.

.



     Educating people about animals and their habitats is one of the most important goals of a zoo.  People need to understand these things in order to better help our animal friends, perhaps even save them from extinction.
     There are a number of ways that zoos accomplish this.  Recently we e-mailed Beth Verhanovitz, education director of the Elmwood Park Zoo with questions about how the zoo informs people about animals.  Here are her responses:

 

Q.:  What does the zoo do to educate people on the animals?
A.:  Currently, the zoo educates the public using a variety of programs including, animal shows for school groups, Zoo-On Wheel programs for schools, day cares, and nursing homes, parent-child workshops, summer day camp, family programs, and written articles in our newsletter the "ZooNooz".

 

Q.: How much training does it take to get the animals to perform

in public shows?
A.: Training depends on the type of animal.  For reptiles, as long

as the animal has been handled since it was young, there is very

little training involved.  Mammals also are not generally difficult

if they are around humans from when they were young.  Birds can

be very difficult to train and it may take years to properly train a

bird.
Q.:  How often do you give performances?
A.:  On average, we give one performance per day from

November- March.  We can give up to 8 shows a day during the

busy spring and summer months.
 
Q.:  Are the animals very cooperative at first?
A.:  Reptiles tend to be laid back, and are usually cooperative.  The only exception is adult reptiles who have never, or very rarely, been handled. Our mammals tend to come to us as babies or very young, so we have few problems with them.  Our birds were wild, injured, rehabilitated, and deemed non-releasable.  They are usually not cooperative at first. 
Q.:  What do you do to get the animals to cooperate if they

don’t?  Do you give them treats?  What kind of treats do you give

them?
A.:  Since it is usually only the birds that don't cooperate, we can

bring them treats so they will come close to us and begin to trust

us. A treat for our birds may be a dead chick or mouse. 

Sometimes, we can give our mammals a treat after a show.  This

might be hay or worms depending on the type of animals.  Other

times, we will give our mammals exercise outside as a treat.
Q.:  What ideas do you have for future education of people?
A.:  Environmental education is extremely important, especially for children.  In order for the problems we have now to be fixed, people need to understand and appreciate the reason it is a problem in the first place.  Future plans for education include offering a newsletter that is just from the education department.  It would have more articles related to animals and education and a special activities section for children.  I would  also like to see more informal, educational opportunities at the zoo, including more touch tables, activity stations, and guides to explain and discuss our animals.  The education department would also like to start offering teacher workshops.

to the top....

    

 

Thanks, Ms. Verhanovitz!