A Zoo Visitor's Thoughts

I love zoos!   *   What is a zoo?   *   Zoos are endangered!   *   Keep the elephants!   *   Zoos are for adults, too!   *   Comparing Elephant Webcams and Elephants   *   I love the Elmwood Park Zoo!   *   How do you pronounce oh-KAH-pee?   *   I love the National Zoo! (for 11 great reasons!)   *   There is a Moral to This (True) Story!   *   A Trend Turnaround   *   I love the Elmwood Park Zoo and the National Zoo's websites!   *   Winds of Change are in the Air!   *   Research Results   *   Don't Do It!

Friday, June 29, 2007

A Trend Turnaround

In 2005, I noticed many zoos were changing their membership benefits in ways that could make adults without young children or grandchildren feel unwelcome. (see Zoos are for adults, too!)


I found ten zoos that had changed their Individual membership benefits from allowing "one guest per visit" to allowing "one guest under age 12". Since my children are older than 18, and I have no grandchildren (or friends under age 12!), I objected to this new policy!

But I recently checked and found that all ten had changed back to the original benefits, allowing an individual member to bring a guest of any age.

I am very happy about this, especially since I only contacted one of the zoos to complain. That means either a lot of other people also complained (indicating other adults believe zoos should be for them, too), or those in charge of determining membership categories and benefits realized they had been wrong without anyone drawing their attention to it.

Either way, it is good to see a trend in the wrong direction reverse so quickly!

Labels: zoo membership, zoo visitors

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Wednesday, June 27, 2007

I love the Elmwood Park Zoo!

The Elmwood Park Zoo is one of the most scenic, peaceful zoos on earth. Even special events don't seem to interfere with its overall tranquility. When you enter the zoo, you can literally feel your muscles relax as the calming atmosphere of a true zoological park surrounds you. (Be careful if you have been tense for a long time prior to entering the zoo. When your body suddenly relaxes, you might wobble.)

The Zoo is small (only 16 square acres), but it feels like wide open natural spaces in a park-like setting. As you walk, you see plants, trees, and animals on both sides of the path. You hear all-natural animal sounds, and in many areas, you also hear the sound of water flowing in a nearby stream.

The exhibits are all designed so the animals have plenty of space, but can't be too far away from the visitors' view. Jaguars, coatimundis, tamarins, fishers, porcupines, wolves, foxes, cougars, elk, buffalo, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs, bats, burrowing owls, egrets, cranes, and peregrine falcons share the Zoo territory with alligators, snakes, turtles, and piranhas. And none of them try to eat each other.

Seniors can sit on benches and people-and-animal-watch. Families can sit at picnic benches and munch on snacks. College students can lie on the grass and study. Children can play in the scenically-designed playground, climb a play tree with a pretend eagle's nest on top, or crawl through a child-sized prairie dog tunnel.

I have been visiting the Elmwood Park Zoo for more than thirty years, and I have never heard, If you don't behave, we're going home! or It's almost time for the football game, or even My feet hurt, while at the zoo.

I have read that the average time zoo visitors at most zoos spend at each exhibit is 60 seconds, give or take a few seconds. And I've witnessed visitors in some other zoos passing exhibits so quickly they appeared as a blur to the naked eye. But at the Elmwood Park Zoo, visitors of all ages linger at the exhibits.

Visitors stop, lean on the wooden fences, or iron railings, and quietly watch the animals for several minutes at a time. Usually when they talk, they talk in hushed voices so they won't disturb the animals. They even wait when an animal isn't immediately visible, hoping it will come into view.

What causes this unusual visitor behavior? What happened to all that fast-walking, loud-on-a-cell-phone-talking, rapid-chewing-hardly-swallowing, no-way-to-get-my-attention-unless-you-bombard-my-senses, we-have-to-hurry-because-we-have-twenty-other-things-to-do-today behavior all those people were engaged in before they entered the zoo?

It's gone with the breeze.

Labels: Elmwood Park Zoo, zoo visitors

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Friday, June 22, 2007

How do you pronounce oh-KAH-pee?

It is related to a giraffe, but it looks like at least one of its relatives (perhaps an aunt or an uncle) is a zebra.

It is called an okapi, which, according to the dictionary, is pronounced oh-KAH-pee. But the dictionary must be wrong, because no one ever pronounces it that way.

Whenever I am standing at an okapi exhibit in a zoo, I try to keep track of the various mispronunciations to see if one occurs more often than others. If so, maybe that could actually be the correct pronunciation, and someone should notify the publishers of dictionaries.

After looking over my notes, I see that the possible correct pronunciations are, in order of frequency of occurrence: oh-KAY-pee, oh-KAY-pi, OH-ka-pee, OH-ka-pi, and oh ... ka ... PEE, enunciated slowly, with puckered lips, and with so much emphasis on PEE that the child actually spits.

Based on the results of my research, the right thing to do would be to send letters to dictionary publishers and ask them to change the official pronunciation of the word to oh-KAY-pee since that is by far the most frequent pronunciation I have observed.

But this may be one of those cases where right or wrong isn't determined by statistical numbers. I actually think the child's exaggerated-enunciation version sounds most authentic, and is definitely the most fun to watch a person say, as long as you stand out of spit range.

Labels: okapi, zoo visitors

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Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Zoos are for adults, too!

... So why are so many zoos creating membership categories that favor families with young children and eliminating categories that encourage single adults or adults with grown children to visit the zoo?

Until recently, almost all zoos offered individual memberships that allowed the member to bring one guest of any age in addition to various other categories designed for families.

But within the past year or so, many zoos have changed the individual membership category to specify that the guest must be a child, or in some cases, a child or a senior citizen.

Why specify the age range of the guest?

In addition, new membership categories have been added to allow families to bring babysitters and grandparents. Obviously, zoos are presenting themselves as places for children, which is good. All children should visit zoos often.

But zoos should also be considered places where adults of any age can go to learn, to go for an outdoor walk, and to relax.

Are zoo directors forgetting that single adults, young adults, and adults with grown children are the ones who are most likely to have money to spare to donate to wildlife conservation efforts?

This "age discrimination" does not make sense from any perspective!

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Friday, June 03, 2005

Keep the elephants!

Animal rights activists are causing many zoos to send their elephants to sanctuaries which, according to animal rights activists, can provide better care. Of course, animal rights activists would prefer to have all elephants returned to the wild.

In all the years I have been visiting zoos, I have never seen an elephant that did not appear to be well cared for. All the zoo elephants I have seen appear content and peaceful.

On the Discovery channel, I have seen that elephants living in sanctuaries behave exactly the same way zoo elephants do. And I have definitely seen evidence that Nature does not always provide the best care for wild elephants.

All large zoos should exhibit elephants. Elephants can adapt to a variety of climates and can survive very well with the good care that most zoos provide.

The ONLY way to inspire an interest in saving elephants in the wild is to allow and encourage as many people as possible to see real live elephants up close.

Labels: elephants, sanctuaries, zoo visitors

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