Update on Zoo observations.

Observations on June 17th

My main focus was to observe social interaction between the visitors and how people acted when they were alone. Also I wanted get a feeling about capturing moments.

Good weather, sunny and warm after an unusually cold June. A lot of the animals were hiding inside, probably because of the direct sun. Tons of kids, complete mayhem in the kids area, many school classes and kindergartens visiting.

an overview of the kids section

Many kids had assignment papers with treasure like maps in their hands and talked about how they should fill in the paper and what they had to examine and find answers to next. (The zoo has a lot of activities and education programs for kids and schools, and I am sure the schools also add ideas to this.)

Remarks I heard:
“Oi, look at that crap it makes” “yeah, yikes!!” two boys, ca. 7 years old fascinated by  rhino dong.

A little girl was feeling all over a model of a rhinos head.

rhino head with disturbing context

A lot of  parents / pedagogues told the kids all the time what the signs said.

The zoo is not only for kids. This was part of a conversation between a couple in their 60-ies “It is much nicer to sit down here” Yes, it it far more secluded”

a quiet corner in the shadows

A woman had found another quiet corner next to the caracal (an african cat), were she was reading a book.

A kid (ca 4 years old) asked, which ones are the giraffes, where are they?
the mum didn’t answer but asked: “how many giraffes can you see?”
no answer form the kid…

Some parents tried a humorous approach: “look at that one, do you think it just came from the hairdresser where it got gold spray in the hair?”

The kids didn’t reply at all…

the bird that apparently just came from the barber shop

The kid (around 7) “Can’t we leave from here, it is totally boring”
The grandmother: ” yes, it is very educational for kids here”
She was watching me spin a big wheel about the ibis bird. There didn’t seem to be any direct answer to the kid, they just slowly moved out.

ibis with friends

learn about the ibis

The best example by far the whole day of social interaction that I saw was between the kids themselves. Trying to find out stuff together seemed to be very engaging. One case in particular was a group of four girls, two at the age of approx. 11 and two at the age of 5-6. One girl was very active and lead the group to discover things about the giraffes. She even carried one of the other kids bags. They chatted away about everything, it was a joy to watch!

the girls are very busy exploring

learn about the giraffe

learning more stuff at the okapi exhibition

Also there was an example of two boys in the terrarium section of the tropical zoo where they were mutually engaged in finding the insects and animals in the glass displays and creeping out about them together. One was always a little braver than the other one.

find the snake

more searching

Generally the “find waldo” effect in this section seemed to be very effectful. But the moment didn’t extent so much longer than spotting the animal, especially with the youngest visitors.

“I’ve seen one of those in real life” a kid stated in a very laconic voice. Was that having an idea of the zoo not being the “real thing”, or was he just trying to impress his friends? The other kids didn’t care, they had seen that the turtles were mating so they were more interested in that!

watching the turtles

turtles mating

People seem to pass though the first part of the rain forest rather quickly. Why?

The butterfly section stops people more, the butterflies swarm all around you. A kid suddenly was very exited and explained happily to me that a big black butterfly just sat on my backpack and when it flew it almost hit his face and he demonstrated very lively how he had to move to let it pass him. He was very exited about this encounter. I loved his excitement:-)

from cocoon to butterfly display

cocoons

butterfly

butterfly

Generally a lot of the kids wanted a reaction from the animals: they would roar as the lion, replicate the animals movement, knock on the window, wave their arms etc etc…

Capturing a moment.

On a personal note, I realized that when I leaned forward and towards the animal to get closer, I felt something. I smiled. When I took a picture, I got a little disappointed. It didn’t capture the experience as I felt it, it didn’t fill out my eyes in the same way, it didn’t touch my other senses or my mind in the same way at all.

lemurs... I think...

I tried to take pictures of a very cute bunch of lemurs, resting in the shadows, but the picture didn’t do my experience any justice. On purpose I only brought my little pocket camera with me, because that is what people tend to have when they go to the zoo. Bringing proper photo gear could of course draw the animals closer to me through the lens, but that would not replicate the experience most people have. I wanted to try to walk in their shoes with the means a regular visitor typically has.

At the lion exhibition, I tried first to look at the lions over the hedge, then walked down to the windows where you can get a lot closer to where the lions are. The difference was big. Through the window, every sense of reality disappeared for me.  Even though it meant watching the lions from afar, I preferred to stand with nothing between me and the lions but air. The window acted like a screen, and it took a lot away from the emotional connection that you some what magically think you get towards the animal.