Looks behind-the-scenes in zoos

[Jurek7]

Most of interesting stuff in zoos happens backstage. It is there where many rare animals are bred in privacy, where research takes place and keepers work and toil with animals.

Most zoos aim to hide everyday work, and show facade of entertainment and fake nature. But visitors are very interested in behind the scenes, as proven by success of Zoo story television series. Showing it also helps to stop anti-zoo activists from inventing stories of horrible things which supposedly happen in zoos. Which zoos and how show visitors their behind-the-scenes work?
Some my examples from European zoos:
- Exotarium at Zoo Frankfurt shows aquarium filters through the glass wall. Huge size of machinery makes big impression. Animal kitchen at small mammal Grzimek house also has glass wall. Both are many decades old.
- Walsrode zoo allows a side walk with a distant view of some breeding aviaries, which are larger and more basic than the main exhibit. Many rarest species are kept there. It seems to work, surprisingly.
- Zurich zoo has an exhibit of wild bats, with a look into the main room where injured local bats are cared and fed.
- Warsaw zoo has bird rescue centre adjacent to the bird house. Some off-show aviaries are not completely hidden, and one can see them from distance.
- Ape house at Leipzig zoo has a look into animal research room, where scientists conduct behavioral observations of apes.
- Zoo Doue has the whole keepers building with a glass wall. This is probably the most extensive behind-the-scenes look in any zoos I know of.

I purposefully don't list so-called behind the scenes tours and animal nurseries, because they tend to be simply another spectacle, not showing real behind-the-scenes work of the zoo. Also, tv series and internet news tend to evolve into similar fake entertainment.

What behind-the-scenes things you know of?

 

[ZooElephantMan]

The Woods Hole Science Aquarium allows visitors to walk around and explore a large portion of their behind the scenes area completely unsupervised. It was cool to see the inner workings of the aquarium, but the BTS area also felt dangerous. There was an unsupervised touch tank, where someone could easily steal a crab without being caught, and several open topped tanks, that someone could easily sneeze or drop trash into. Fish would also often splash water, which overflowed the tops of the tanks and made the floor slippery. I posted a couple of pictures in the gallery:

Behind the Scenes Corridor (open to the public) - ZooChat

Behind the Scenes Entry Signage - ZooChat

Snowy Grouper Tank (behind the scenes) - ZooChat

 

[birdsandbats]

The Woods Hole Science Aquarium allows visitors to walk around and explore a large portion of their behind the scenes area completely unsupervised. It was cool to see the inner workings of the aquarium, but the BTS area also felt dangerous. There was an unsupervised touch tank, where someone could easily steal a crab without being caught, and several open topped tanks, that someone could easily sneeze or drop trash into. Fish would also often splash water, which overflowed the tops of the tanks and made the floor slippery. I posted a couple of pictures in the gallery:

Behind the Scenes Corridor (open to the public) - ZooChat

Behind the Scenes Entry Signage - ZooChat

Snowy Grouper Tank (behind the scenes) - ZooChat

It's not really behind-the-scenes then, is it?

 

[ZooElephantMan]

It's not really behind-the-scenes then, is it?

Perhaps describing it as a BTS area may make more sense given the context of the aquarium as a whole. In the following two pictures, the first picture depicts the aquarium's "public" area, and the second picture depicts the aquarium's "BTS" area.

The tanks on the left wall of the "public" area are the same as those on the right wall of the "BTS" area. Clearly, the "public" area is more nicely decorated and suited for guests, with better aesthetics and signage. The "BTS" area is a maintenance zone, where staff can access the backside and tops of the "public" area tanks. Because A) most behind the scenes areas in zoos are maintenance zones, and because B) the "BTS" area is also a maintenance zone, I would feel comfortable calling the "BTS" area a behind-the-scenes area, regardless of the fact that guests are allowed to walk through it.

The aquarium itself also refers to the "BTS" area as a behind the scenes area, according to their signage:

 

[Westcoastperson]

Quite a bit of the San Diego Zoo Safari Park bts is open for people to see and they don’t shy away from it. They openly discuss their work with animals like Rhinos and how they work with them. They also have quite a few backstage tours, one of which is completely personalized to what backstage areas you want to see.
The Aquarium of the pacific has an entire section where they show large holding tanks and describe the work they do behind the scenes. There is an entire educational section on they’re bts sea otter surrogacy program. They also have completely open windows into both of their operating rooms and label when they will have operations. They also have volunteers to talk about what animals are in the holding tanks and what kind of operations are being done.
Many zoos and aquariums are also very open about their backstage areas on social media. Living desert is always showing their feline breeding bts area. Bearizona shows their bts areas for bears and jaguars although they definitely aren’t great.

 

[Tiger]

When I saw this thread, I immediately thought of Wildlands. In Wildlands, visitors can follow a behind-the-scenes tour from November to February, which takes you past the kitchen, picking garden, water purification and of course the indoor enclosures of various animal species such as the savannah animals, hippos and lions (in short, the animals that are difficult to see because of the cold weather).
In Zoo Antwerp and Planckendael you could go behind the scenes in guided tours (which I have done myself several times and which is very interesting). Ecxept for companies, however, I don't know if this is still possible.
In Antwerp Zoo, you can also take a look inside the kitchen of the (Small) Monkey House and the raising room of the reptiles in the Reptile Building (Reptile raising room - ZooChat).
It is also possible to see birds hatch in an incubator (of which I have been an eyewitness) in the Bird House.
At the Rotterdam Zoo, you can look into the bird breeding room in the Rivièra hall, while in the Oceanium, visitors can look into a laboratory filled mainly with reptiles.
I am probably forgetting half of all the places I have been where you can go behind the scenes, temporarily or permanently, but it is just to name a few.

 

[Skukuza]

The only “on show” & simultaneously “behind the scenes” exhibits I can think of right now are;

Disneys animal kingdom; the train out to rafiki’s planet watch shows you the holding barns for rhino etc and other pens.

Rancho Texas Lanzarote; the path to the dolphin tank takes you through an area with a viewing window to the pumping and filtration room. On the window are interactive projections controlled by touch screen highlighting the different bits of equipment and explaining their use which are normally hidden away bts.

Edinburgh zoo; has a complex for capuchin monkeys with a primate research lab visible With more off show and sometimes this kind of research area is often not readily viewable.

Quite sure there are images of all in the galleries but I haven’t learnt how to embed those yet. Apologies.

 

[mrcriss]

Any collection that has food prep rooms on show has way too many staff!

 

[OkapiFan]

The Greensboro Science Center has windows into their commissary, conservation labs (freshwater mussels and rhinoceros iguanas), and vet areas (radiology, treatment, surgery, and necropsy.) The center is the only zoo in the country to offer a view into the necropsy room.

 

[iloveyourzoos]

I love these behind the scenes places. And they also open up so many philosophical questions to me.

Behind-the-scenes (bts) viewing really points out the fact that there is a scene elsewhere (up front). So does the popularity of bts viewing suggest that the heavy theming that's become standard in zoos may be losing some of its appeal and influence, or may have gone too far? Would some of these bts views and functions even have been bts back in the old menagerie days, for example? Or would many of them have been in the public's view all along back then? What exactly does it mean to build an immersive, naturalistic, experiential space, and then turn around and highlight the exact opposite?

And given that these bts spots are now becoming a part of the scene, to what extent will these bts spaces end up getting treated more and more like regular in-front-of-the-scene spaces, with design decisions being made intentionally to give the guests the most "authentic" bts experience possible? Pipes and wires intentionally left visible. Tools strategically "displayed". Paint colors and lighting choices and building materials selected to give "just the right feel". Maybe some will highlight an industrial or factory-like setting, while others go for a rustic or barnyard mise en scene. Just imagine: Zoo architects who are no longer limited to naturalism; now they can try their hand at steampunk too!

I'm also always wondering whether these spaces get better cleaning/ painting/ maintenance/ security, etc. than other spaces that are even further behind the scenes. And whether the opening of "behind the scenes" spaces will require zoos to build separate, even further behind the scenes spaces to compensate. How many layers back can it go?

It also leads me to ask: If your behind the scenes space is good enough and acceptable to show visitors, could a zoo get away with and be accredited if they only did this level of guest viewing? If they got rid of the in-front-of-the-scenes part of their zoo altogether and made all of the guest areas into ones that looked like this?

Imagine a zoo that doesn't have the money for all that fancy theming and planting and enclosure design that us zoochatters love. Could they just advertise themselves as an "exclusively behind the scenes experience" and bypass all those extra expenses? Or is it only considered "cool" (by either the public or the accrediting bodies) when it's done by larger, richer institutions as a way to show a contrast?

TL;DR: If these spaces are in fact suitable for public viewing, what forces caused them to be classified as behind the scenes to begin with? And if there is indeed a desire to see these spaces, doesn't that point to some potential limitations/failures/absences in our current exhibit models overall?

 

[Zoofan15]

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Auckland Zoo

Bornean orangutan:

Their old orangutan facilities (1987-2017) featured an off display annex, consisting of a square room, a ledge and an open air mesh roof. It allowed the separation of the colony’s two males, who rotated access to the females and their young (who had the run of the outside arena and the dayroom) and was later used as a maternity wing when one of the females gave birth. When she rejoined the main group with her infant, an adolescent male was removed and housed in there with a an adult female for company. You could see them peering out the top from the viewing deck to the main arena.

Nepalese red panda:

Their off display Nepalese red panda exhibit was built in the 1920’s to house bears. Red pandas have occupied for just over two decades and since 2017, it’s been off display via a screen that’s been erected around it. If you’re tall enough, you can look over the screen and I always do since I don’t know how much longer we’ll have to enjoy this historic exhibit. Most visitors don’t even realise it’s there as it’s not on the map, but the zoo occasionally refer to it in their socials.

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Wellington Zoo

Sumatran tiger:

For close to 20 years up until 2012, visitors to Wellington Zoo could see Sumatran tigers in two exhibits - the main exhibit which usually held the male; and a smaller exhibit that held the female. A redevelopment of the complex in 2012 saw the smaller exhibit (which used to have it’s own viewing window), screened off. If you stand on the viewing deck of the main arena, you can still see it through the vegetation and it remains fully functional.

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[Anmltrnr98]

I think @birdsandbats brings up the fair point, that if it's designed for the public to see, it isn't really behind-the-scenes. But here are a few examples of things that have traditionally happened out of public view that facilities are now putting front and center:

• Nashville Zoo Veterinary Hospital
• Busch Gardens Tampa Veterinary Hospital
• Zoo Knoxville Vet Hospital
• Disney's Animal Kingdom Veterinary Hospital
• Greensboro Science Center Veterinary Hospital/Commissary
• National Aviary Comissary
• Oregon Zoo Polar Bear Research
• Adventure Aquarium and Newport Aquarium shark bridge over the top of main tanks (can view top side of habitat)