Anyone have any high concept exhibit ideas?

A 3-square meter terrarium for Belgica antarctica, the only animal that can live its entire life in the antarctic (algae it feeds on would also be grown in there). The terrarium would be climate-maintained at -12 degrees between so that the midges can thrive. Interpretives would explain how the midge is able to survive the cold climate via glucose and erythritol in their bodies.

 

a truly enormous, doughnut-shaped tropical house, representing a journey around the equator. Successive independent, climate controlled sections containing flora & fauna from:

The Galapagos Islands

Ecuadorian Cloud forest

Amazon Rainforest

Sao Tome

Congo Basin

Kenyan Afromontane ecosystems

Sumatra

Borneo

Sulawesi

Halmahera & Waigeo


Perhaps the South American, African & Indonesian sections could be separated by aquatic areas.

 

That sounds fantastic; I hadnt even thought of an idea like that. It gives me some ideas of my own actually.

 

I mean permanently in the interior.

 

Although its something I could imagine a zoo doing, I've never seen a zoo make a really good exhibit concerning the ecology of certain habitats, showing how all manner of completely different species directly influence one another. Some examples could be:

- The stages separating species: For example, just five links separate a Brazil nut poison-dart frog on the forest floor of the Amazon rainforest from a small epiphytic orchid growing in the rainforest canopy

- Look at a habitat and what make it work: The islands and channels of the Okavango Delta that support most of the terrestrial and aquatic life respectively are the work of termites and hippopotamuses

- Keep a single key species and show its impacts: With one (or several) enclosures for a key species surrounded by auxiliary exhibits for other species that depend on it; a water buffalo exhibit could for instance have surrounding enclosures for insects, small birds, amphibians, waterbirds, tadpole shrimp and scavenging species

 

this in particular seems like a very interesting concept. I'm imagining a large wall with multiple vivaria containing various plants, invertebrates and herptiles, and interpretive signage in between showing the connections between them all. Perhaps culminating in a large carnivorous lizard or snake.

 

Having thought about this some more, perhaps a single wall would not be the best way of executing this concept-that monitor/python species is going to end up either a long way up, or right at the end of the display.
It makes it so much easier to show the connections between organisms in three dimensions-I'm now picturing a room, with various partial walls and divides, starting with producers and detritivores around the outside, organisms higher up the food chain towards the middle, and finally that large carnivorous reptile in the Centre.'Lines of connectivity' representing feeding, decay, symbiosis and what have you spreading across the walls, ceiling and floor, featuring basic murals showing these connections, while signage next to each exhibit discusses it in more detail. There's then the possibility of linking it into what happens when humans alter or remove some of these connections- perhaps a display representing an extinct species with the lines to and from it suddenly cut off?
IDK, maybe it would just end up looking like a weird reptile house with long stripes painted on every surface, but I feel if not over-complicated and well planned, it could be effective.

 

I think I detailed this in one of the other threads around here, but this was the core idea behind my own fantasy zoo.

 

An exhibit based around future evolution, where a species (in my scenario, the brown rat) is displayed in the center of the exhibit, and displays featuring hypothetical descendants of the animal surrounding it in circular shape. There would also be exhibits for modern-day animals which fill similar niches to the featured rat descendants (e.g. rakali for an aquatic rat descendant, a grasshopper mouse for a carnivorous rat descendant).

 

So basically this could be a projection of "The future is wild" with some enclosures for the current species from the hypotethical derivative ones featured in the film will evolve..

 

Another unorthodox exhibit is one where the focus is on a specific cryptid (like Sasquatch,
Mokele-mbembe, and Chupacabra) or mythological creature (like dragon, gryphon, and ogre) and the animals which could have influenced it.

 

That's a cool idea. I love fantasy creatures and I'm really fascinated by the mythology, the origins, and their influences. Plus an exhibit like that would be a great way to draw in visitors. Admittedly a lot of cryptids might not have enough influences to create much of an exhibit, so it would likely end up really museum-like as opposed to a traditional zoo exhibit. Would still be super sweet, though.

 

I've recently been reading up about the 'Trekbokke' - the mass migration of springbok together with other large herbivores (white-tailed wildebeest, quagga, blesbok and eland) in the Karoo of South Africa during the 1850s.*

It made me think that I have never seen an exhibit dedicated to migratory animals that really illustrates their journey or its impacts - it could include multiple paddocks for a species, each one showing a differing environment, coupled in with extra species that are somehow involved with the migration. Although I'm not usually a fan of added technological 'experiences' in a zoo setting (cinemas and the like), I think a 4D cinema that puts visitors into the heart of such a migrating herd would be an effective addition - the accounts of the thundering hooves and the drumming of the ground under thousands of legs, if moved over into a cinematic setting, would be a feature that elevates the exhibit above other hoofstock exhibits. It would certainly be an improvement in visitor experience over the standard 'hoostock in a field' that is invariably the first exhibit to get the chop when a zoo upgrades.

And its not just springbok and co that such a display could be made for - looking at this paper below there are many mass migratory ungulates that could be exhibited in such a fashion; as well as the obvious species such as wildebeest, reindeer and American bison, there are other species that could feature in such an exhibit such as kulan, scimitar-horned oryx or Siberian roe deer.
http://www.int-res.com/articles/esr2009/7/n007p055.pdf

* An account of a trekbokke migration is included in the link below:
BloemhofKaroo: A Karoo story - springbok migrations

 

Nurnberg will create an aviary with a migration theme according to their masterplan, but it will be about migratory birds . Diergaarde Blijdorp used to have a Migration aviary, with one part showcasing a Dutch meadow landscape and the other part a Mediterranean landscape. The inhabitants were only birds and they did not change parts depending on the year . But the idea was very much there. Unfortunately they completely abandoned the idea and it is now an Okapi aviary...

 

Now that I think about it, I do remember the pair of migratory aviaries at Blijdorp from my visit several years ago; rather attractive displays I found them too.

 

Ethiopian Highlands - Mountain Nyala, Walia Ibex, Gelada, and Menelik Bushbuck.

 

An exhibit for common hippos or manatees crossed by a walkway with glass floor, so you can see animals swimming under your feet.

 

Regarding Monterey Bay Aquarium, imagine if they had a glass viewing into the ocean.

 

These guys have some high concept exhibit ideas:

zoo concepts for the 21st century shift focus to animal welfare