Celebrating International Vulture Awareness Day

Today, September 3rd, is International Vulture Awareness Day. What a great idea to celebrate these (partially) critically endangered birds with a day of their own!
Zoos, bird parks, rehabilitation centers, rescue stations and vulture lovers around the world are doing their part to raise awareness.
What can I do to mark this day?

I can show you how vultures are presented to the public in zoos.

I've never designed a vulture exhibit, so I decided to search my photo archives for examples of exhibits and I compiled my findings in this blog entry. The example exhibits shown below are from around the world emphasizing the "International" aspect of  the International Vulture Awareness Day.
Large aviaries are the most prevalent, sometimes with a walk-through path for the visitor. I also found an open top exhibit with barrier moats.

The first example is from a zoo in Southern Germany presenting a commission of Griffon Vultures (Gyps fulvus).

Visitor view from close up.

The visitor path winds up the hill giving you another view of the exhibit from a higher vantage point.
In this photo I found the birds hard to see and I therefore marked them with arrows below.

There are five birds in the photo. Clicking the photo will enlarge it.

The Griffon vulture aviary as seen from a distance.

click on sign to enlarge

The sign gives the visitors basic facts about the birds. It also informs them that the birds once roamed these lands.
European zoos have played and are playing a vital role in reintroducing several vulture species into southern Europe. But, I can't remember any zoo that I visited in Europe bragging with large signage about it, in fact, I feel they are a bit too shy about their good work.

The next photos are from one of the vulture exhibits at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park near Escondido in California. Fittingly, the park exhibits the California Condor (gymnogyps californianus).

 I like the transparency of the net fencing - and: what a great vista!

This photo shows the exhibit from further back. The visitor deck is raised, allowing visitors to be closer to birds that are perched higher up.

A detail of  the California Condor exhibit at San Diego Zoo Safari Park

Above a view into the exhibit as seen from the visitor deck. The birds have tree snags, water, and animal skeletons.

Sign at the visitor deck

The California Condor is one of the zoo's success stories when it comes to breeding and reintroducing animals into their native habitat; to quote from the San Diego Zoo's website:

The San Diego Zoo Global is a leading partner in the efforts to save the California condor. In 1982, 22 birds remained in the wild. At that time, the San Diego Zoo was given permission to begin the first zoological propagation program for California condors. The program also involved the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish and Game, the National Audubon Society, and the Los Angeles Zoo. Thanks to the conservation breeding program, within 25 years the population of California condors grew to more than 300 birds.

You can read the full article here: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/conservation/animals/birds/three_decades_of_the_condor/
And another interesting article from their web site:
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-condor.html

Crossing the Pacific to Japan, I found photos I took of a vulture exhibit at the Tama Zoo near Tokyo. The exhibit is quite large and round in shape allowing for the birds to fly in a circular pattern.

A turkey vulture circling around the tree at the center of the exhibit at the Tama Zoo.

A photo from a different angle.

The tree snag in the center is packed with five different species of birds of prey, not just vultures:

Mixed birds of prey exhibit at the Tama Zoo, Japan.

Below is a photo of the most colorful vulture, a king vulture (Sarcorhamphus papa) on display at the National Aviary . The National Aviary, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, isn't funded or run by the U.S. government, like the National Zoo in Washington D.C.is. Given that they have quite an exotic bird collection the epithet "National" is something of a misnomer on that end too. The king vulture's name, however, is dead on:

At this exhibit the barrier of choice between visitor and vultures is glass, allowing for net-free photos.

There is some edifice behind the exhibit, which is thankfully hidden from view by the wood wall. The lush and tropical planting fits to the exotic character of the birds and to their preferred habitat of tropical lowland forests.

Besides taking net-free photos, glass allows you to get very close to the animal. The photo below is from a vulture exhibit at the Amersfoort Zoo in Holland.

Here the same photo un-cropped:

 

The transparency of this glass barrier works particularly well here because the visitor is in a dark, shaded place that doesn't create reflection onto the glass pane. In fact it worked so perfectly in places that I can imagine visitors occasionally running into the glass (and birds might too).
The theming and the placement of the glass further helped to disguise and conceal the barrier, as you can see in this photo:

Below, a different view of the same exhibit.

Carcasses are scattered on the floor:
A glass barrier needs to be clean and free of reflection for it to serve its purpose. Fortunately, both can be controlled. A designer will go to great lengths to prevent reflection in most circumstances. Clean glass might be largely a management issue, but the designer can help by making cleaning the glass easier and thereby likelier through easy accessibility. Despite the fact that there was quite a lot of glass in this exhibit, it was spanking clean the day I was there. The photo below shows how reflection creates distraction along the visitor sight-line.

Reflection on glass barrier

This is not to say that this was a design gaffe - on the contrary, the exhibit worked great from the visitors' point of view - but the photo allows me to show rather then to tell about one of the downsides of glass: reflection.
The other disadvantage of glass is a psychological aspect: although visually pleasing, glass creates quite a disconnect from the animal even if one stands nose to nose with the animal. I experienced this once with a tiger and once with a gorilla. In both cases I saw the animals through the glass as a visitor ;there were just inches between me and the animals, and then I stepped behind the scene with a keeper to see the back holding area where cages and chutes consisted of metal bars. When the animals came up, I took notice and stepped back.
It was scary and impressive; the animals appeared stronger, bigger, and wilder - gone was the cuddly kitty, instead I was faced with a wild tiger. This transformation happened in my head, the animals were the same, whether behind glass or behind bars, and quite uninterested in me. Anybody that has gone to a zoo with a public training wall at a tiger exhibit where you can come close to the animal knows what I am talking about.
The bottom line of this digression, as the photos from Amersfoort Zoo show, glass is a great barrier but it has its shortcomings.

Back to International Vulture Awareness Day and how these birds are displayed in zoos:

The Living Desert Museum in Southern California has a walk through aviary which allows you to see the birds with no barrier between you and them.

The sign reads "PLEASE STAY ON PATH"

There is a little stone bench in the lower right corner of the photo. How much closer can you get to these animals?

Above: A black turkey vulture (Coragyps atratus) looking down at me where I'm standing on the visitor path.

A completely different concept in displaying vultures is the open top exhibit in the next example. This exhibit is situated in the African Woods section of the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The birds are confined by a ha-ha and some wire fencing, both mostly hidden from public view. The photos here are about ten years old; by now the exhibited species might have changed - if not the exhibit itself.

At the time of my visit they had Griffon Vultures (Gyps fulvus) on display. The downside of this type of exhibit is that you need to clip the birds' feathers to keep them from taking off; and another potential disadvantage is that other birds can enter the enclosure, which might lead to fighting or to high blood pressure in the vet department.

In the photo above the Griffon vultures have company from one heron and two turkey vultures.
Since it is quite common to see several vulture species around one carcass I guess it just got more educational  - but how to do you explain Old World and New World vultures in one exhibit? Does the visitor even care? For the visitor the enclosure becomes more colorful and more active...

I remember the display as beautiful and effective from my visitor vantage point. What made it even more interesting was that I could see antelopes behind the exhibit; it was one spectacular habitat display. I wish I had a photo of  the vultures with the antelopes in the background; instead I found a photo I took in Kenya that reminded me of this exhibit:

A venue of vultures in front of a herd of wildebeests.

When it comes to zoo design: Let nature be the guide.

Summing up: I was impressed by the diversity of displays with which zoos raise appreciation for vultures. Creating aviaries large enough for these birds to fly takes up a lot of land and I was wondering, couldn't you make the most of the real estate by adding ground dwelling animals to the display?
I did a search for mixed vulture exhibits and found two amazing exhibits at ZooLex.org. 
The first one is located at Nordhorn Zoo in northern Germany where they mix Griffon vultures with an Ibex herd (Capra ibex).

Mixed species exhibit at Nordhorn Zoo. ©Wolfgang Salzert, 2005

Visitors can enter the exhibit and view the birds from behind a railing. Here is a link to more photos and a thorough description of the exhibit:

http://www.zoolex.org/zoolexcgi/view.py?id=778

The Nature and Animal Park Goldau, in Switzerland, mixes bearded vultures (Gypaetus barbatus) with snow hares (Lepus timidus). How cool can you get?

Snow hare ©Tierpark Goldau, 2005. Photo from ZooLex.org

Bearded vulture exhibit at Goldau ©Monika Fiby, 2005. Photo from ZooLex.org

More photos of this exhibit and a lot of useful information (cost and size of the exhibit, etc.) can be found at:  http://www.zoolex.org/zoolexcgi/view.py?id=788


Finally, two links I highly recommended for further reading.
Peter Dickenson writes about the dangers vultures are facing in the wild:

http://peterdickinson.hubpages.com/hub/International-Vulture-Awareness-Day

and
The founders of the International Vulture Awareness Day put a site up where you can find out what zoos and other organizations are doing to celebrate this day. Sign up and participate at:

http://www.vultureday.org/2011/index.php

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For this blog entry I wanted to know what a group of vultures is called. Here is what I found:
"Wake, committee, or venue"  from wikipedia.org
"Wast, committee, meal, vortex, venue and even wake"   from wiki.answers.com
"Vultures circling in the air are a Kettle" from vulturesociety.homestead.com

Vulture illustration by Laura Hamilton

Happy 

International 

Vulture 

Awareness 

Day

Penguin and carp - failed experiment

Last year the Nuremberg Zoo in Germany  introduced a few carp Cyprinidae to their Humboldt penguins Spheniscus humboldti.

A raft chasing a carp.

The hope was that if the fish were big enough the penguins would not see them as prey and leave them alone.

Even if there were a few and minor conflicts, resulting in slightly increased stress-levels with higher alertness, and more activity, it could be seen as beneficial.

Unfortunately the conflicts were major from day one and after a short time the experiment ended as failed.

The birds chased the fish and pecked at them whenever they caught up. There were not enough dark hiding places for the fish.
Besides, the idea was not for the fish to hide in some crevice, but to be in plain view of the visitor window and liven up the pool when the penguins were on land.

Mixed species exhibits can be beneficial for animals and fun for visitors. It could have been here too, even if penguin and carp are a questionable combination.

I'm sorry it didn't work out. But not experimenting would mean stagnation - and that would be the true tragedy, and much worse than a failed try!

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While I was writing this page I wanted to know what a group of penguin is called. If it is above water it is called a waddle, if it is below water it is called a raft.

How come I didn't see that bit of fun information on any of the many penguin graphics I came by in the last couple years?

I know it is pointless and useless, but that is exactly the kind of pointless and useless information that will lead to social interaction: "Hey guys, guess what a group of penguins underwater is called?" 

It is also the kind of success and fun that will make it more likely for the visitors to come back to the graphic panel and fish for more candy. And then (and only then) is it the time to insinuate something heavier.

Besides - where else can you use the words raft and waddle but at a penguin exhibit with an underwater view? So go for it!

Interactive projection walls and floors - chances to play & learn in aquariums

Below are 9 examples of interactive projection walls, floors and touch tanks. I collected them from the internet, with the selection criteria that they have applicability for use in aquariums. Therefore, most of them have an aquatic theme, are animal related, or are educational.
If you don't have time to view all nine examples,  just go to no.s1, 6 and  7 for the top of the bunch.

1st example: Touch Tank
Depending on the species, touch tanks can be controversial. But here is a touch tank that is politically correct.


Okay, it is not the same as a real touch tank, but the water simulation in this clip looks quite realistic, and with the right display (software) it could encourage learning. People can point to plastic bags floating in the water and remove them from a turtle's swim path. The possibilities are endless and the touch tank's layout encourages social interaction. 

Click on the link below to see another video of the same "touch tank" at a different location.
 http://www.q-bus.de/projects/koi_pond     

There is a mirror installed above and behind the touch tank in that location.
If there are large crowds - as shown in the photo below -

you can easily look over the shoulder of people in front of you.
The photo below shows the mirror more clearly.

click on photo to enlarge

2nd example: Touch Wall
This video shows an interactive projection device installed in an office space. The device tracks visitors walking by and translates the motion into ripples and waves along the screen. 
This could be nice (and expensive) along a boring aquarium hallway; as long as this technology is novel visitors will have a blast with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ltp9nKKzsA
The sound in the video is quite impressive. In animated movies the sound is key to bringing the movie to life. The same holds true for these interactives. If you go this route, great sound effects are a must and will add a lot more fun to them. 
As you can see from the clip below: similar concept, even better graphics... but no sound.

3rd example: Touch Wall without sound
This touch wall was designed by q-bus Mediatektur, the company that also conceived the touch tank in the first example

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr42AG1aPAY

Here a link to another hallway example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3BJqSIK890
but without an aquatic theme. Playing time 6 seconds

4th example: Interactive floor
This example is from the Science of Survival exhibition at the Science Museum, London. The visitor can step in a pool with clown fish. The animation of the clown fish is good. Watch to the end to see a person stepping on the floor projection.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPpcjES7WAE

The text in the projection reads:
Of every 100 drops of water on earth:

97 are too salty too drink

2 are locked in ice

1 is fresh water.  
I guess the point is, if someone is playing with the fish eventually that someone -or some bystanders- will read the text.

5th example: Interactive floor
Here is another floor projection where you step on the fish and the fish shoot off - not much to it, but I included it because of its aquatic theme.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50fE4KfsSWE

I found another interactive floor but this time without a projection - it is an audio set up. It is located in a brightly lit mall space. The visitor moves on a patterned carpet and when the camera above registers that they are stepping on a certain area it activates a sound bite.  Check it out at the link below, it's worthwhile to see what other things are possible with floor animation.
http://www.gesturetek.com/gesturefx/businesscases/fanta.php
I assume the circles are only for fun; as far as the technology is concerned no carpet or pattern is needed.
But this opens interesting possibilities for aquariums: What if there are dangerous fish lurking in your path? They could - half concealed  - either be woven in a custom carpet or simply painted on the floor,   and as the visitors step on them they activate a sound bite: a scream of pain, "you-are-dead" spoken text, etc.

6th example: Water Board
This three and a half minute clip is worth watching to the end. Or jump forward to the last quarter of the video to the see its educational potential and how visitors can interact with their all or parts of their bodies.


There is no jumping up and down or dancing going on - this is more brainy. But it looks like plenty of fun and many kids could interact with each other making a chain of body parts (like arms) where the water runs from one to the next. Or a parent is standing tall in the middle while the water splashes on the children to the right and left.

Mike Burton is the creator of the WaterBoard, which was a winner of the 2007 RSA Design Directions Award. As far as I know, it is only conceptual.

 ©2007 Mike Burton

The basic components are an opaque board measuring 2.2m x 8 m, four projectors and four cameras for back-projection and detection. The users can draw (or erase) lines to manipulate the water or use their limbs or whole bodies, to alter the water's flow.

I couldn't find much useful - let alone contact - information on Mike Burton; and the 2007/2008 web site of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA) didn't have further information.


7th example: Funky Forest
Click on the video link below to see some great interaction, graphic art, and lighting. 


Funky Forest - Interactive Ecosystem from Theo Watson .

Guests can manipulate the water on the floor and divert it towards the trees to make them grow. They can plant and grow trees by leaning against the walls. The overall design and lighting scenario is simply superb.

Children creating trees

The Funky Forest premiered first in Amsterdam a few years ago. In 2009 a permanent and updated version with seasons has been installed at the Moomah Children’s cafe in New York City, and also in 2010 in the Art Garden of the Singapore Art Museum. 
The design/artwork is outstanding. Here are more photos:
http://www.theowatson.com/site_docs/work.php?id=41

Emily Gobeille and Theodore Watson are the creators of the Funky Forest. They have collaborated on several projects, and many of them are worthwhile looking at from an aquarium-adaptation angle.
Don't miss
Knee Deep 
Terrarium 
Vinyl Workout - this one only because it is another floor installation.

8th example: Interactive Aquarium - Call in with mobile
To quote Tom Vanderlin, the creator of the Interactive Aquarium:
"Using computer vision the seascape will react to the motion of a user, seaweed will sway and fish will scatter. Users can then dial in with any mobile device and create a fish using their voice. As they connect in realtime the sounds they make are analyzed and create a dynamically generated fish."
Carnival Interactive Aquarium from Todd vanderlin
http://toddvanderlin.com/projects/carnival-interactive-aquarium  
The illustrations were again created by Emily Gobeille.

9th example: 3D mapping
If you don't want to watch the whole video (2.5 minutes) just watch the opening scene for the 3D effect and then jump to the1:00 minute mark to see some cool aquatic effects.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN3kuVuyxEw

Here is a link to a news report about it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQWyOFIZhKs
and more information on what the future will bring here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWV7JRBjUlA

The 3D effect is somewhat lost on my 2D screen. From the reaction of the bystanders in the news features it must be highly convincing.


Summing it up
There is no doubt that interactivity will play a larger roll in aquariums - and in zoos - and in our life in general.  Touch screens, and motions sensors, and call-in-with-your-cell phone technologies are here to stay. The question is: what is the price tag - and how much value do you get for it in return in terms of increased revenue or attendance, conservation, entertainment, or education?

Technology in zoos and aquariums is frail and transient - I have seen several high-tech installations come and go during repeat visits to various institutions over the last fifteen years. As long as these devices are a novelty they will engage the visitors, and they have the potential to be fantastic education, entertainment, and conservation devices.

The novelty-factor made me wonder how easy it is to update the content, especially if your institution is frequented by many repeat visitors. How difficult is to keep the content fresh? On Theodore Watson's website I found the link to Openframe work.
The video is over six minutes - jump ahead to the 4:00 minute mark and watch it from there to get the basic idea.

made with openFrameworks from openFrameworks.

For information on the openframeworks visit their website: http://www.openframeworks.cc/
While you are there check out their gallery http://www.openframeworks.cc/gallery for other cool stuff - not necessarily aquarium related.
If your art or graphic department can manage your institution's website it might be able to handle this software and rejuvenate any content in-house, thus stretching the lifespan of these installations.
But of course you may also be able to outsource it. Click on this link to see an example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50fE4KfsSWE

Whenever aquariums stray away from their core business (animals/nature) they run the risk of competing with non-animal institutions (like science museums, natural history museums or commercial endeavors with deep pockets). As you can see for yourself on this  last link   http://www.projectionadvertising.co.uk/

Speaking of advertising, if this technology interested you I recommend my previous blog entry where I show an example of an interactive wall screen in an aquarium.

Kids burning off energy: Where to play in aquariums (Part 2)

In my last post I wrote about the necessity for aquariums to provide play areas with every exhibit, or at least within every exhibit gallery, so that kids can let out their extra energy.
I only showed what was simple, low tech and of moderate size.

In this entry I want to present an item that is great for play and being active, but is high tech: interactive wall (or floor) projection technology.
The example I chose is from the Aquamarine Fukushima Aquarium in Japan. The aquarium opened in 2000 and ten years later it added a new exhibition area. This addition is geared towards kids. (I already wrote about its spiny lobster exhibit and cushioned play area in previous entries.)

Next to the cushioned play area are interactive projection walls that allow children (ages 3 to 99) to manipulate a projected image on the wall through their own movement.
Below two girls are jumping in front of the wall to manipulate the projected images.

This is better explained by the video clip below. 13seconds


Or, here is an example from the Orlando Airport in Florida, that shows this technology in action with an aquatic touch 14-second clip


Back to the Aquamarine Fukushima aquarium:

I liked how active the kids were in front of the screens. 

I liked the set up that children can manipulate the projection of a jelly fish and then observe the real thing in the tank adjacent to the screen. You can see their dad, who seconds ago was waving his arms in front of the screen, now taking a closer look at the jelly tank in the background. 

I also like that these screens are easy to dismantle to make room for a fish tank. Which could happen in the near future, because...
Technology in zoos and aquariums is often faster outdated than one can install it. These interactive walls (also available as floor projections) are becoming increasingly common at airports and malls, and are often used in connection with advertisement.Nintendo's Wii, with its handheld pointing device that detects movement, is not far off from the motion screen technology and has already made it into kids' homes.
So how do you top that or make it more novel? Do you want to or need to? Wouldn't it be better - in the long run - to stick to your core business?

However skeptical I am about putting resources towards technology, I was impressed when I saw the children dancing in front of the two projections, burning off energy, and having fun! - It worked great.



On the video clip above the screen is round, in the foreground and part of the yellow wall.
There is a fish tank directly underneath it - bringing the fish back into the picture. (I was wondering, does this hand-waving and jumping up and down of the visitors provide any enrichment/entertainment for the fish?).

The photo below is giving you an overview of the layout of the space: the round screen on the right with the discus tank underneath, and a jelly tank on the left with two projection screens beyond.

Interactive motion screens at the Aquamarine Fukushima (click on photo to enlarge)

Next to these motion projection screens is a cushioned play area with several fish exhibits, which I presented in the previous entry. I venture to predict that the play area will still be fun five years from now, but the motion screens won't; they will have been replaced with the next cool thing.
But again, for now they are fun and good examples for letting out some energy indoors with the entire family.

In case you want to find out more about these interactive devices I've included a few links below.
1. A company that manufactures interactive motion screens
http://www.gesturetek.com

 2. A blog that discusses this - and similar - technology: "Interactive Multimedia Technology"
http://interactivemultimediatechnology.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-interactivity-interactive-walls.html

Children burning off pent up energy: Where to play in aquariums

I want to show you some play areas that I came along recently that allow children to let off some steam. The photos and video clips are from aquariums, malls and airports - what they have in common is that they are indoors and that they encourage kids to be active.

Children playing at a lantern fish sculpture at Ripley's Aquarium Myrtle Beach in South Carolina

Imagine you are a kid and you have been buckled up for an hour's drive to see fish but all you can do is look, when what you really want to do is jump, touch, participate...
Or maybe this energy is due to inclement weather which kept you indoors during the week's heat spell or rainy days. Finally your parents had enough and chaperoned you into an aquarium...
Or you have just toured some of the aquarium, watching fish of all sizes and shapes, listening to videos, and touching screens, and you feel an overload of excitement and are ready to let some of it out...
How do you let go of this energy in an aquarium?
 
The first example is from the Aquamarine Fukushima aquarium in Japan.

Click on the photos to enlarge.

A boy is jumping (he's a blur ) from a cushioned box onto the cushioned floor among some plush animals.

In the photo above the boy is jumping in the other direction. Again, he's a blur and partially hidden by the pink box. You can spot his dad to the far right in a trench coat sitting on one of the cushioned boxes.

And in the final shot the boy is posing for me kneeling on the raised bench. In the foreground is a fish bowl (click on photos to enlarge).

This cushioned play area measures about 20 square meters  (215 sq. feet). There are about five or six small fish tanks interspersed. Tanks differ in shape: rectangle, bowl, cylinder.


Here is a fast pan through the area giving you a quick overview


The pan is so fast that I clipped a couple photos from it below.

Notice the stuffed turtle and stuffed fish (or whale) the kids are bouncing and pouncing on?

And while the kids are active and burning off energy in the "rubber cell" their parents enjoy a tranquil moment to look closely at fish:

If kids are having a great time, the parents love it! They can rest on the cushioned boxes and connect with your treasures. This is the time to bring your message across! Now your husbandry, education or conservation people can "sponsor" this place with their message.

In this play area visitors can observe discus fish (among other species) and find out that discus parents raise their young carefully, and "feed them with a kind of milk secreted from their bodies".
Really? Just like a mammal? Makes you think, doesn't it? Something to talk about. Fitting for an area were visitors bring their carefully-raised young...

For me the bottom line of this area is: First fun, then fish, then the message. 



The next example is a small play area at the Tulsa Airport (Oklahoma, USA).

I've come by this play area several times over the last year and there were always kids playing. Unfortunately, the day I had time to take photos there were no kids around.
Two things I thought were interesting. First, there was not much to this area: just a rubber floor, a crawl-through box, a couple climb-on sculptures and a few games. But kids enjoyed it all the same.
The second interesting thing is that there is no play area at the Oklahoma Aquarium itself, for which this piece is making propaganda. Burning-off-energy areas for kids would be a great addition to this otherwise outstanding aquarium, but I believe they are working on this as I am writing.

This shot is from the other side. I think the entire area is less than 15 square meters (160 sq.ft), and would fit easily next to many indoor exhibits - in aquariums and zoos alike.

The next example is from a mall in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The area is neither pretty nor involved: cushioned wall, rubberized floor and a slide/climbing sculpture that seems very accident proof - a  synonymous expression for boring - and yet all kids I observed had great fun with it. 
The kids didn't come here to see anything interesting or to learn something new. All they wanted to do was run and jump. I observed the girls in the photo above running down the ramp (the kids didn't use it as a slide) and crashing into the cushioned railing and then letting themselves fall onto the floor - that went on and on. Later I saw two boys doing the same thing. I caught it on the video below:


This game seemed to be as much fun as it was pointless. I saw them doing it over and over.
It also brought back to mind something my sister-in-law said. My two nephews are bundles of energy
and she goes to places where they can let that energy out. She avoids places where they have to sit tight. She doesn't enjoy telling them off, and she is most happy when the kids are having fun.
This play area caters to the needs of the young just like a bench caters to the needs of the elderly or weary. While benches are common in most aquarium galleries, play areas are usually few and far and often just in one area, instead of being interspersed throughout the aquarium.

A good example for combining fish with the children's need to burn off energy is the crawl through tunnel in the Natural Encounters building at the Houston Zoo in Texas.

Here children can crawl through an acrylic tube in a piranha tank. Parents can observe them from the main viewing window - and the kids love that. While I was there most kids did several runs through the tunnel.
Check out the clip below. The girl in the pink dress goes in at the beginning of the video and is back by the end of it. 



Here I follow her from the exit to the entrance...



In the photo below there is a teenager behind a couple of kids.

Nobody spent much time observing the piranhas. At some point there was a group of mothers in front of the window - they neither read the signs nor paid any attention to the fish, but conversed happily with each other, occasionally waving at their kids. Neither did the kids spend much (if any) time looking at the fish. But they all enjoyed what they were doing!
Maybe they had so much fun they'll want to come back or at least they'll tell their friends about it and generate more revenue that way - which might eventually fund your renovation or conservation projects.
Here, too, the bottom line is: First fun, then fish and then the rest will fall into place.

Summary

With this blog entry I wanted to show you a variety of possible indoor play activities that could easily be part of or nearby an animal exhibit.
This is about burning off pent up energy. It is not about fish, not about conservation, not about education - but with a clever layout and the right timing you might slither your message in - and more effectively than in any other way because your visitors are having fun.

All play areas presented are simple - I left out anything complex, hugely expensive or technology driven - I'll do that in my next blog.

Most larger aquariums have an outdoor playground and some even an indoor play area - somewhere.
But better yet is to intertwine the need for action and participation with observing the fish: bringing fun and fish together.

And this is what is to come. Any doubts? Looking back in time might give you a good idea where the future is headed. Judging from the black and white photo below and the examples I have shown before, I find it certain that visitor participation and kid activities will play a larger part in public aquariums.

 (Photo copyright Karl Rauschkolb - click on image to enlarge)

This photo from the former Cleveland Aquarium shows that three of the six tanks are above the visitors' eye level. Aquariums have come a long way for kids.

If you offer benches then you cater to the need of the weary visitors.  If you offer play, climb, crawl and jump areas then you offer something for those with extra energy. Most likely children. Most likely the driving force behind the wish to visit your aquarium; and remember: parents do what children love!

  

Pop-up bubble in a lobster tank at the Aquamarine Fukishima in Japan.

How cool is a lobster? Very cool from close-up.
Look at the photo below. Click on it for a larger version. 

Here is another shot.

At the lobster tank at the aquarium, Aquamarine Fukushima in Japan, you can see these animals from very close, and from just a few inches away their colors and details are spectacular.
Here is a photo that I took from the inside of a pop-up bubble. You can see every little detail on the antennae.  
Again, click on the photo for a larger version.

And another shot.

The lobster tank can be viewed from all sides. Underneath the tank is a crawl through tunnel with a pop-up bubble (acrylic hemisphere).
The photo below shows an overview.

(1) visitors standing in front of the tank.
(2) exit, or entrance, of crawl-through tunnel
Notice the steps in front of the crawl-through tunnel. They lift the eye level of the adult visitors (1) high above the rock cave that surrounds the pop-up bubble, and that is where all the lobsters hang out. Adults, standing on the raised area, need to bend down down if they want to view the lobsters from close up.

The benefit of the raised platform is that kids can view the lobsters from close up without needing to be lifted up, as you can see in the next photo.


Natural rocks (versus artificial ones) are placed around the pop-up bubble, leaving a space of about 10 to 30 centimeters (4 to 12 inches) for the lobster to tuck themselves between the acrylic hemisphere and the rocks.
The rock arrangement opens up towards the main viewing (from where the boy looks and from where I took the photo). If you look from any other side of the tank, you'll see mainly rocks, but here and there lobsters are peeking or hanging out through the gaps - if they're not wandering around anyways.
Below is a photo showing the back of the side of the rock cave. From here you can't see the acrylic dome which is hidden under what appears to be a heap of rocks.

I was wondering how difficult it must be to clean the dome with all the rocks and animals around. However, as with almost all aquariums that I visited in Japan, and the Aquamarine Fukushima in particular, all acrylic screens were spanking clean.

The crawl through tunnel was too low for adults of my size. I couldn't bend or crawl on my knees, but had to slither my way in. The carpet made it somewhat soft and the walls and ceiling were cushioned.
So what if some adults can't or won't make it through the tunnel? All the more fun for the kids!

Below is a view into the tunnel. If you enlarge it you can pick out the round shape of the pop-up in the back. Then the tunnel takes a turn to the right for the exit.

A few more shots from inside the pop up:

There was quite some counter light for the camera. But don't let the photos fool you. The animals were in excellent view, and you could see their tops or underside with all their fascinating spots and markings from very close. Making it even more interesting was the fact that these animals were active, and constantly pushing and shoving around. A fun tank for the visitor.

On the photo below is a woman and a little boy in the acrylic hemisphere. How they both fit in there was a mystery to me. I had no room to spare.

I'm not sure what lobster species they had on display. Because of their long, spiny antennae and the lack of claws I assume that it was from the family of the spiny lobsters Palinuridae, also known as langouste.

They were mixed with Blackbar soldierfish Myripristis jacobus (another assumption). Soldierfish are active at night and like to hang out under dark shelves or in caves. So I am not sure that the exhibit was to their liking, but they seemed fine and they certainly made a pretty sight.

In the video below I'm standing at the back side of the tank and at the end of of this short video I hold the camera down into the crawl through tunnel. "Back side " might be a misleading term: in fact this side is the first view into the tank for the visitors that follow the general circulation flow. All they see is a large tank and a heap of rocks in the center, nicely concealing the acrylic hemisphere. Kids can dive down and disappear in the tunnel where they will be in for a fun surprise (or shock), when they get to the dome and find themselves surrounded by a nest of colorful lobster bodies with their long antennae and legs. And once parents make it along to the other side they have great view of the lobsters and their kids in the midst of them.

Bottom line 

Judging the tank from a visitor's perspective, it is a fantastic display. It offers many excellent viewing opportunities, and the clean and lean decor keeps the focus on the animals. A few more rocks creating more climbing opportunities and overhanging shelves for the animals might have been nice.
The clever layout allows surprise discoveries, and provides activities for the children and bonding opportunities between the generations when they wave at each other from pop-up to main viewing window and vice-versa , or when they both squeeze into the acrylic dome. All in all, I was impressed.

Manatee - Mixed species exhibit at The Dallas World Aquarium

During my visit to The Dallas World Aquarium in Texas I saw manatees mixed with large arapaimas in the Orinoco Rainforest tank. It was impressive to see these large but otherwise very different animals so close together.

 Click on the photo for larger version.

 Here is a video clip



The aquarium guide listed the manatee as "Antillean manatee" a term that was new to me since I had heard it only referred to as the West Indian Manatee Trichechus manatus.

They also had three catfish species in the tank
South American Red Tailed Catfish Phractocephalus hemioliopterus
Reticulated Shovelnose catfish  Pseudoplatystoma reticlatum
The aquarium guide listed the third as "Fork-snouted" catfish. I couldn't find any further information about it and made the assumption they are referring to the  Ripsaw catfish Oxydoras niger
as shown in the photo below.

Another species in the tank is the "Brown stingray" - at least that's what it said in the aquarium guide. But after looking closer at the photo in their guide book and then at the photo below I decided it is an Ocellate river stingray Potamotrygon motoro. Though I must add that this not my field of expertise.

The stingray is partially covered by the visitor's head

While I tried to find an answer to my stingray question I stumbled over an interesting aquarium website:   http://www.aquarticles.com/
with an introduction on how to keep freshwater stingrays
http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/breeding/Webber_David_Freshwater_Stingrays.html



I also saw a few black-banded leporinus Leporinus fasciatus 

This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons.

And finally, the Arrau turtle Podocnemis expansa is sharing the pool with the manatees.

 From above the manatee pool looked like this:

In both photos above you can see a manatee to the left of the island.
The island is home to Saki monkeys and Emperor tamarins.

Many birds are "flying freely from the island in the River exhibit to the top of the seven-story structure" - to quote the guide.
I just want to list a few here:

Southern yellow grosbeak

Green oropendola

Crested orpendola

Andean cocks-of-the-rock Rupicola peruvianus

Pompadour cotinga

Capuchin bird

and various toucan species.

I also saw  several species of waterfowl  in the pool. The guide lists:
Ringed teal, Rosy-billed pochard  and White-faced whistling duck
Black-necked swan
Orinoco goose

Here a shot from the underwater window with two ducks bobbing in the water

The photo below shows a huge waterfall. I was once told by a marine mammal curator that his manatees were stressed when introduced to a new exhibit due to a life support return pipe that was placed one meter above the pool surface (3 feet) and emptied with a lot of noise.
At The Dallas World Aquarium the animals not only have the water of a return pipe gushing into the pool, as you can see in one of the above water photos, but also a tall waterfall. Neither of the two animals seems to be particularly stressed and they were calmly swimming circles through the pool. But again, I'm a designer and this is not my field of expertise.

notice the tall aerial roots hanging behind and alongside the waterfall

And lastly, another video from the underwater viewing area


For all photos and videos above copyright 2010 wild-design unless otherwise noted