In the Gardens of Zoology

I love reading, and it's not uncommon for me to be working on two or three books simultaneously, putting one down for a few days before switching to another, or starting a new book while I'm traveling, then returning to a favorite once I'm back home.  Just this month, I was working my way between two non-fiction books, Dr. Terry Maple's Professor in the Zoo and The Zoo, a history of the founding of the London Zoo by Isobel Charman.  One dealt with the origins of the modern zoo, the other was a look at the future.  Both came down to one word: Science.

More specifically, both were focused on zoology, the science of animals.  The London Zoo was the brainchild of several Georgian-era zoologists, while Dr. Maple's book calls for a more science-driven approach to zoo animal management.

As I flitted between one book and the other, I walked across the grounds of my zoo and thought... not a lot of science going on here.  I'd like to change that.  Sure, we're an educational facility, with school groups and signage and keeper talks and all that, but looking both back into the past, as well as forward, I'm really left with the impression that we could be doing more.  Something that would bolster our scientific street-cred, something that would tell the public that we aren't just for little kids and elementary school field trips.  That we're something more.  

Some ideas that have popped into my head:

1) Rethinking the educational messages we share.  Too often, we put a sign in front of the animal, and that's it.  Sometimes, we don't even do the sign - my director is one of many who doesn't particularly care for signage, since he feels no one reads them and they just clutter the place up.  I think we need more signage and better signage, more graphic driven and, whenever possible, backed up with interactive devices, touchable features, and 3-D models.  The visitor shouldn't just see the animal - he or she should be learning a lot about it as well, with the twin messages of "Why is this animal awesome?" and "How can I help conserve it?"

2) Partner with natural history museums.  I didn't realize this, but the London Zoo originally had a natural history museum on grounds, to which Charles Darwin himself was a frequent visitor (it probably helped that the Zoo didn't have the best track record of keeping animals alive back then, so they were pretty much stuffed a few days after they arrived).  We should partner with scientific organizations in our communities.  In part, we can provide specimens to museums post mortem.  The museums can help us improve our exhibits and educational programs.  Together, we can highlight fieldwork and conservation, sharing messages to better resonate with our visitors

3) Partner with universities.  School groups shouldn't end with 5th graders.  We should partner with local universities, offering internships and research opportunities.  For example, students can do behavioral surveys of our animals - how are they interacting with each other, what are they doing with their time, etc - that keepers might not be able to do due to time constraints.  Students can research wild animal behavior and help us develop more species-specific enrichment. Zoo staff can do guest lectures in the classroom, and help bring in other speakers as well.

4) Make science accessible through citizen science.  Don't just teach our visitors about science - help them do it!  Work to establish FrogWatch, bird-watching survey groups, and other citizen science programs at your facility to help turn your visitors into conservation research partners.

Even the smallest, least-well-funded zoos and aquariums have the potential to implement some of the ideas on this list.  Together, we can work to build our understanding of animals, obtain data useful for improving animal welfare and assisting in conservation, and reclaim our roles as scientific institutions.