Movie Night at the Zoo

The bizarre slime mold going on display at the Paris Zoo has been affectionately (?) named "the blob" by its caretakers, a homage to the 1958 horror movie of the same name.  The blob is hardly the first organism to be immortalized in a cheesy horror movie.  There is an entire zoo's worth of species which have had their own dubious depictions on the bigscreen: Alligator, Orca, Anaconda, Piranhas, Arachnaphobia, The Bear, and, most famous of all, Jaws. 


I remember when I was a kid, my best friend and I went to see the move Anaconda.  The next day, I heard him breathlessly telling all of our other friends (friends with parents who wouldn't have let them within a hundred yards of the theater) all of the "facts" that he'd learned from the movie.


These movies tend to be cheesy, campy, and not at all realistic.  The public loves them.  Zoo staff tend to cringe, as they depict an inaccurate, negative representation of animals that we care about, and that can really impact efforts to educate visitors and inspire them to care about the species.  It's hard to convince people that snakes aren't that bad when you just watched one vomit Jon Voight onto Jennifer Lopez and Ice Cube.


Perhaps there is a way to get ahead of this, though, and use these movies as fun, campy teaching aides.  Many large zoos - and even more aquariums - have IMAX theaters.  Imagine an October of evening events focused on animal-themed horror movies.  Visitors could come see the movie, and then afterwards meet an animal ambassador or take a guided tour of an exhibit to learn the truth about the animals that they just saw on screen.  Watch Eight-Legged Freaks, then meet a tarantula brought out by an educator.  See Lake Placid, then get the chance to touch an education alligator, or watch a feeding demo with larger ones.


Like the popular October beer festivals that many zoos hold, it would be a way to introduce the animals to audiences that might otherwise not think of the zoo as a place for childless adults to visit.  More importantly, it could help visitors separate the fact from the fiction of some amazing animals, while still having a good time with a bad movie.