I am a part of the education team at Micke Grove Zoo, and out of curiosity, I wanted to know what YOU guys expect out of a good zoo docent. When you visit any zoo, how can docents help make your overall visit a wonderful experience? If you have any thoughts or tips that you think may be helpful, please take the time to write it below. At our zoo we are trying to make the visitor's experience as educational and as fun as possible. Any tips or thoughts is welcome and truly does help me a lot.
Personable, knows interesting facts, is able to interact with guests in the way that guest would most appreciate, polite, etc.......
Marty and I always say, "Wow, that was a cool docent", or "Wow, have they been to this zoo before?" We find that you either get a great docent, one that you can carry on a conversation with, answer your questions, give opinions, etc. OR you get ones that don't even know the animals names. That's a simple question that kids ask. If you can't answer a kids question, how can you carry on a conversation with an adult? Being able to interact with all ages, asking US questions is a great way to start up conversations. Above all, if you don't know something, DON'T MAKE IT UP! Just admit you don't know.
The above is definitely good. I would also like to add they should actually know the facts correctly. There have been a couple of times when a docent has given incorrect information, such as where the zoo is that an animal came from. Woodland Park Zoo is not in Oregon, for example. Your guests shouldn't know more about your zoo than you. (happened a couple of times at Sea World, too, and those people are paid to do the same thing as zoo docents do for free) Also, know where things are. We have a donor board at my local zoo and my name is supposed to be on it. I had to ask 4 different docents where it was and still nobody could tell me where it was. Since donors are a big part of helping keep the zoo running, I'm sure I'm not the first person to ask where the board is.
Docents (like myself) are Volunteer Educators, so our main role is helping people learn about the zoo or its animals. So yes, as said already, having the correct facts is important. I usually get good information from docents I speak with at other zoos. The one glaring exception was the time I visited Gladys Porter Zoo. There was a monkey in an enclosure with no label, two docents were there together, I asked them what kind of monkey it was and they did not know. Later I had a long chat with a very friendly docent, only problem was he insisted their group of white and orange indian/hybrid tigers were sumatran tigers. I tried to explain there is no such thing as a white sumatran tiger, but he was certain they were. Overall, though, I find docents to be quite knowledgeable. As for being friendly and easy to talk to, I have found this to be the case everywhere I go. It is a volunteer position and I do not think people would put in the time if they did not enjoy doing it. The biggest problem I run into frequently at zoos (and I visit a lot) is that there are no docents around. The only zoo I can think of where there are always docents on grounds no matter when I go is my local Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. The other local zoo - the one I volunteer at - docents are there for the first couple hours (9am-11am) but then pretty much clear out and leave the zoo unattended in the afternoon. However, I have been to many zoos where even in the morning they are not around.
Followup tip. Some mentioned docents not knowing animals names, etc. At our zoo (Reid Park), docents get a small flip book with all the major animals names, birth dates, zoo origin, and diet. Of course our zoo is fairly small, so it is practical to have a mini book that will fit in the pocket of cargo shorts. For large zoos, this may not be practical, but I am pretty sure the zoo you are at has an even smaller collection than we do, so it should be something you could throw together.
I would say that knowing each individual animal's name isn't important, and in fact, some zoos would rather that visitors NOT know the animals' names. There is a valid argument that individualizing animals doesn't help conservation at all, and people actually initiate conservation action by loving the species for the animals as a group, and not the individuals. Personally, I don't know if I buy into this, but I thought it was worth bringing up. In regards to what I look for in a good docent: personally, I like docents that are certainly present, but not pushy. Too often, an experience at an exhibit has been ruined by a docent who is overeager (and perhaps sometimes rude) to share information, all the time forgetting that many go to the zoo for recreation, and not simply education.
Not only this but, some zoos are beginning to refrain from using the animal names to visitors because the overuse of the animal's name will teach the animals to ignore their names and fail to respond to keeper or veterinary staff. This makes the keepers job more difficult when cleaning or conducting medical checks. But I really do appreciate all of the ideas and tips so far. Keep them coming!
Many zoos have "public" names for their animals, and then the real names that staff actually use, to prevent animals responding to their names when visitors call them out. This is especially true for elephants, and obviously irrelevant for some species that don't respond to names. I think docents should know the names of species people are likely to ask about - essentially the ABC species - and a small notebook is a good tool for such a situation, I have seen them used in some NZ zoos.
Yes I do agree having a notebook of the animal collection would be a useful asset when presenting to the public. I will be inquiring about creating a few booklets for volunteers to use when out in the Zoo. It's nice getting information from a broad range of people on how they would like to be presented by docents and other volunteers and I must say, it has helped me a lot! I have also learned a few things myself when I first became a volunteer: Talk to visitors, not at them incorperate both adults and children in the conversation How to "let visitors go" when doing a presentation (avoiding eye contact, involved in other activities,obviously in a hurry, or if their focus is elsewhere) How to tailor messages to a diverse audience I've been working really hard to learn and read everything I can to become a better docent in terms of interpreting animal information to visitors. And like I said, I REALLY do appreciate all of your wonderful tips!
