for this when it comes to their large primates (and elephants I believe), not so with the lions, dholes, etc.
 
i dislike when the information is just a picture, the name (& latin) and a map of the world
 
I asked a zookeeper at the Los Angeles Zoo why they don't do that, and she they don't because the normal guest would spend their day trying to call the animals by their names, which can stress them out.

The only animals that have thier info at the LA zoo are the great apes.
 
The Philidelphia zoo website has info on the animal species but also the animals they hold, like their name and where they came from, I can just picture visitors screaming at the animal all day.
 
Marwell has a notice with the names and birth dates and where they where born for the Giraffes and im sure they did it for the Colobus monkeys to. maybe a lot dont do it as it would been a lot of changes to the signs when animals move on or die
 
For years, the Pittsburgh Zoo had a policy not to share individual information about their animals. Often times, in news reports on the first initial of their names were given to identify the individual animal. This policy has since changed.

Other zoos give their individual animals (especially some of the most charismatic) seperate public names from their actual house names...because their names are actually used in the training processess. The zoo didnt want the public accidently verbally rewarding an animal for doing something that is not desired by keepers.
 
From my own experience most zoos do not advertise 'private' information on their charges because of the reasons mentioned above. If they do show this info it is for those animals that are easily recognisable and charismatic (in regards to the zoo's image and management, not necessarily the keeping staff) and minimal content. Elephants, apes and pinnipeds are givens; occasionally big cats, bears, giraffe, large crocs etc. To get around the problem of the noisy public constantly screaming out their names, zoo animals may have an in-house name. This is primarily to aid training. Generally most intelligent animals recognise their keepers by sight or sound over their name being called out anyway.

Also too much information can be a dangerous thing. Animal Rights campaigners will use any info to aid an argument, even if it is disinformation. An individual animal may be relocated to another zoo for breeding purposes or surplus to requirements, but is not publicised. I believe that this was a problem for Zoo Atlanta with their famous silverback gorilla Willie B, whom they wished to move to another zoo. Unfortunately they were forced to retain him due to his 'special' status with the public.
 
could anyone plzz emphasise on intrepretive signs content......indian zoo's lack that..and we would definately like some gud feedback on how could we emphasise it in a better way! its difficult since the trainers dnt come into picture here and "education and conservation" has been the sole purpose of CZA.do u think "education without entrtainment" is effective...if YES then plzz enlighten me on those diff options..looking fwd to some solutions!
 
tetrapod said:
Also too much information can be a dangerous thing. Animal Rights campaigners will use any info to aid an argument, even if it is disinformation. An individual animal may be relocated to another zoo for breeding purposes or surplus to requirements, but is not publicised. I believe that this was a problem for Zoo Atlanta with their famous silverback gorilla Willie B, whom they wished to move to another zoo. Unfortunately they were forced to retain him due to his 'special' status with the public.
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This is the same thing that happened to the Los Angeles Zoo when they were forced to move Ceasar the gorilla to Zoo Atlanta while the new exhibit was being built, unfortunately Ceasar (at the age of 27) died of stress months after he was moved to Zoo Atlanta. After Ceasar's death the LA zoo was attacked by activist for making the decision to move Ceasar, but what got me mad was that the activist were the same ones pressuring the LA zoo to move Ceasar away. I think that's the reason that the LA zoo has decided to built Billy's (the elephant) new exhibit around him instead of sending him elsewhere.
 
I think i've seen signs saying the names at toronto zoo for the masai giraffes,gorillas,orangutans and the elephants.I wish they would update them though because the orangutan thing is still missing Kembali,Jingga and Budi the babies an dPatsy and Dinding have since passed away.They should also add a sign for Ngozi the new gorilla and a few for the lions and both tiger species
 
Zoogoer2000 said:
I think i've seen signs saying the names at toronto zoo for the masai giraffes,gorillas,orangutans and the elephants.I wish they would update them though because the orangutan thing is still missing Kembali,Jingga and Budi the babies an dPatsy and Dinding have since passed away.They should also add a sign for Ngozi the new gorilla and a few for the lions and both tiger species
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yeah, it's the same in the Chimp exhibit at the LA zoo. The zoo opened the exhibit with 16 chimps, so they included 16 chimp bios. Now the zoo only has 13, 3 of them have died of old age, 3 babies were born, and some have moved to other zoos. I don't think zoos care that much about updating animal bios since many normal zoo visitors cannot really tell between most of the animals on exhibit.
 
Its because they don't look close enough to identify them
 
In the last week at Paignton Zoo lots of new signs have appeared. They have photos of the animals as well as the names, sexes and relationships. From my point of view, it's a good idea as I like to know as much as possible. The crowds of uninterested zoo visitors probably won't read them so hopefully the animals won't be disturbed by their names being called out.
 
Gigit said:
In the last week at Paignton Zoo lots of new signs have appeared. They have photos of the animals as well as the names, sexes and relationships. From my point of view, it's a good idea as I like to know as much as possible. The crowds of uninterested zoo visitors probably won't read them so hopefully the animals won't be disturbed by their names being called out.
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That's good news for me. Paignton is my favourite zoo. I haven't visited this year,but i will be going next year.
 
I think it's hard because of the cost. If they're big professionally made signs then it's quite cosly (and labour intensive) to get a new one done every time an animal moves. Also in really big zoos there may be a lack of communication between different departments and the people making the signs may not know the animals or have the chance to find out the info.
Also some keepers don't believe in giving animals names at all, though this is generally not the case with large mammals which is what most people are interested in.

I liked at shaldon that they had the permanant simple signs up, and then handed us a laminated sheet with little titbits about the individual animals. That must be reasonably cheap to update, fun and easy for a volunteer to make (normal A4 word doc.), and interesting to the visitor that does want to know more.
Wouldn't work anywhere bigger though as all the sheets would just go missing, and you'd need huge numbers of them. Shaldon probably gets away with a dozen considering the number of visitors and the short time it takes to complete the circuit.

I can't remember who it was saying about the lack of signs in india, but over here the zoo licensing laws insist on the latin name, distribution and "some other information about the animals biology." If they had no signs the zoo could legally be closed (though I still see some animals without signs all over the place)
 
I've just been posting some photos from Howletts in the Gallery. Their policy is to have the animals' names on the cages. I suppose it must get abused sometimes, but I think it's appreciated by most of the visitors.
These are the signs on the wall of the house for the group of gorillas led by Kifu.

[photo=15214;544;Howletts002_001.jpg]Gorilla house sign at Howletts[/photo]​

Alan
 
London Zoo (well they were in 2005) puts a nice big sticker on the window of any exhibit featuring a newish animal or baby, with a quick blurb about its parents, the relevent program etc.
Taronga Zoo has a few specialist signs which focus on the individuals in the exhibit, for example at the Snow Leopards, Asian Elephants....however, such signs are expensive to make and as pointed out earlier they can quickly become outdated.
If the sign puts the individuals within the context of the larger breeding program than they are a great idea, or in the case of Great Apes theyre good for explaining family structures. But I think naming every animal in the zoo runs the risk of simplifying conservation......by saving Elsie the elephant at your local zoo you can save elephants. that sorta thing
 
gentle lemur said:
I've just been posting some photos from Howletts in the Gallery. Their policy is to have the animals' names on the cages. [/photo][/CENTER]

Alan
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I've always wondered why they don't do them for the Rhinos at Port Lympne. They never have done. Virtually everything else has those b/w interchangeable name boards on their enclosures.

As we've mentioned before, at a lot of zoos there's been a tendency over recent years away from this information about the zoos' own stock (apart from the highest profile species like Apes & Elephants). So I was pleased to hear Paignton have been adding more information about their own animals, not just about the species in general. I noticed that Whipsnade have reversed this trend recently too, with large sign boards giving information on their individual elephants, rhinos etc.
 
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