Re-opening of UK Zoos - dates, timings & bookings

mrcriss said:
Now that its been officially announced, I can tell you about something really cool with Jimmy’s Farm & Wildlife Park’s reopening.

Like with most zoos, keeper talks just aren’t possible because we can’t have large gatherings of visitors in any one area. So we’ve come up with a fun and innovative way around this. At certain enclosures, you’ll be able to scan a QR code on your phones which will take you to a little video of Jimmy and one of the rangers talking about the animals you’re looking at, giving you all the info. Fun, eh? :)
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That's a really neat idea.
 
Mattaki said:
That's a really neat idea.
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Cheers! They were really fun to shoot and kind of made us feel like we were doing the TV programme again.

if you go onto our Facebook page and watch the intro vid, you’ll see that it’s been really beautifully shot and edited too, so they’ll be really cool. I hope that the public take time to watch them.
 
mrcriss said:
Now that its been officially announced, I can tell you about something really cool with Jimmy’s Farm & Wildlife Park’s reopening.

Like with most zoos, keeper talks just aren’t possible because we can’t have large gatherings of visitors in any one area. So we’ve come up with a fun and innovative way around this. At certain enclosures, you’ll be able to scan a QR code on your phones which will take you to a little video of Jimmy and one of the rangers talking about the animals you’re looking at, giving you all the info. Fun, eh? :)
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It will be very interesting to see how that goes for you. We introduced something vaguely similar using QR codes a year or two back just after they been launched and were still fashionable. Now it seems, that few people bother with them, having not loaded the app - so it has fizzled out rather.
 
Andrew Swales said:
It will be very interesting to see how that goes for you. We introduced something vaguely similar using QR codes a year or two back just after they been launched and were still fashionable. Now it seems, that few people bother with them, having not loaded the app - so it has fizzled out rather.
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Hopefully it’ll just give them the that bit of interactivity until we can start doing talks and encounters again :)

Also, the videos are done in a very light hearted conversational style, rather than a full heavy keeper talk.
 
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As per this afternoon's announcement at Holyrood, outdoor zoos in Scotland are to be allowed to open from 29th June - but as things stand there is still to be a restriction of approximately 5 miles on leisure travel at that point, which if still in place will leave many places without much of a visitor base to draw on.
 
Gigit said:
Paignton will reveal re-opening information 'early next week' (FB)
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Sounds as if they’re going to pull a rabbit out of a hat! Will Mr Tonge be wearing the magicians outfit?

I’ll remain cautiously optimistic but I expect nothing less than a drumroll before said announcement occurs!
 
Andrew Swales said:
It will be very interesting to see how that goes for you. We introduced something vaguely similar using QR codes a year or two back just after they been launched and were still fashionable. Now it seems, that few people bother with them, having not loaded the app - so it has fizzled out rather.
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QR codes are something I’ve looked into recently being involved in marketing at a sports team. The main challenge seems to be getting people to realise that most phones built in cameras read and link to QR codes (especially easy on iPhones).

While researching I thought they’d be especially good for zoos as you can embed the code into a image so you can have say a picture of a lion that you take a picture of and it takes you to the webpage or video about lions.

I was planning on using it as a kind of game for kids to find all the hidden codes in a programme. Or in terms of a guide book they could scan a code near an animal and see videos or budget dependant even an AR version of the animal like on google in their front room.
 
wayne4swfc said:
QR codes are something I’ve looked into recently being involved in marketing at a sports team. The main challenge seems to be getting people to realise that most phones built in cameras read and link to QR codes (especially easy on iPhones).
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That certainly fits with the feedback we had - "my phone hasn't got that and I've never been interested or bothered to load it. They don't use those any more, do they?."
 
Andrew Swales said:
That certainly fits with the feedback we had - "my phone hasn't got that and I've never been interested or bothered to load it. They don't use those any more, do they?."
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QR codes would be an excellent tool particularly in a zoo or museum environment. However, as with all technology, success depends on a variety of factors, both human and non-human! I find it virtually impossible to get good mobile coverage at Whipsnade for example, where something like a virtual map would be excellent for visitors.
 
Andrew Swales said:
That certainly fits with the feedback we had - "my phone hasn't got that and I've never been interested or bothered to load it. They don't use those any more, do they?."
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On the majority of phones you can now just open the camera on your phones hold it over the code and it reads and opens the link. As I said it’s especially easy on iPhones. I’ve never fully tested it on android devices as like everyone else we’ve been stopped in our tracks but my research tells me that modern android phones work much the same.
Getting people to try this is a lot harder.
 
QR codes are also great for phishing - you simply walk around a zoo with a bunch of pre-made QR code stickers and place them on signs and such where they look "official". When visitors scan the QR code it directs them to your phishing site that looks a lot like the zoo's site but asks for your personal details or your credit card or something, which you then use for nefarious purposes.

QR codes are an IT security nightmare. They are convenient for users, but also convenient for hackers because you don't know where the link will take you.
 
Simon Hampel said:
QR codes are also great for phishing - you simply walk around a zoo with a bunch of pre-made QR code stickers and place them on signs and such where they look "official". When visitors scan the QR code it directs them to your phishing site that looks a lot like the zoo's site but asks for your personal details or your credit card or something, which you then use for nefarious purposes.

QR codes are an IT security nightmare. They are convenient for users, but also convenient for hackers because you don't know where the link will take you.
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Mmmm.... I wonder how Jimmy's Farm intends to prevent that risk to their visitors?
 
Chessington reopened yesterday - Zoo days currently, pre-bookable on their website , Main carpark in front of the hotels is still operating as a Covid 19 drivethru test site so access is via the overflow side car parks entrance (Explorer Gate).
 
Andrew Swales said:
Mmmm.... I wonder how Jimmy's Farm intends to prevent that risk to their visitors?
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This is one of the reasons why we started embedded them in images, whilst it’s still not entirely secure it does make it slightly harder. We were obviously also going to use them within print and I would imagine in guide books etc. This would also be a lot safer. Could they be printed on to a map that’s handed out as a way to make them safer?

It’s also important to tell people what to expect, in this case that it will link to a video and won’t ask for any personal information and if it does to inform somebody straight away. I suppose with the limited numbers it’s also easier to police any signs and I’m not sure how the restrictions work but could volunteers still be around to assist people with the codes?
 
wayne4swfc said:
This is one of the reasons why we started embedded them in images, whilst it’s still not entirely secure it does make it slightly harder. We were obviously also going to use them within print and I would imagine in guide books etc. This would also be a lot safer. Could they be printed on to a map that’s handed out as a way to make them safer?

It’s also important to tell people what to expect, in this case that it will link to a video and won’t ask for any personal information and if it does to inform somebody straight away. I suppose with the limited numbers it’s also easier to police any signs and I’m not sure how the restrictions work but could volunteers still be around to assist people with the codes?
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We’ll have member of staff explaining the whole thing during the queuing process before they enter the park, so they’ll either get on board or not. Most people have a smart phone these days, and I’m hoping it’ll hark back to the TV series which had such an amazing response. I reckon people might enjoy updates on the big characters that they grew to love.

The QR codes are printed onto metal signs which bear our park logo and screwed onto the enclosure fences (7 in total). They will take the viewer to youtube to watch the videos that have been professionally shot and edited. The rangers will be monitoring the codes on their own sections, which will of course be checked a couple of times each day.
 
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