The effects of immersive exhibits on animal behaviour, welfare, and visitor experience.

大多数现代动物园在其使命陈述中有四个主要目标：保护、教育、娱乐和科学研究。他们必须完成这一点，同时还要为车内的动物保持最高的福利标准，这可能具有挑战性。例如，提供围栏，使动物能够表达其自然行为（Chappell & Thorpe，2022），并选择是否“公众可见”，对于福利，保护和教育非常重要。然而，这些措施可能会使游客不容易看到动物，这可能会影响动物园的教育作用，这可能会减少他们的收入来支持他们的所有活动（Sherwen等人，2019;威廉姆斯等人，2022）。沉浸式展览持续由付费教育护林员提供服务，但护林员与游客的互动是否增加了他们从展览中获得的知识或乐趣尚不清楚。最后，动物园中非保护繁殖物种的沉浸式展览的价值是什么：它们是否增加了游客的参与度，感知或知识，以及它们如何影响动物福利？ 该项目将通过与特怀克罗斯动物园和其他适当的动物园密切合作来解决这一研究空白。该项目将结合联合收割机对动物园动物的行为研究，以了解它们的福利，并对游客的态度，知识和经验进行问卷调查，以调查这些复杂的影响。然后，从这些数据中获得的知识将用于协助围栏修改和管理变化，以鼓励自然行为，这支持和告知未来的保护育种和重新引入，同时保持展览的教育作用。它将专注于各种分类群的沉浸式围栏，例如彩虹吸蜜鹦鹉（Trichoglossus haematodus），家养山羊（Capra hircus）和苏门答腊虎（Panthera tigris sumatrae），以及混合物种的雀科动物和蝴蝶漫步展览，比较动物的行为、人类的行为，以及参观者在这些围栏周围的态度和体验与传统围栏中相同或相似物种的态度和体验。目的是提供一个证据基础，使动物园能够在其使命内管理相互竞争的目标之间的平衡。

Most modern zoos have four main goals built into their mission statements: conservation, education, entertainment, and scientific research. They must complete this while also maintaining the highest welfare standards possible for the animals in their car, which can be challenging. For example, providing enclosures which enable animals to express their natural behaviours (Chappell & Thorpe, 2022), and choose whether to be 'viewable to the public' or not, is important for welfare, conservation and education. However, these measures can make animals less easy for visitors to see, which potentially impacts upon the zoos' educational role, which can reduce their income to support all their activities (Sherwen et al., 2019; Williams et al. 2022). Immersive exhibits are continually staffed by paid education rangers, but it is unknown whether the rangers' interactions with visitors increase the knowledge or enjoyment they get from the exhibit. Finally, what is the value of immersive exhibits of non-conservation breeding species in zoos: do they increase visitor engagement, perceptions or knowledge, and how do they impact upon animal welfare? This project will address this research gap by working closely with Twycross Zoo, and other zoos where appropriate. The project will combine behavioural studies on zoo animals to access their welfare, and visitors with questionnaires on visitors' attitudes, knowledge and experience, to investigate these complex effects. Knowledge gained from this data will then be used to assist with enclosure modifications and management changes to encourage natural behaviours, which support and inform future conservation breeding and reintroduction, while maintaining the exhibit's educational role. It will focus on immersive enclosures for a variety of taxa e.g. rainbow lorikeets (Trichoglossus haematodus), domestic goats (Capra hircus), and Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae), as well as mixed species finch and butterfly walk-through exhibits, comparing the behaviour of animals, the behaviour of humans, and the attitudes and experiences of visitors around these enclosures with those of the same or similar species in more traditional enclosures. The aim is to provide an evidence base enabling zoos to manage the balance between the competing goals within their mission.