Changing visitor expectation, experience and satisfaction by modifying visitor side environment at a chimpanzee exhibit at Twycross Zoo

想象一下，当人群进入一座宏伟的大教堂时，福尔斯是多么的安静;他们不由自主地踩着脚步，轻声细语。研究人员进入热带森林跟踪野生黑猩猩经历了同样的情绪，并以类似的方式行事。他们被一种敬畏感所淹没，这种敬畏感是观察我们最亲近的亲属的自然行为生态学。现在想象一下，一个参观者进入动物园的黑猩猩展览，他们的态度完全不同。游客希望能接近活跃的、有趣的动物，就像他们在野生动物纪录片中看到的那样。这与野生猿类的实际行为相去甚远，在野生猿类中，它们有60%的时间都在休息！电视无法复制在野外追踪黑猩猩的壮观或兴奋，但动物园提供了独特的机会，成为他们行为和社会生活的一部分。然而，接近人类对野生动物来说是不自然的，可能会导致异常行为。这对于猿类来说尤其如此，它们非常聪明，其行为与复杂的森林环境密切相关。这些改变的行为导致了对猿类的错误描述，并阻碍了英国动物园实现其目标的能力：教育;研究;保护;以及优化动物福利，包括允许表达自然行为。动物园面临的挑战是丰富游客体验，同时通过环境教育实现激励保护的目标，并保持动物的最高福利。我的目标是改变游客的期望，从观看黑猩猩的娱乐之一，到植根于目睹这种濒危猿类自然行为的特权。通过让游客沉浸在一个平静而引人注目的森林环境中，并提供虚拟技术来探索展览，我将引出一个安静而不那么匆忙的方法来观看动物。这将使黑猩猩能够表现出更自然的行为，如玩耍或梳理，这反过来又会提高游客的体验和满意度。我将通过结合干预措施来实现这一目标，如部分窗户覆盖，环境声音，具有森林特定颜色和强度光谱的照明，隔音橡胶地板和高湿度气氛。我还将提供虚拟技术，让参观者可以进一步探索展览。参观者将被邀请用iPad在“图片捕捉模式”下扫描围栏，定制设计的应用程序将注册特定对象（例如鸟巢或登山杆），并自动加载链接文件。我将把这些黑猩猩在特别活跃的状态下（例如喂食或玩耍）的视频编入节目。参观者将体验一系列黑猩猩的行为，无论动物在观看时的活动如何，并将了解现实的活动模式。我将比较黑猩猩的行为和游客的行为和满意度之前和之后，这些干预措施。这些游客方面的环境变化的影响将是双重的。1)增加游客对展览的满意度将改善动物园的公众形象（和收入）。2)所做的改变将减少访客亲密对黑猩猩的影响，这将增强它们的野生型行为。有了这些数据，我将产生以证据为基础的指导方针，供特怀克罗斯动物园使用，以促进对不同物种使用这些方法来改变做法。然后，这些指导方针将通过特怀克罗斯动物园在类人猿分类咨询小组和BIAZA（英国和爱尔兰动物园和水族馆协会）成员中的不可或缺的作用传播到英国和欧洲动物园部门。

Imagine the hush that falls on a crowd entering a grand cathedral; they automatically tread and whisper quietly. Researchers entering tropical forests to track wild chimpanzees experience the same emotions and behave in a similar way. They are overwhelmed by a feeling of reverence of observing the natural behavioural ecology of our closest living relatives. Imagine now a visitor entering a chimpanzee exhibit at a zoo; their attitude is entirely different. Visitors expect to be close to active, entertaining animals behaving as they have seen them on wild-life documentaries. This is far from the reality of wild ape behaviour, where they spend up to 60% of the time resting! TV cannot replicate the magnificence or excitement of tracking chimpanzees in the wild, but zoos offer the unique opportunity to be part of their behaviour and social life. However, being close to humans is unnatural for wild animals and can result in abnormal behaviours. This is particularly true for apes who are highly intelligent and whose behaviour is tightly linked to their complex forest environment. These altered behaviours result in false representation of apes and hinder UK zoos' abilities to achieve their objectives: education; research; conservation; and optimising animal welfare including allowing expression of natural behaviours.Zoos face the challenge of enriching visitor experience whilst delivering their aims of inspiring conservation through environmental education and maintaining the highest welfare for animals in their care. I aim to generate a change in visitor expectation from one of viewing chimpanzees for entertainment to one rooted in the privilege of witnessing this endangered ape behaving naturally. By immersing visitors in a calming yet striking forest environment and providing virtual technology to explore the exhibit with I will elicit a quiet and less hurried approach to viewing the animals. This will allow the chimpanzees to express more natural behaviours such as playing or grooming, which in turn will enhance visitor experience and satisfaction.I will achieve this by combining interventions such as partial window covers, ambient sounds, lighting with a forest-specific colour and intensity spectrum, sound-proof rubber flooring, and a high humidity atmosphere. I will also provide virtual technology with which visitors can further explore the exhibit. Visitors will be invited to scan the enclosure with an iPad in a 'picture capture mode' whereby a custom-designed app registers a specific object (e.g. a nest or climbing pole) and will automatically load linked files. I will programme these to include videos of these chimpanzees in particularly active states (e.g. feeding or playing). Visitors will experience a range of chimpanzee behaviours regardless of the animals' activity at the time of viewing, and will develop an understanding of realistic activity patterns. I will compare chimpanzee behaviour and visitor behaviour and satisfaction before and after these interventions. The impact of these visitor-side environmental changes will be two-fold. 1) Increased visitor satisfaction at the exhibit will improve the public image (and revenue) of the zoo. 2) The changes made will reduce the impact of visitor closeness on chimpanzees, which will enhance their wild-type behaviours. With this data I will produce evidence-based guidelines to be used by Twycross Zoo to facilitate a change of practice by using these methods for different species. These guidelines will then be disseminated to the UK and European zoo sector through Twycross Zoo's integral role in the Taxon Advisory Group for Great Apes and member of BIAZA (British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums).