I don't know because I've never been to a foreign zoos, but the viewing manner of zoo visitors in Korea is simply very terrible. I told this in other threads too, visitors of Korean zoos are including very many this bad visitors: those who try to feed animals, those who throw foreign substances at animals, and those who screaming to animals. The Jinyangho Zoo, a zoo in my hometown, is particularly serious about this problem. Fortunately, I met the zoo's management team last month and talked to them several times, and now I'm in a position to offer them various proposals. The new head of the zoo's management team, who took office this year, was very interested in animal welfare and improving the animal's enclosure environment, so I could at least rest assured about that problems. However, the tyranny of the "bad visitors" mentioned above still remains. To find the root of the problem is very complicated, but in short, the lack of warning signs and no staff to stop tyranny is the current problem at Jinyangho Zoo. Over the past three to four years, I've been walked around several zoos in Korea to find warning signs to set an example. But the number of that was too small. So, I want to investigate the prohibition signs that will serve as an example for foreign zoos and organize them and send them to Jinyangho Zoo. Although culture and language are different, but if you saw or taken photo of prohibition signs with witty phrase or eye-catching design in zoos, I would appreciate it if you could post it here.
Some I found in the ZooChat galleries: A much needed sign - ZooChat Hippo Danger Sign - ZooChat NZ sign - ZooChat Dangerous animals sign -Sendaviva (2020) - ZooChat Good advice! September 2020 - ZooChat Lion Pride Lands- Warning Sign - ZooChat Warning sign at the gorilla enclosure in Givskud Zoo - ZooChat Wildlife park road signs and No feeding signage, 2020-07-12 - ZooChat Don't Feed The Animals Sign - ZooChat Keep Wildlife Wild - ZooChat Don't Feed The Animals Sign - ZooChat Don't Tease The Animals sign - ZooChat Helpful Elephant sign - ZooChat Chimpanzee education and warning signs, 2019-06-01 - ZooChat Warning Sign at Wuppertal, 16/06/19 - ZooChat Warning Sign - ZooChat Tasmanian Devil warning sign - ZooChat Warning-sign - ZooChat warning sign about trying to pat the Water Monitors... - ZooChat warning sign - ZooChat Funny Warning Sign - ZooChat
You could instill fear by having a memorial for animals that have died from ingesting things they shouldn't be ingesting.
Unfortunately, I would have to say that I don't think even the installment of warning signs in zoos does prevent this kind of behaviour in a certain kind of visitor and I think this ultimately happens everywhere including in Europe and the United States. Even so, signage that communicates what are the rules and appropriate behaviour expected from the visitor is always important and highly recommended. The best effective determent I've observed is when there is an official presence of police and / or security guards work for zoos and that these are placed strategically around different exhibits that get a lot of visitor traffic. These workers can tell visitors forcefully / assertively who are misbehaving to stop the behaviour in question or face leaving the zoo through being escorted out. That said, I think this only really works well in small zoos and even in places where I've seen this implemented there are difficulties because these kind of staff members cannot cover all areas at all times.
I think most effective measure against feeding of zoo animals is articles in local press that describe some most appaling cases that result in death of a zoo animal. Signs in zoo areal are nice, but don´t seem to help that much.
Signs are not usually effective. Minders / volunteers standing by exhibits, and possibly public presentations of animals which make visitors see something interesting will help. Petting zoos with pygmy goats, rabbits etc. could take the pressure off other animals.
There is no substitute for staff/volunteers being present. However those workers need signs to back them up so that they have something to point to if offenders try to claim they don't know it's against the rules. Now that most zoos are doing online ticket sales due to Covid, I wonder if there could be a statement before you click "purchase" about expected behavior. Online buyers would need to click "I have read and accept" before they can complete their purchase.
These anti-homeless spikes are brutal. We need to get rid of them | Leah Borromeo These attempts to keep the homeless from sleeping in places are pretty cruel and I am against them, but "defensive architecture" around zoo exhibits, like planting thorny hedges between the fence and the visitor, or other physical barriers making it uncomfortable for visitors to get too close to the animals, may be an option.
Design of exhibits plays a part. Hiding places where an animal can withdraw from people pestering it, at least boxes or tall platforms. Glass viewing windows which prohibit feeding and throwing things. Some exhibits are badly designed. For example visitors or their children (which are much smaller) cannot get a good look of the animal. Wroclaw zoo for years had bear exhibits sunken into the ground, surrounded by waist-high concrete barriers. And it fought a constant and unsuccessful battle with visitors. Little children were too short to see the bears, so parents picked them up, then got tired, and were sitting them on the barriers, risking falling into the exhibit. And the bears were forced to look up, which looked for people like they were begging. The zoo never realized it was a structural flaw. The exhibits are now rebuilt into meshed exhibits for big cats, I think.
Two signs at Paignton: Mandrill enclosure, August 2017 - ZooChat New sign in the ape house, July 2018 - ZooChat
Thank you all for providing good opinions and information. I agree that the sign will not do much for itself. Nevertheless, I think good signs are essential. I think one of the sources of confidence of bad visitors is that the zoo is not properly expressing its "do not" meaning. While I felt as I disputed to bad visitors, they put forward "Zoo was not tell not to do this" as their main weapon. Also, bad visitors are very ignorant or very cunning. They often read the sign's phrase and get out of it. For example, Jinyangho Zoo's macaque enclosure has a sign with this phrase, "Don't feed animals, because animals can bite or scratch you." But the bad visitors who read the phrase decided that "So, as long as I don't get hurt by animals, right?" and fed the macaques. It is the product of the ignorant and not interested in the fact that animals can get sick from such that behaviors. Or the wrongdoing of the cunning ones. So to conclude, I believe that signs with a concise and definite meaning can make them not give them a chance to make excuses. That could be the basis for preventing bad visitors from behaving as they please.
And this is a different topic from signs, there are many electric speakers all over Jinyangho Zoo. It is used to keep children's nursery rhymes on, which are usually not very helpful and only noisy, but I thought it would be a good idea to regularly broadcast the right viewing rules on these speakers. So I want to know if there are any foreign zoos that broadcast viewing manners through electric speakers. If you know anything about this, I'd appreciate it if you could write it down here.
Maybe the zoos could hire bouncers to oust rowdy visitors? Are there security guards in the Korean zoos?
Unfortunately, I haven't seen a Korean zoo where security guards work yet. but in a similar instance, Everland kept zookeepers on standby at the panda exhibit, and preventing visitors from making loud noises. I think all zoo must have security guard. But also, I think most Korean zoos will not hire security guards due to budget problems. It's such a pity. And earlier, volunteers were mentioned, but many Korean zoo has not been using volunteers actively. Jinyangho Zoo is now not receiving volunteers because it is difficult to manage volunteers. but In the past, volunteers, who seem to be middle school to high school students, were mobilized only to ticket checking or pick up trash. But 3 years ago, I could see a young student volunteer, who was picking up trash, bullying macaques with trash-picking iron tongs. So I could know just substandard students only went to and from the zoo to fill the volunteer hours assigned by the school. The zoos at korea that are making good use of volunteers are Seoul Zoo and Cheongju Zoo. These two places mobilize volunteers for animal's behavior enrichment. But, I think it's quite dangerous to use volunteers to stop bad visitors. I know because I've experienced it and heard by others, bad visitors to Korean zoos are so brazen and violent that more than imagine. Therefore, I think tough guards rather than volunteers can be a solution. I hope the day will come when Korean zoos organize such guards.
I never heard that a zoo broadcast anything but the info it is closing. However, a zoo might theoretically install CCTV cameras and speakers near exhibits, and live reprimand visitors if they start feeding or teasing animals. Also this would provide an evidence if an animal falls sick. I never saw it in a zoo, but this is sometimes used in the metro railway to keep people away from the tracks. I however feel that minders or rebuilding exhibits with glass windows is better.
Visitor Etiquette Signage - ZooChat Here's a Chinese sign I found. They show graphic necropsy photos of animals who died from swallowing inedible objects.
