What are the confirmed superstars that zoos can build exhibit capital campaigns on?

I think Mr. T's (you don't wear lots of jewelry, do you?) phrase points out that there are two very distinct ways of looking at this:

A. What species are "crowd-pleasers", that is animals that will thrill the crowd of visitors that are already there in the Zoo. If they are crowd-pleasing enough, they may encourage repeat visits and even get some visitors to buy memberships.

B. What species are "crowd-drawers", that is animals that can be used on billboards and TV commercials to pull in people who might not otherwise be coming to the Zoo. This is what I usually concentrate on -- the animals that will pull the vacationing family off of the highway, or get that in-town business man to spend a few hours at this Zoo.

While there is definitely some overlap, I think the lists are quite different for A and B. But I think most of the recent posts on this thread have been aiming at A, while the earlier posts were for B.

 

ANyhuis, I think you're quite correct in principle, although the impact of
such species is, I suspect, somewhat limited. I think the number of visitors a zoo gets from outside it's local catchment population is a function, largely, of two things: the strength of the area as a tourism destination and the Zoo's relative ranking amongst family or daytime activities in that area. The individual species held at the zoo are probably for the most part irrelevant. Of course, it could be that your book (which I have and is well-thumbed, despite an American trip being years away for me) is selling tens of thousands of copies and proving me wrong.

If I'm right, though, with the possible exception of San Diego and a tiny handful of others, a zoo's business lives or dies by its ability to get locals to visit on a semi-regular basis. And that's what a capital campaign, as the opening poster of the thread asked about, must be built around.

 

Of course zoos have to attract local visitors, but tourists are very important for many zoos.
I visited Regents Park yesterday and I couldn't tell you how many languages I heard, plus several international English accents, although early October is hardly the peak of the tourist season. I guess that Edinburgh also gets a number of international visitors.
But domestic tourists are probably more significant for many UK zoos and aquaria in holiday areas, particularly near seaside resorts, which get a lot of families visiting from other parts of the country.

Alan

 

A good point, I understand that frogs can actually be great crowd, or at least people, pleasers! I guess they wouldn't draw large crowds from far & wide though.

 

The AZA had a very large scale publicity campaign for frog conservation a couple years back and several zoos opened new frog exhibits in concert with it. It would be very interesting to see if anyone did any surveys or other kind of research to see if this measurably brought anyone into the zoos.

 

London is the only Zoo I know in the UK where the International/foreign visitors always seem to outnumber the 'locals' (apart from the schoolgroups that is ). Its as if foreigners don't percolate into our other zoos/prks in more regional areas very much, I rarely notice them in the same way as at London Zoo.

 

Based on my personal visits to Britain, as a foreign (American) tourist, I would guess that London proper gets an overwhelming percentage of tourists to the country. Yes, tourists do venture out to the rest of the country for a day or two, but only after spending many days in the London area. That is fairly typical of most European countries, I would guess. Paris likely gets more days of foreign tourist visits than the rest of the nation combined.

 

One thing I've observed in the UK, and I know I'm not the only one, is the presence of 'budget superstars'.

Meerkats
Ringtailed Lemurs
Asian Short-clawed Otters
Humboldt Penguins

and maybe

Red Pandas

are easily and cheaply housed and sourced. Virtually every zoo in the UK, large or small, seems to have most or all of these (or substitute species). Talking to my friends and family as well as just watching visitors, it seems that everyone (except zoochatters ) loves these exhibits

If I were to make a prediction I would suggest that sloths could be an up and coming star. They have featured more and more in pop culture over the last decade. They don't necessarily display well, but in a well designed exhibit I think they could be very popular.

 

To this list I'd add red-necked wallaby as they seem to crop up everywhere, factor in the walk-through enclosures that keep springing up and they are another easy crowd pleaser.

 

Anthony D. Marshall wrote "Zoo" in 1994. he divided zoo animals into various categories:

Old Faithfuls: Asian elephant, Asiatic lion, shark, giraffe, Siberian tiger, camel, flamingo, black rhinoceros, sea lion, dolphin, chimpanzee, bison, penguin, American alligator.

Animals of the Moment: lowland gorilla, orang-utan, Bali mynah, Arabian oryx, Grevy's zebra, snow leopard, Mexican wolf, Przewalski's horse, clouded leopard, white and Sumatran rhinoceroses, giant panda, ring-tailed, lack and ruffed lemurs, Chinese alligator, Dall's sheep, polar, sloth and spectacled bears, bongo, maned wolf, lion-tailed macaque, river and sea otters, Andean condor, golden lion tamarin, koala, cheetah, okapi, gaur.

Up and coming: red kangaroo, wallaby, red panda, California condor, bats, giant anteater, hippopotamus, all lemurs, platypus, hummingbirds, snow monkey, radiated tortoise, butterflies, leaf-cutter ants and other insects, jellyfish, coral reefs, octopus

Waiting to be appreciated: bonobo, Guam rail, gerenuk, elephant seal, all sloths, St Vincent parrot, aye-aye, Aruba Island rattlesnake, snub-nosed langur, black-footed ferret, giant anteater, tuna, all manatees.

Notice the lack of meerkats - they weren't as popular in 1994.

 

I don't agree that penguins can be housed well cheaply(what with large volumes of water and filtration needed).

 

Yeah, that's how I see it. Animals that people come to see, and the animals that make people stay.

I would say that "crowd drawers" are animals that are popular but at the same time uncommon/rare in zoos, like giant pandas, the popular cetaceans, whatever. Tigers are popular but you can see them at any medium to large sized zoo. I can't imagine that many tourists go out of their way to see animals that they can see at their hometown zoo.

A side note, I'm rather curious about the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It's one of the most famous and successful aquariums around, but it doesn't have much in the way of well-known, popular animals. What draws the average member of the public there?

 

Sea otters, sharks, jellies, in a stunning, tourist-friendly setting. And consistently extraordinary guest experience throughout.

 

Not down to the species I don't think but the lions at Yorkshire Wildlife Park that came from very poor conditions in a run down zoo were a huge crowd drawer, their story, their arrival, their first steps out into their large enclosures, their progress, TV coverage, publicity, proved a great attraction and I believe really stimulated the huge visitor success that the park is. If a zoo needs a publicity boost that may be the way to go

Polar bears kept in great enclosures have also been extremely popular, I don't think they'd be as popular in a small concrete enclosure, it's the joy of seeing them swimming down the lake, disappearing down into the depths of the water etc that makes them exciting. Helped but the relative youth and playfulness of some of them.

I feel chimps have been the poor relation, feeling like 'left-overs' in recent years but hopefully with the establishment of known sub-species and breeding again they will come back!

 

Zoos with polar bears also benefit from the fact that they're popular but not terribly common in zoos. So I imagine that polar bears will attract tourists along with locals.

Lion story sounds neat. I can see how a high-publicity story would draw in lots of visitors. I don't know about ya'll, but I'm a HUGE sucker for zoos taking in animals from bad situations. If my animal blog on Tumblr is anything to go by, people love the inspirational stuff the most.

 

I'll put them into tiers (from my perception)

Tier 1: Giant Panda, Elephant, Lion, Tiger, Gorilla, Giraffe, Polar Bear, Penguin
Tier 2: Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, Grizzly Bear, Orangutan, Chimpanzee, Zebra, Koala
Tier 3: Cheetah, Jaguar, Wolf, Black Bear, Meerkat, Otter, Lemur, Kangaroo, Leopard, Bison, Beaver

 

I think that whenever there's a new or returning species like Houston with gorillas and Omaha with elephants, they tend to get hyped up.