Moving people who visit zoos

[sooty mangabey]

Having worked with children for my entire adult life - and having been one myself before that! - and as a father of more children than is ecologically sound, my experience is that the surest way to turn off young people is to attempt to appeal them. Just be good, and that will be enough.

I think teenagers can very easily be interested in animals - but patronising them with desperate attempts to talk their language will leave zoos looking like dads who get up and dance at a wedding.

 

[Jurek7]

the things you think are directed at kids are actually designed according to what the mothers think is "child-adequate". Thus, the "cute, cuddly and colorful" aspect with baby animals and a Disneyesque depiction of the animal world prevails, because Mum thinks that this is what her offspring should see.

YES! This is what I noticed, too! This is likely reason of so-called 'children growing out of interest of animals': zoos targeted mothers and teachers, but children themselves were not sufficently interested. Among others, children don't particulary like cute and cuddly.

Zoos should change their marketing: from 'your children will see funny animals at our zoo' to 'children will be solidly educated and benefit at our zoo'.

 

[Animal Friendly]

There is no doubt whatsoever that zoos are aiming for families with young children in their marketing and advertising, in the U.K. at least.Personaly my zoo visits are now infrequent, there is not a decent collection less than 100 miles from where I live, this is not however my main reason for few visits, I have no other family members who now wish to visit zoos, nobody is interested, and I don't want them to suffer a day in silence just to be polite to myself. I do not enjoy in the least visiting zoos on my own, you feel like a spare one at a wedding, it is lonely and sad,I note quite a few members of zoo chat however don't seam to have a problem with this, that's their business of coarse.

 

[Jurek7]

I wonder what everyone feels makes a teen-friendly atmosphere? Obviously many (not all) teens (many adults too I suppose!) have a fascination with technology

Main problem of teenagers is lack of money and own transport. Teens will only go to the zoo if it can be reached by public transport and cheap. And if they don't feel guided and observed every moment.

BTW: teenagers are not 'fascinated' by technology: they are forced into the world of simulations, because reality is not accessible for them. They cannot visit the end of the world, drive car or go to the casino. Increasingly they cannot even visit their mates in person. So they do a substitute online.

 

[Animal Friendly]

Main problem of teenagers is lack of money and own transport. Teens will only go to the zoo if it can be reached by public transport and cheap. And if they don't feel guided and observed every moment.

BTW: teenagers are not 'fascinated' by technology: they are forced into the world of simulations, because reality is not accessible for them. They cannot visit the end of the world, drive car or go to the casino. Increasingly they cannot even visit their mates in person. So they do a substitute online.

As a well known zoo director of many years standing once told me, "they come with their parents as children, when they are teenagers we loose them to Alton Towers, however we later get them back as parents themselves with their own children"

 

[Drew]

BTW: teenagers are not 'fascinated' by technology: they are forced into the world of simulations, because reality is not accessible for them. They cannot visit the end of the world, drive car or go to the casino. Increasingly they cannot even visit their mates in person. So they do a substitute online.

'Fascinated' might not be the most accurate term... maybe dependent is more appropriate (or at least they think they are dependent). I wouldn't say they are forced into it... there were options for previous generations and there are options now. Although I can see how getting online is currently the easiest and most accessible form of connection to the outside world. So I think your point about accessibility is spot on and that zoos can/should be an option for teens when seeking these connections.

 

[Jules97]

Main problem of teenagers is lack of money and own transport. Teens will only go to the zoo if it can be reached by public transport and cheap. And if they don't feel guided and observed every moment.

BTW: teenagers are not 'fascinated' by technology: they are forced into the world of simulations, because reality is not accessible for them. They cannot visit the end of the world, drive car or go to the casino. Increasingly they cannot even visit their mates in person. So they do a substitute online.

As a teenager myself, I think I can add on to that.
With friends we always look for places where we can go and "hangout" and "chill". The city being the only free place to go, thats where we go every time. Some of my friends won't go either because "we go all the time" or because they'd rather stay home and play video games.
Teenagers will stop playing video games if they have a good enough reason to go out and if it's easy to get there and cheap.
I have a lot of friends who won't join in the activity if they can't get dropped off by their parents because "catching the bus is too hard" or because a 20 mins bus ride feels like hours to them.
Most zoos don't have that frequent and fast public transport service and are too expensive to go spend a day out with friends.

If there was more public transport and if it was cheaper, you'd see sooo many more teenagers at the zoo.

It's not a matter of being interested or not as long as one person in their friend group wants to go, that person will make every single person in the group go, that I can tell you.

 

[FMtRIS]

This comes from a lifelong student of life sciences. I majored in biology but just continued on my own after the money ran out so I might be a little biased about what constitutes interest in a zoo but the best experience I have had with a zoo are the member appreciation days where you can talk to the people that make the zoo work and actually find out what the zoo does as compared to what they used to do. My home zoo is Omaha Zoo and their genetics department is top notch and field research projects are furthering the understanding as to how much life there is to appreciate and to conserve it and devise options to even maintain a population of people interacting with a non human population. That is what it is in my interest and what I find intriguing but I am noticeably a minority in the larger demographic of zoo patrons. There is a huge demographic of parents with children who just come to see the animals and that's it. I think this is changing with the awareness brought about by zoos, that the species that people see are in trouble; iconic species such as the African lion. Its hard to say what effect outreach programs have. I once attended a presentation on Madagascar, in the winter, and in single digit temperatures and I think there were probably fifty people there, many of which were students.
It has been mentioned, I think in a TED Talk, that due to the pace of modern society, that there are instances of many people that just do not allow the time to see such things as blossoming trees or see a beautiful sunset and so there is simply not the impulse to understand anything beyond their schedule and thus preserve or cherish it. However, many workplaces have matching fund programs for such organizations as the World Wildlife Fund, and this allows a consciousness raiser to be interjected into a busy schedule.
I think that in the course of a day, even small reminders of the "outside world" would benefit interest. I have seen many commercials lately that do just that with prime time slots for zoos. Zoos are convenient as a family venue as well. I have two within a maximum of two hours drive.
So that is where the questions of this topic have taken me. Its getting late but, off the top of my head, that is my addition to the topic.

 

[animal explorer]

When I leave a zoo i feel that emotional connection with the animals i saw and of course i am very axhided . Although as you said sometimes you get tired because of walking all day.
About the others now i believe that most people visit zoos just for entertainment instead of learning more about the wildlife and being sensitised about the environmental issues.

To conclude i believe that zoos must find a more entertaining way to teach people about the animals seeing that the labels do not succed to teach them very much.

 

[elefante]

The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center outside of Yellowstone National Park gives a great experience. It contains a museum on both ends of the animal displays that describe the plight of these animals in North America. The center tests containers to see if they might be bear proof and there is a section where you can see what didn't make the grade that really displays the power of the bears. This establishment as a whole makes you care about these animals. I'm not sure how an urban zoo could fit this all in but I do think more information that is a bit more graphic that shows the effects of poaching, pet trade, and habitat loss would be an effective reminder.

 

[TheMightyOrca]

The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center outside of Yellowstone National Park gives a great experience. It contains a museum on both ends of the animal displays that describe the plight of these animals in North America. The center tests containers to see if they might be bear proof and there is a section where you can see what didn't make the grade that really displays the power of the bears. This establishment as a whole makes you care about these animals. I'm not sure how an urban zoo could fit this all in but I do think more information that is a bit more graphic that shows the effects of poaching, pet trade, and habitat loss would be an effective reminder.

That sounds really neat. I love when zoos and wildlife parks do stuff like that.

And I like the idea of having more information on what threats animals face in the wild. Zoos creating captive populations in case the wild one dies out is fine and all, but what's the point of preserving a species if it doesn't have any wilds to go back to?