by Aimee Chlebnik, Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center
The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, MT will now offer complimentary admission to any current NAI member. We’ve long offered free admission to professional animal keepers, and would now like to extend that invitation to professional interpreters as well. Just show your membership card or current membership pin to our admissions staff to receive your free admission, good for two consecutive days. Hope to see you here!
With less than a month to go, the NAI National Workshop is just around the corner! With so many incredible sessions and speakers to “put there just a spark”, you are sure to catch fire with inspiration! The Zoos, Wildlife Parks & Aquaria section is pleased to announce a $300 scholarship for the NAI National Workshop Heartland Homecoming November 8 – 12, 2011 . Applicants must be a member of Zoos, Wildlife Parks & Aquaria and must be able to attend the workshop. Application is easy, click here for a info. Hurry! Application deadline is October 31.
Do you have a passion to help others succeed? Do they accept challenging leadership positions because of your encouragement? If so, the ZWPA needs you as our Nominations Chair!
Your goal is simple – build interest and connections for board member positions. Your enthusiasm, charm and positive reinforcement will help identify and nominate quality candidates to lead this section. Send an e-mail, write a couple articles and make a few phone calls – that’s about it! If you know someone perfect for this role, you’re already half-way there. Just apply within and share your interest by contacting toddbridgewater@gmail.com.
by Laura Beers - Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Jambo ZWPA members! Many of you are probably wondering what Jambo means. For those of you who don’t know, jambo is how you say hello in Swahili. Last October, I wrote an article named “Let the Adventure Begin” for the ZWPA newsletter. It was about Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park’s newest species of adventure, the Wild Africa Trek. This new adventure has evolved rapidly since, and I want to give you a sneak peek into what it has become.
When I first began on this team, I knew that our company was looking to create a product that allowed our Guests to have an adventure with their family set in the middle of our African “village” of Harambe. While I think many of our Guests have selected to go on this tour to do just that, many of them find that it is so much more!
However, before you start any journey into the wild you have to be aware of what to take with you and how you will be traveling. Since our trek allows our Guests to get closer to the animals than they have ever been before in our park, we do have some restrictions which they are made aware of at the time of booking. First, we travel lightly…very lightly! In order to get our Guests closer to the edge of animal areas we outfit them with trek gear that includes a carabiner. We use the carabiner to connect them in to railings to keep them safe but the gear doesn’t accommodate large personal items. Our Guests are allowed to bring a camera that has a neck or a wrist strap, prescription glasses or sunglasses, hats and medication. Everything else must stay behind, including items in their pockets such as: cellphones, keys, wallets, batteries, chapstick, etc. (We do have complimentary lockers for them to store their items that cannot come with us.) Second, all Guests are required to wear close-toed shoes. We truly leave the concrete behind on our trek and are in the woods stepping over vines and rocks and traversing uneven terrain. Third, all Guests must be at least eight years old, 48 inches tall and weigh between 45 and 310 pounds fully harnessed and we do verify these restrictions with every Guest.
Once all of the above has been verified, our Guests are taken down a dirt path along the river to a secluded enchanted bamboo glade where our outfitters post is located. It is here that they are able to store their personal belongings into a locker. Then, the adventure begins! We outfit each Guest with trek gear, attach their cameras to their gear, and provide them with listening equipment and a re-useable, stainless steel water bottle. Next, they are given the opportunity to cross over a small swinging foot bridge to give them a feel for some of the adventure that they might encounter along their journey. After brief introductions of the guides and Guests, we head out on our journey in to the Harambe Wildlife Reserve where we immerse them in to the magic of our East African village and classic Disney storytelling.
Along our trek in the woods, we encounter a railing at the edge of our river (aka – our hippo exhibit) overlooking Nile hippopotamus and a wildlife researcher (aka – animal keeper). Using our Guests trek gear, we clip them in to the railing with the researcher and spend some time observing the hippo below. We learn from the researcher about the natural behaviors and history of hippopotamus as the large male hippo below lifts its head out of the water and opens its mouth giving us a great view of its teeth! Sometimes, we hear the wheez-honk of a female on the other side of the river which encourages us to make our way down river to find them. However, before we find them we discover a trail marker, the skull of a mamba, (which means crocodile in Swahili) that is pointing us in the direction of an “old”, long and tall, precarious foot bridge that appears to barely hang over the river.
But, our Guests are with us because they want adventure, so we give it to them! We attach them into a safety line that is above the precarious foot bridge. The side netting on the bridge is almost non existent and as soon as you step on it you realize just how shaky and tilted it is. Every step that you take makes the bridge bounce a little more. Before our Guests realize it, they are half way across one of two bridges that is approximately 180 feet long and 35 feet above the water which is teeming with Nile hippopotamus and birds on one side and a large quantity of Nile crocodiles on the other! Once Guests successfully make it over the bridges, we find another railing that allows them to clip in and get a much closer look at the crocodiles below.
The first half of their adventure is complete but there is still more wildlife to see on the “savannah”! We board our own safari vehicle which allows for us to pull off on the side of the road and park for extended periods of time while we observe the animals around us. Some days, we watch the young elephants in our herd take a dip in the watering hole and splash each other. or look closely at a giraffe wrapping its tongue around the thorns of an acacia plant to get a leaf. We have seen the male white rhino scent marking his territory while a female sharpened her horn on the back bumper of our truck! Just the other day, an ostrich rested and laid an egg next to our truck while we were stopped, and the male lion displaced his lioness from the rock that she was resting on so he could rest there instead.
In between all of these great views of wildlife, we take our Guests to a safari camp with a 180 degree view of animals. The safari camp is a raised, covered platform in the middle of the savannah where they have the opportunity to use the restroom, sit in comfortable chairs and eat an African inspired snack and beverage that is served to them individually in a camp tin. 
Three hours fly by when you are having fun and we return to the outfitters post where our Guests get to take action to help wildlife! During their journey of adventure and views of wildlife, the guides have been discussing the threats that African wildlife face, and the inspiring conservation efforts and projects that help the species they saw that day. A portion of what our Guests pay to go on the trek is donated on their behalf to the Disney’s Worldwide Conservation Fund (DWCF).
What gets me excited about this is that our Guests get to decide which species of animal that they would like their donation to benefit: African cats (lions, cheetah, leopards, caracals, servals, etc), African elephants, rhinoceros (Black and White) or the general DWCF. We have a wooden box with a compartment for each Guest to place a rock in so we can keep count of the donations. In addition, the guides have also been taking pictures of our Guests during their entire adventure and the animals with a Nikon digital SLR. At the end of each trek, we mail a photo cd of all pictures to each Guests home (the photo cd is included in the price of the trek).
As you can see, many of our Guests get to experience the adventure they came for. However, I hope that many of them leave with a greater appreciation for wildlife and feel inspired and empowered to continue to take action. As I tell my Guests, “I hope that what you saw with your eyes, you feel in your heart, forever. It truly is the small actions we take that help animals and their habitats. Continue to recycle and strive to recycle more (clothes, electronics), bring re-useable totes to the store and use the water bottle we gave you to reduce your plastic use, and consider planting a tree or butterfly garden to help wildlife in your area.”
Hopefully, one day I will see each of you on one of my Wild Africa Treks! Until then, kwaherini, which means go well.
by Stacey Luhring – Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium
Though the temperature doesn’t show it, here at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, we have begun our peak season. Each peak season brings something new for our visitors to ooo and ahh over. This year, our new attraction is a $1 million Cats of the Canopy exhibit that is due to open mid-July. The exhibit is the final piece to our Asian Forest Sanctuary. It will be the new home for 4 juvenile clouded leopards.
In creating this exhibit, we knew that the cats themselves would be the draw for our visitors. Slick cats that climb, jump and play around in the tree tops. But we also knew that there was a chance that these shy and secretive cats would be skittish to venture out into their new beautiful landscaped exhibit. Instead, they might end up hiding in their bedrooms behind the scenes. We decided to use biofacts, technology, and interpreters to give our visitors a memorable experience whether the cats were out or not.
The first interpretive tool that we knew would be a hit was our current collection of biofacts (i.e. clouded leopard skull, clouded leopard fur, saber-tooth replica) and activities (cat fur matching, jump the distance of a cat, skull comparison) that focused on clouded leopards and cats in general. We had proof from years of experience that these would be successful. As a helpful tip, take inventory of your own collection of biofacts and activities before purchasing or creating new ones. You may have something in the closet that is just perfect for your new exhibit.
Our second interpretive tool was the graphic elements. We designed several static flat panel graphics which focused on key interpretive messages, such as palm oil usage and conservation partnerships. Though static graphic panels are not interactive, they can be inviting and engaging with use of pictures and key words. Another graphic element which we also thought would be a success was a video kiosk showing five 30 second video shorts. Each video gives visitors fun, action packed clips of clouded leopards in zoos and in the wild. We put most of our development time into this element because we knew that the images would bring clouded leopards to life even if the cats were not visible.
The next tool came about serendipitously. The initial timeline had the young clouded leopard pair moving into the exhibit when it opened and then a year later we would hopefully have cubs born. For the visitor, they would be able to see the adults in the exhibit and when cubs were born they would see them in the specialized viewing room. That all changed when the clouded leopards gave us a surprise – cubs born one month before the opening of the exhibit. As a result, the interpretive staff was asked to find a way to share the cubs that were not always on exhibit with eager visitors. We found the solution in the I-pad. We had recently purchased I-pads for a different purpose but found that they would be perfect for showing videos and photos of the new cubs. This modern technology gives us the flexibility to easily update images as they grow, decrease visitor disappointment when they are not on exhibit, and share information, even when interpreters are not near the exhibit. Though it started out as a possible nightmare, it turned into a very useful interpretive tool.
Finally, the interpretive tool that makes it all work well is the interpreters themselves. It is their personal interaction in explaining about the cats and sharing their stories that make the visitors feel a part of something bigger. They are also the ones that make the other interpretive tools successful. In the end, when you are planning a new exhibit or just rehabbing an existing one, remember to have the interpretive team at the table during development. You will have more success and a higher visitor satisfaction rating.
