Wacky Barn - Tedor Whitman

Tedor Whitman, the Director of Education from the Zoological Society of Florida at Zoo Miami, spoke to us today about the upcoming Wacky Barn attraction. It will be opening at the Zoo next month on July 4th.

Mr. Whitman, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, hails from Connecticut. He has held positions at the Philadelphia Zoo, Camden Aquarium, and, most recently, the Beardsley Zoo.

His goal is to try to get people to realize that zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) do not exist solely for the purpose of exhibiting animals but also for education;

"Zoos are not to be places where we display animals before they become extinct"

The AZA  is currently trying to dedicate at least one tenth of their overall budget to field conservation. If every AZA institution participated this would generate at least another $75 million for towards field conservation annually. This benchmark is only their initial goal; eventually they would like to increase this amount to $250 million.

Zoo Miami has a variety of strengths: it has a great collection of animals, 810,000 visitors annually, and "First Contact Potential" - a majority of visitors have never been to a zoo before.

A study that was conducted found that people did not go to the zoo simply to see the animals (this could easily be achieved via TV or the Internet with better results). Based on their findings, a majority of the 143 million people who visit zoos annually are looking for an experience that they cannot get anywhere else; they want to be educated.

Zoo Miami wants to "turn the ACT of visiting the zoo into the conservation ACTION". The zoo will act as an ambassador to influence people to support conservation. If the zoo is involved in conservation efforts, people's perception of the zoo improves (regardless of what condition the zoo parking lot is in) because they are then involved in making the world a better place.

The Wacky Barn itself has no right angles; it is evocative of Dr. Seuss. The mission of the barn is to get children to feel comfortable with animals. The animals in the barn will be heritage breeds. This first contact that the children have with the animals will introduce them to the message of conservation.

To summarize, Zoo Miami wants to make the zoo so pleasurable to attend that the visitors will want to do more to help the zoo.

 

Past President (2010 - 2011) Jack Courtright presents Tedor Whitman with a certificate of appreciation.

 

 Various presentation slides.