Spontaneous Interpretation of Real Life Events : An Innovation in Conservation Education (original) (raw)

The sense of excitement and intimacy that comes from discovering a real life event as it is actually happening is intense, inspiring and memorable. Yet, there remains a great tendency for zoos and aquaria to present general biological information whose content and format is independent of the observable activities of the animals. The animals are portrayed as exhibits, living illustrations of their species dynamic objects which inspire public interest in the biological topics being presented rather than living individuals of inherent interest. The current, observable behaviors (breeding, territorial displays, nest building, snake shedding etc) that the exhibit animals themselves, initiate, are rarely profiled. Instead, the presentation of animal behavior is most often limited to generalized statements on graphic panels or scripted narrations of trained behaviors featured in animal shows.