Following on from a discussion in the "boring" animals thread, I was wondering what your thoughts were on children's zoos in real zoos. Personally, I find them quite boring and space-consuming but I understand the importance that they hold for younger zoo visitors, especially if there are interactive oppurtunities. I have only ever visited the childrens zoos at Chester and London, so perhaps I may be wrong about them, but since people were not allowed into the pen at Chester, I have seen very few people even paying attention to it. London's seemed very busy though... Perhaps children's zoos could be put to better use than holding common farm animals and replacing them with rarer varieties?
Children's Petting zoos do have their advantages: they allow especially urban children to come closer to animals, engage (almost) all senses and can be a resource for endangered domestic breeds like the Protest-Pig Animal details as well as teach important facts about domestic animals (see Stuttgart Zoo). All in all, they are one of the most popular attractions of any zoo. However, they also have disadvantages in form of zoonosis transmission, teaching children a wrong picture of animals & farm life and overfed/mistreated animals. I don't mind having them in zoos, but I think their educational value is often wasted.
The children's zoo at San Diego keeps their wombats, echidnas, and when I went, Common duiker, So there can be exceptions here!!
Our whole zoo is called a "children's zoo". We retain that name because we try to focus on children by making the exhibits child-friendly, easy for the little ones to see things without Mom and Dad having to lift them. We do have an area where the farm animals live, but we make every effort to not have overfed animals. There is a limit to the amount of feeding that is allowed each day. If the food isn't being sold, the kids can brush a goat for free. I believe the value in having these domestic animals lies in allowing youngsters to learn from whence cometh milk and eggs and bacon. It's surprising how many children don't get that these things come from animals!
Thanks for the responses guys! It seems that zoos in other countries seem to put more focus on the children's zoos than here in the UK. @Rookeyper: I meant to include your zoo as an exception. I do believe that is vitally important for zoos to properly educate youngsters about every type of animal (including domestics), but I have yet to see a good example in person, although the European and North American ones seem good.
I personally don't find the children's zoo/farm interesting, but its hands-on nature means that it is usually popular with the city children it is aimed at, who can have the sort of experience with a lamb or rabbit that they can't have with the lions. I haven't been to London zoo for ages, when I last went the children's zoo was disproportionately large for a small zoo, and the sentimental way it was a memorial to a millionaire's child jarred with me. I don't know if it has changed much.
As writhed hornbill already pointed out, the San Diego Zoo has arguably the most exotic children's section of any zoo. I was there almost two years ago, and they had a wombat, an echidna, a red panda, a few squirrel monkeys and a pair of otters. The enclosures weren't half as lavish as the rest of the zoo, but the range of exotics certainly caught me by surprise.
Worse are the playgrounds. If you have ever taken small children to a zoo with a big playground you'll find it extremely frustrating when the little darlings want to play for hours and refuse to leave, and you end up standing around watching over them when you could be off looking at the dibblers or bandros.... Wow this makes me sound like a miserable old git - I'm not like that really!
I understand what you mean. I think that zoos need playgrounds, but I do what I can to avoid them anyway . Children's Zoo's can be quite boring, but I have also seen some that i really like. The ones at Copenhagen Zoo and Nordens Ark (Sweden) are brilliant. They really teach children some important things about where the milk and meat comes from. I never visit Copenhagen Zoo, without swinging by the Children's Zoo, to pat a cow and say hello to my belowed horses (I work with them in the summertime).
Curious are two Dutch zoos. In bird park Veldhoven there is a tropical hall, and half of it is children playground. In Rhenen there is a big tropical house, which is ONLY children playground ! On the sides, there are small places for otters, weaverbirds etc. Plus 4-5 open air playgrounds elsewere. I guess this is what customers want. Personally, I find them boring. But I would want more walk-thru exhibits and more places where you can feed wild animals. Surely, you can let public feed guanaco, gazelles, fallow deer or ibex with safety? Both sides want it and do it anyway. And things like racoons or coati - I seen wild coatis begging for all junk food under people's tables in Brazil!
I have seen the playground Ravot Aapia in Rhenen, and I think that's just too much! The families don't come to the zoo to see the animals anymore, but rather to go to that giant indoor playground. I don't always aprove of the wild animals being fed in zoos. There are some zoos where you can buy special food for some of the animals, but then they just stand their, begging all day. Anybody who has seen Hagenbeck's elephants will agree. All the females just stand near the edge of their enclosure for as long as there is guests in the park. Only the young elephants show any natural behaviour. Also, you can't always control that the visitors are feeding the animals only with the approved food.
I've never quite understood why zoos feel the need to provide playgrounds within their grounds. By installing a playground, its offering people(children) an alternative experience which they wouldn't miss if it wasn't provided, but which they are attracted to if it is. In a zoo setting it detracts from the original experience they have gone to the zoo for- to see and perhaps learn(?) about the animals. They don't need to use a playground in every outdoor experience such as a zoo. If they want a playground, why not go to the park instead? By contrast, I think Children's zoos play a valuable role in allowing kids to interact with tame animals, a beneficial and related experience to the zoo visit as a whole. In days gone by, the Children's zoo was the only place in the zoo where children could 'meet' and touch animals. Nowadays, and increasingly, most zoos have other interactive exhibits as well - walkthru primate areas, animal shows and bird flying displays etc but the children's zoo still has an important role to play I think.
@Pertinax: However, the zoos are now in the situation that they can't go back-they have to have a playground-or the zoo lacks a major attraction. A dead end situation... About the interactive exhibits: still, the petting zoo is the only place where children are allowed to touch the animal-which is surely not always the case in terms of primates & birds...
Not all playgrounds are that bad. Some, like in London's Meet the Monkeys have an educational spin where children are encouraged to observe and imitate the monkeys. Zoos always have playgrounds, and most of them will have a childrens zoo. It can't be helped, and whilst neither appeal to me that much, I can see why they're there.
The problem is that potential visitors may do just that. And a zoo is still a business, so no visitors means no money.
Another place with a really large playground is Avifauna in the Netherlands, perhaps not huge but it seemed very big to me when I relate to the size of the park itself. I was there on a saturday in company with a friend and his childrens, even though we was at the park only an hour after it had opened it was a very long line with people outside the entrence, I got abit stressed as I didnt feel like climbing over people to get good views of the birds. But when I finally walked around in the park and looking at the birds I was suprised at how empty the park seemed. A few hours later when I had finished walking around in the birdpark I headed for the playground were my friend and his kids had been all day, so when I reached the playground I understand were all the people was, the playground itself was absotutely crowded with people, and there was a long line with people waiting to get into the playground area. The only birds in the park the rest of my company saw was a few ducks and the ostriches on our way in and out of the park, from what I remember the entrence was quite expensive, especially if all you wanted was to get acces to the playground and have a lunch by the flamingo encloaser. The playground was not located within the park it felt like but in a totally seperate part of it, also located quite close to the entrance which meant that you could visit it even without seeing almost any of the birds.
Childrens Zoo The Auckland Zoo has got a "sort of " Old McDonalds farm , centred around a deliberately lopsided barn building . They specialise in farm animals , but also have a few other types ( invertabraes etc ) But the people who get the biggest kick out of seeing sheep , goats etc are Asian visitors ! Any country that has visitors from China , Japan , Korea etc would be wise to have farmyard animals in the zoos for such visitors to view , and to touch .
dont be like KL Zoo Negara They had an "unidentified mildly venomous snake " in their childrens zoo . I found this very bizarre -- I mean , whats wrong with exhibiting it in the reptile section ? And if the zookeepers couldnt identify the ( locally sourced ) snake , and found out from being bitten that it was venomous ...... how dumb can you get ?!
I've heard there are no sheep in Japan. I've never been there myself so can't vouch for the accuracy of it.
