Exhibit Design: Same old rainforest???

The indoor Amazon Rainforest (or Asian rainforest... or African Rainforest) is a fairly common staple for zoos and aquariums. But aside from some basic ideas and themes they are all very similar. If you were assigned the task of creating an indoor rainforest what would you do differently? What would make your rainforest stand out?

 

Free range mosquitoes

 

I'll see your mosquitoes, and raise you leaf litter dwelling rain forest leeches.

 

I'll see you your mosquitoes and leeches, and raise you an ebola virus.

Welcome to the REAL rain forest kids!

 

@chrisbarela: now that the goofiness is out of my system, you ask an interesting question. There are 3 things that come to mind for me of indoor rain forest exhibits that I would like to see.

1. Forest elephants as landscape architects. African forest elephants are huge shapers of their forest systems. Perhaps Asian elephants are also. I would really like to see someone create a dynamic exhibit that finds a way to give the forest elephants a true "presence" in the exhibit (animatronics? full scale models? 3D video?) even though they aren't on display. Savanna elephants get much attention, but forest elephants need attention also as they face great conservation threats. I think that an indoor rain forest exhibit could find some way to do this in a compelling way. Congo Gorilla Forest at the Bronx is a start on this, but someone needs to take it further.

2. The gliding fauna of the dipterocarp forest of Borneo. This is a wonderful evolutionary and ecological story of convergence and solving transportation problems through the forest. "Flying" snakes, lizards, frogs, galagos, etc. could be displayed live with some kind of media presentation of how they glide, if some way of demonstrating the live gliding couldn't be found.

3. Some kind of display on how humans have lived and shaped "pristine" forests for thousands of years. Archaeological evidence in the Amazon and Africa is revealing that there were civilizations very deep into what was assumed to be forest unshaped by anthropogenic forces. This is fascinating from a historical perspective, but also from the ecological perspective that humans have lived and shaped the forests for thousands of years and should be able to in the present and future as well. Deforestation is frequently an abstract concept I think. People see endless footage of bulldozers knocking down trees and either don't care or tune it out. Maybe there is a more engaging way to get their attention if you could find a way to bring them inside a vanished forest civilization.

 

Thanks for the insightful comments one and all! And personally I would love to display giant Amazon leeches!!! (google to see one of those monsters). David you make excellent points. As much as I love the first two ideas I'm currently neck deep in Amazon designs and brainstorming ways to bring something new to the exhibit. I am currently reading "1491: Americans before Columbus" and it talks in detail about pre-columbian civilizations in the Amazon basin. 2 aspects that are most common are the ancient vine covered ruins theme and the researchers theme. I think both can be done well and I am certainly not downplaying them but I am curious if there isn't some other aspect that can be brought out that hasn't been down before (or at least not as common as those two). And you are right David - I don't want to bring the "Doom & Gloom" deforestation aspect to this exhibit. Most people just don't want to be lectured at while at a zoo or aquarium and I think you can get across stronger and more positive messages.

 

Thanks for your feedback on my ideas Chris. I think that conservation messages can be urgent and meaningful without being overwhelming. It is hard, but this is one of the great challenges that zoos face if they want to "go to the next level" as conservation institutions.

One of the aspects of the forest that I haven't seen get attention in the depth that it could is the canopy. I know that there are canopy exhibits, but there is some truly weird stuff going on in the Amazonian canopy. There are cacti, translucent frogs, and supposedly the highest biodiversity of beetles anywhere (and thus perhaps the highest animal biodiversity period?). I don't know how one could effectively translate this into an engaging exhibit, but the challenge is there.

Have you seen the California Academy of Sciences rain forest exhibit? They have an interesting display of forest canopy epiphytes.

More on epiphytes, including cacti: http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0405.htm

 

It's fun to read these posts and ideas. I have been in design meetings where we kicked around the question of how to make the rain forest exhibit more real and did seriously devise methods to give the mosquito experience.

@Davidbrown: forest elephants are featured, in a way, at Bronx Zoo's Congo Gorilla Forest. We were very interested in telling the story both of their role in that ecosystem and of ecosystem dynamics in general.

In fact, in the Congo Gorilla Forest complex is a space called "the Treasures Gallery," which looks at smaller creatures of the leaf litter, small streams, etc as well as a separate exhibit on the canopy plants

At California Academy of Science we had the perhaps unique opportunity of creating a 50' tall rain forest and getting visitors up to all levels... the canopy story was essential. Once those trees have really grown in it will be a very interesting experience.

There are a number of "on the edge" ideas for rain forest exhibits that have been kicked around for years and years. Some face hurdles of cost. Some face hurdles of what the client was willing to attempt and risk failure. Some faced hurdles of what it was thought the visitor would be willing to experience.
Rain forest exhibits have a certain similarity mostly, IMO, because we have not figured out how to get clients over those hurdles. It is not lack of creativity

 

How does one get invited to these meetings? You have a very cool career.

@Zooplantman: thanks for your comments and information. I love the forest elephant "experience" in Congo Gorilla Forest and it is the part that I remember most other than the movie screen opening to reveal the wonderful gorilla panorama. I don't think most people know that there are elephants in the rain forest, or that they are a different species from the savanna elephant. It would be great if zoos could find ways to create "elephantless" elephant exhibits to find someway to give this species a presence. The Rain Forest Cafe chain does have an animatronic forest elephant in its "exhibits" so I guess between this and the Congo Gorilla Forest with the model of the tree with elephant damage and the elephants in the movie, this has been done to some extent.

Can you tell us anything about the "mosquito experience" without spilling trade secrets? One thing that comes to mind is the "three dimensional" sound experience that Disney uses in some of its theme parks. I can imagine that being used very effectively to make people think that there are mosquitoes buzzing all around them.

A rain forest leech attack "experience" in a rain forest exhibit might be quite cool, and apparently true to life for what one experiences in a Southeast Asian forest at least from accounts that I had read. I'm not sure how such an exhibit would work...an animatronic researcher beseiged by leeches?

The Cal Academy rain forest is cool and has many unique features that I have not seen elsewhere like the Borneo pitcher plant model that you can "open" to reveal is "stomach contents", the ramp winding through the different forest levels, and the epiphyte wall that we mentioned.

 

I think you mean colugos, not galagos.



Hix

 

Yes, thanks for the correction Hix.

 

Step #1: Quit your day job

 

I would keep fewer but larger birds (size of toucan, ibis, hornbill) not small songbirds which are hidden and invisible. The same goes for mammals - fewer and larger, more active species. No point in keeping sloths, tamanduas or binturongs which sleep out visitor hours.

About "special kind of experience" - if no mosquitos, at least construct toilets in stinky latrine pits typical for the tropics.

 

As a special exhibit - the swim-thru "Meet the Candiru" experience!

 

Great idea, especially if the zoo allows skinny dipping.

In a similar vein, how about including huts with soothing music and then, when the visitors are lulled into a false sense of security - release the vampires.

Piranha patting is another possibility.

 

@chrisbarela: There's your answer for a rain forest exhibit that has never been done: mosquitoes, leeches, tropical diseases, candiru, vampire bat attack, and interactive piranha patting.

You could call it "The Rain Forest That They Never Told You About".

The exhibit may end up getting burned to the ground by an angry mob, but it would definitely stand out (until it burned down).

 

Feeders should be made as recreated natural rubbish pit. In the tropics, best place to see wildlife can be rubbish pit of your camp - I saw this way monkeys, porcupines, genets, civets, many scarce birds...

 

How about sleeping inside the rainforest exhibit over the night. San Diego safari park has something like this but instead of being out on their ungulate cages, you would be in an exhibit like Omaha's Lead Jungle. If some one was to do this people could sleep on hammocks instead of tents and experience the rainforest at night. The complex could have more nocturnal species then diurnal.

 

Just stumbled on this, which may be of interest:

Rain Forest Exhibits & Museums

 

Exhibit Design: Same Old Rainforest

How about an interactive Man-eating Tiger experience?