A Wood Railing

Recently I came across this photo of a red haired woman homo sapiens and her red haired Irish Setter Canis lupus familiaris standing on red bark mulch and watching a group of red haired orangutans Pongo pygmaeus.

I took these photos at the Allwetterzoo in Münster, Germany.

Many German Zoos allow you to bring your dog on to the grounds -  just as you can bring your dog into most restaurants (Who needs a doggy bag?).

This is what you see if you stand directly at the railing and look into the exhibit.

view from the railing into exhibit

And here you can see what the railing looks like in the winter without so many visitors.
You might have noticed how comfortably the woman with the dog was leaning on the handrail (it's a real tree) and how the glass allowed for easy viewing into the exhibit even from further back .

The glass railing makes it especially easy for children in strollers to look into the exhibit.

This photo shows the railing from the exhibit side. It's good to see how much the visitors enjoy leaning on a real wood handrail.
What makes the railing unusual is that the glass and the handrail aren't in the same plane.

Photo above: the handrail sits in front of the glass pane, keeping the visitors about a foot back from the glass. And keeping sunglasses and babies from falling into the exhibit. It may also help to keep the glass cleaner.

It's about a four meter drop from the top of the railing into the moat. The moat is the playground for the otters.

Real wood feels great to touch and never gets too hot, but it does rot, and I'm not thrilled to see this detail where the wood connects directly with the concrete:

However, this could easily be fixed. And fixed in a way that the branches can be changed as they wear out.

When you scroll through all the photos you'll notice that some of the railings have bark and some are bare. The railings had bark when the exhibit opened, but three years later I visited and they were bare. Depending on the visitors, peeling bark - and throwing it into the exhibit - could be an issue.

However, wood is aesthetically pleasing. This photo shows another railing at the same exhibit. A standard aluminum handrail would have been artificial and distracting here.

The wood handrail keeps the colors and materials in the exhibit to a minimum and the focus on the animals.



The design was done by Rasbach Architekten in Oberhausen, Germany. I worked on this exhibit before I left Germany for the US. You can read more about the exhibit at zoo-lex.org.

Bats for a Halloween photo op

I saw this clever photo opportunity at the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, Florida. The kids are hanging from the ceiling - seemingly. All I had to do was turn and crop the photo.
Here is the original:

At the very right of the photo you can make out the arm of the kids' mother taking the photo.
The photo op is next to the entrance of the fruit bat exhibit.

Looking at the first photo with the two girls hanging upside down, I find the floor boards disrupt the illusion of the kids hanging from the ceiling. To remedy this I would paint the floor in the same color as the wall, and maybe treat the ceiling with floorboards.

This quick Photoshop-sketch shows what I mean: the floor resembles a ceiling and the ceiling resembles the floor.

Of course you can also crop the floor boards out of the photo. This is the first photo from the post, but while taking out the floor makes the illusion more realistic I find the missing feet distracting.

The sign with the big text also helps to support the illusion; and allows you to market your zoo or conservation message cheaply and easily. Think of how many friends and family members will see this photo on the family blog, Facebook, a wall calendar, or in a scrapbook.

 

A few years ago, an online German zoo magazine was complaining about the nonsense of having Halloween in zoos. Zoos in the US have successfully stretched their season with these celebrations. They've both created more money and spread their conversation message to more people.
"We own Halloween" a speaker declared at the 2007 AZA conference in Philadelphia. Indeed, a visit to the zoo around Halloween seems to become a new tradition for many families. And this photo op is a great way to share your conservation message; especially if your zoo is planning a Pumpkin path, or a Boo at the Zoo event. Maybe your art department could crank out a photo op as shown above in a couple of days if you make it out of plywood  instead of FRP. After all, bats aren't just a Halloween icon - 2011 is the Year of the Bat.


Below are few interesting links that fit the topic.
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The WAZA already prepared a flyer filled with fun facts ready to print out and post next to your photo op.
http://www.waza.org/en/site/conservation/2011-year-of-the-bat
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The official Bat of the Year site:
http://www.yearofthebat.org/about-year-of-the-bat/
Bats are found nearly everywhere and approximately 1,200 species account for almost a quarter of all mammals. Nevertheless, in recent decades their populations have declined alarmingly. Many are now endangered, though they provide invaluable services that we cannot afford to lose. 
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Louisville Zoo plans World's Largest Halloween Party
Ghosts and goblins will be taking over the Louisville Zoo on weekends throughout October.
More than 80,000 people are expected to attend what is billed as the World’s Largest Halloween Party.
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"we own Halloween"
"Face it," said Kelly, Zoo Atlanta's CEO. "We own Halloween."
Indeed, goose bumps are good business. As Zoo Atlanta prepares to unveil "Boo at the Zoo" this evening, other zoos and aquariums around the country also are opening their gates to give folks the creeps.  
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Unique underwater cylinder with 360 degree viewing in an African Penguin exhibit

October 8th is African Penguin Awareness Day.  To celebrate this day I want to share a feature in an African penguin exhibit that brings visitors and penguins closer together: a unique 360 degree all-acrylic crawl-through viewing cylinder. You can experience this crawl-through cylinder at the recently opened Penguin Playhouse at Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

wild-design was part of the design team with the architecture firm HHCP and Ripley's Entertainment in-house designers.
That modesty disclaimer out of the way: the tunnel is awesome! It's a one of a kind feature that offers lots of fun for kids (and adults - if they dare). Check it out yourself, or let me show it to you here.

Two penguins swimming over the all acrylic cylinder

This crawl-through cylinder is unique because there is no flat horizontal glass floor in the round tube. Usually walk-through or crawl-through cylinders have a flat floor. This absence of glass - and any other support structure - creates amazing transparency, as you can see on the photos. Only diving gets you closer to the animals.
Below is a photo looking back to the entry. I picked a couple photos without visitors to show you how transparent the tunnel is.

The acrylic floor feels softer and warmer than glass, which makes it better for crawling on, and because the floor is chemically bonded it doesn't have any joints i.e. there's no silicon edge along the glass seam. It is completely smooth and allows you to slouch down the wall towards the floor.

Kids slouching in tunnel

A few other details make this tunnel unique, but before I get to them, let me show you how this cylinder fits into the visitors' path through the exhibit.

If you follow the main visitor route, indicated by the orange arrow, you first encounter a large viewing panel, curved at one end and crowned by three large monitors at the other. Once you turn the corner to continue through the penguin exhibit, you can branch off into the crawl-through cylinder; marked here by a small red arrow.

I took this short clip from the main window. First you see the above water view into the exhibit then the camera dips down below the water level pointing towards the crawl-through cylinder.
Here the underwater view as a photo:

The bright reflection on the cylinder is not visible from inside it

Most adults won't see the cylinder from here because their eye level is too far above water level, while kids eyes are usually right around the water's surface. The path slopes slightly down to increase the water depth and allows adults a better view into the pool.

When they turn the corner visitors can leave the main visitor path and enter into the crawl-through cylinder thereby entering a secondary path. Mostly children do it; and this is where they can explore, have an adventure on their own, but still interact with the adults on the main path.

The interaction between the child and adult happens when a kid pops up in the vertical cylinder at the end of the crawl-through cylinder and, of course, they get a great close up view of penguins.

Children popping up in the middle of the exhibit next to penguins

Parents taking photos of their kids in the pop-up cylinder (orange arrow)

From a different angle during a keeper talk

From the pop-up cylinder the kids continue through another underwater viewing tunnel.

Children crawling along another penguin viewing tunnel

Kids looking at penguins above them

This second crawl-through tunnel is a candy-cane shaped acrylic panel that offers a 90-degree view to the pool. It is located on the penguin's fastest route between their nesting ground and the pool, therefore sightings of overhead penguin crossings are common. Here you can see what the children above are looking at:

The bird above is ready to hop out and is standing in about 2.5 inches (6cm) of water.
When the wave machine is off, as during the keeper talk, the water is so calm that you can watch the talk from underneath the water.

Children watching the keeper talk from underwater

Penguins standing on acrylic panel

The children's path ends here and merges with the main path.

I will continue this narrative and why this tunnel is unique with more details in a follow-up post.

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Meanwhile, and in celebration of African Penguin Awareness Day, I'd like to promote a couple of links that fit the occasion.

At the WAZA website (World Association of Zoos and Aquariums) you can find out what zoos and aquariums are doing to help African Penguins.

In South Africa, the penguin's native habitat, SANCOOB is helping these birds with a multitude of projects in close coordination with zoos and aquariums around the world. SANCOOB stands for Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds.
The life-story of Mrs. Althea Louise Burman Westphal, co-founder of SANCCOB, makes a great read.