This week is more geared toward Conservation Education, so we will be spending more time on grounds at the Zoo this week, learning about what conservation means to them and how they participate in conservation programs all over the country and world. We spent Monday mostly talking about the evolution of zoos and then learning from keeper talks how to educate the public on grounds about conservation all over the world.
We started the day with a presentation from Chance, the VP of the Education department. He told us how zoos came to be what they were today, and how involved and in depth the Houston Zoo goes into the conservation efforts of almost all of their animals in their collection. We had already done five projects on conservation animals that were present at the zoo and conservationists that our supervisors had met before because they work closely with the Zoo. So we knew they were involved and most of the animals at the Zoo are either abandoned or animal ambassadors for their species who promote conservation of their species and habitat in the wild, wherever that might be.
However, Chance wanted to talk to us more about what a Zoo is coming to mean in our modern society. He discussed the importance of conservation in affiliation with both education and animal facts not only in the Zoo, but outside of the Zoo in the public and in schools. They have basically three basic outreach programs that they all work toward providing a more cohesive knowledge of animals, their natural habitats, and the efforts to save them from extinction. They work with the public, on Zoomobiles, that go to communities with handling animals and talk about what the animal means to our environment and how it would affect us personally if it were to disappear forever. They also, of course, work with children, they have Zoo camp, Zoo crew (teenagers), and they write education programs for teachers in all districts who are interested in educating about environmental conservation and animal conservation. And finally, education on grounds, which is almost the most important, because most people go to the Zoo to see cool animals, not to save them or learn about them; they just want to see them. But we need to educate the people on the efforts and importance in conserving them for not only our future but our childrens as well.
All in all it was a very interesting presentation and discussion. We got to learn in depth about the Zoo and about how he got to where he was (he worked at SeaWorld, how cool!). Our next activity involved going to keeper chats and grading them on how they presented their material and if it engaged the public or not. For me, this was the best part of the day. I got to learn all about fabulous endangered species and talk to keepers who knew the most about their animals, and engaged my enthusiasm with a quiet joy.
We first went to see the elephants getting their daily bath. Baylor (the baby boy elephant) was playful as always, and in a stall with his mother. We watched as the dirt was washed off their backs and some soap was thrown on them to keep them as clean and healthy as possible in the Zoo environment. An intern actually came out to give the keeper chat. He knew all about his elephants and went on about their weight and height and a how old they were, etc. He knew these elephants, and was in college, like us, but was hoping to be an elephant keeper. He had worked with the Zoo for 6 years already and knew almost everything he could about these elephants.
He didn’t talk a lot about conservation, but the audience wasn’t much interested in that. He told us stories about the elephants history and how their male had been in a circus until he was brought to the Zoo. He was very attached to his owner, and trainer, and would not leave his side. Just like most elephants in captivity they traveled in a herd (which is unique for males, they are usually solitary). And all his life he lived with this man who fed and took care of him. Until one day, the man disappeared, his neighbors had not seen him for about a week or so, and were curious about his wear-abouts. They went and checked on the elephants, one was sitting down with a blanket on him and the others were all standing in a mass as usual, so the neighbors didn’t think anything too interesting. Now the male elephant had a guilty conscience, and would run away if he thought he did anything wrong, and they later found out that he had run away. He was the only elephant they couldn’t account for. When they actually inspected the blanket, they found that the elephant was protecting the owner who had had a heart-attack and died. And these elephants were fierce, they wanted no one to attack their owner, so it took the police 5-6 hours to actually recover the body. And eventually, they found our male who now resides at the zoo, in his own enclosure, separated from the women, to stimulate more natural wild-like behavior.
Our next chat was the bats, and it was over in a matter of seconds. The keeper came out, noticed it was just us there, and mentioned the types of species of bats, how many there were and how they ate. And that was about it. No engagement, no excitement, no fun facts, nothing. And sometimes we need that, just to see how not to do something. However, that is not a good thing for the public and we hope that she will learn to be more personable and engaging so as to get the public more excited about conservation and learning about bats.
Next we went to the red panda exhibit, the most exciting for me. Red panda’s are adorable, jungle creatures. They are red on their back and black on their stomach to keep them camoflauged in the trees. They have a black and white striped tail that helps them balance and wraps around them when they sleep in the trees. They were discovered before the panda and called pandas because they have an extra bone in their wrist. They’re adorable. I love them. Actually, the male and female had to be separated because they believed she was pregnant and they were stimulating dening behavior that is natural in the wild. Our keeper who talked to us loved her red pandas and knew all the right things to tell us, got us engaged and was very happy and talkative. I really liked her approach and interesting facts about these adorable creatures.
And finally, we went to the aquarium, to learn about any of the creatures in there. We waited a while for the guy to show up and when he did he told us he usually wandered, asking random questions and hopefully engaging some type of audience. We were intrigued because one of the girls really wants to be a marine biologist. We listened as he told us all about what they did with the interns in the aquarium department. It was really interesting and I liked how he seemed like he felt relieved to talk to people who were really interested in him and his work. He was very kind and very easy to talk to.
And when we returned to talk about the keeper chats and what they did right or wrong, we learned how we should approach our audience when presenting our conservation project to the public on Thursday. We learned more how to do interpretation and hoped that we at least reached one person.
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