This thesis intends to investigate the ethics of captivity for zoological purposes and whether or not it is successful in contributing to conservation as it claims to. By studying the effects that current projects have on animals and visitors alike, I hope to fi nd a new way in which zoos can be benefi cial to the environment by infl uencing and educating the public on conservation. Architecture, in the past, has shaped the way that captive animals live out their lives. Animal captivity can be traced back to hunter-gatherer domestication, Egyptian Pharaohs being buried with animals and gladiators violently battling animals to the death to entertain the viewers. Following these ancient practices, life for captive animals continued to be dismal. Countries around the world collected and bartered exotic animals through world fairs and menageries in order to boast their unique cultures to lesser societies. In the future, architecture has the potential to infl uence the welfare of animals as well as bring light to new ways of observing animals and their habitats. Whether the site is chosen within the state of Louisiana, or is non-site specifi c and is instead a network of worldwide zoological centers, this project aims to open a discussion about the ethics of captivity for the sake of animals’ betterment. Programmatically, observation components will work along side rehabilitation typologies to create a more natural and humane zoological model. / 0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

An animal’s ability to find thermal comfort can be can be limited within a zoo enclosure. This creates a need to design comfortable microclimates for the animal within their enclosure space. This is an exploratory study intended to investigate the relationships between an elephant’s movements throughout their space and the microclimatic conditions within its zoological enclosure. By outlining an understanding of microclimates and how they are affected by the landscape combined with knowledge of elephant behaviours it will be possible design or plan for microclimatic use within zoo enclosures. Observational data were collected from five Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). The movements of the elephants were monitored along with the use of microclimates within their enclosure. Thermal regulatory movements involving microclimatic use typically involved water and shade use, however evidence suggests that the animals were also avoiding terrestrial radiation from some of the gunite walls. It is important that animals are given the opportunity to find microclimates within the space to regulate their body temperature. Designing landscapes that incorporate microclimates within their habitats is crucial to the welfare and health of zoo elephants.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Mary C. Kingery-Page / In the last 30 years there has been a shift toward educating people about conservation within zoos. Public learning about conservation of wildlife and habitats is vital if the extinction of wildlife is to be avoided. Zoos offer opportunities to educate visitors about habitat conservation through programs and activities, and the way individual habitats and zoos are being designed. Education about wildlife and habitat conservation is important, and must address scientific, aesthetic, and ecological values to be effective. When educating people about the importance of conservation of species and their habitats in zoos, it is important to create a connection between them and nature. This connection can be achieved by creating a sense of place that allows people to be inspired by nature and understand the importance of preserving it for the future. These connections have the potential to change attitudes towards nature and help people imagine wildlife and humans existing in harmony with each other. This report focuses on the redesign of the tiger and sloth bear exhibits at Sunset Zoo in Manhattan, Kansas, which offer opportunities to create exhibits that focus on animal welfare, offer educational experiences, and evoke a sense of place. In studying the role that zoos have in educating and encouraging wildlife and habitat conservation, and in creating a sense of place for the broader community, a variety of methods have been used including: literature review, precedent studies, and passive observation of zoo users. Using these methods, I determined that a successful educational programming strategy and design should include: having keepers or volunteers available to talk directly to zoo visitors, creating opportunities for visitors to form an emotional and intellectual connection to the animals and their habitats, creating an immersive experience for visitors within a naturalized exhibit, offering enrichment features for animals that encourage activity and natural behaviors that visitors can observe, and including interactive educational components for visitors. These programming elements can contribute to Sunset Zoo implementing successful strategies for education within exhibits.

abstract: Zoos are a unique collection-based institution with deep roots in the social structure of modern society. From their beginnings as elite menageries to display power or wealth, they have evolved into public institutions committed to providing exemplary animal care, and recreational and educational opportunities for visitors. More recently, zoos have developed a series of significant conservation programs and partnerships around the globe, efforts that have proved vital to saving endangered species such as the Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx) and California condor (Gymnogyps californianus), among other species. Intrinsic to the development of modern zoo designs are the interwoven concerns of naturalism and animal welfare. Animal welfare, in particular, has become the paramount responsibility for professionally run zoological institutions as they seek to become centers of conservation and education without compromising animal wellbeing. Animal welfare and naturalism (understood as a design feature in zoo exhibits) are typically harmonious objectives, but these goals have occasionally clashed in implementation. While animal welfare and naturalism are defined in various (and not always consistent) ways in the literature, in-depth interviews of leading professionals and scholars in the zoo community and multi-dimensional case studies of exemplary, accredited institutions (including the Phoenix Zoo, the San Diego Zoo, Woodland Park Zoo and Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum) provide unique insight into the shifting meaning of these terms and how welfare and naturalism have and continue to shape the development of modern zoo enclosures. This study concludes by suggesting a possible future trajectory for innovative and alternative zoo designs that incorporate both animal welfare and naturalism without sacrificing either goal. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Biology 2017

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional & Community Planning / Eric A. Bernard / Typical aspects of a zoo’s mission are conservation of wildlife and habitats. As part of conservation efforts zoos provide opportunities for visitors to learn about animals and their environments. Ultimately their goal is visitor understanding leading to conservation behavior. While documented zoo design methods such as landscape immersion, cultural resonance and interpretation elements provide opportunities to learn, current literature stops short of explaining how visitors learn. This research intends to bridge this gap through an innovative mixed methods approach under the hypothesis: if designers understand how visitors learn, their design approach will change to integrate learning and cognitive process theories, resulting in exhibit designs which engage visitor’s cognitive processes increasing learning, thereby increasing the potential for conservation behavior. A thorough literature review revealed cognitive psychology and learning theories vital to exhibit design. Cognitive processes are the mental processes visitors use to learn, think and act (Leonard, 2002). To design for visitor’s cognitive processes designers need to be concerned with visitor’s attention, perception, recall, understanding and memory (Koran, 1983). A personal design exercise testing novel approaches for incorporating cognitive processes into theoretical exhibits yielded potential new guidelines and typologies for exhibit design. To test these personal insights, integrated survey and participatory methods were envisioned to engage zoo design professionals. Professional zoo exhibit designers attended two workshops where they learned about cognitive processes and learning theories, discussed and sketched ideas for learning in zoos, and focused on how to integrate theories in design. The interactive charrette engaged zoo design professional’s cognitive processes to uncover new approaches and typologies for zoo exhibit design. Participants completed pre and post-surveys to measure design approach changes. Chan’s (Chan, 2001) five components of an individual’s design style are used as a framework for the survey questions. Results from the workshop suggest participants augmented their design approach by increasing the influence of cognitive processes in their design approach and concepts. Participants also showed an increased ability to create goals for learning and an increased ability to form constraints along with improvements in existing mental imagery. Additionally, participants demonstrated increases in their search pattern and order in typical design stages of research, site analysis and design development. From the workshop analysis of the surveys, discussions, and sketches, new design strategies emerged to guide the design of exhibits in engaging and facilitating visitor’s cognitive processes. A triangulation analysis methodology validated the design strategies creating 53 design guidelines for learning by comparing design strategies in the workshop, personal charrette and literature. The design guidelines are compiled into an interactive PDF for other zoo designers and professionals use. To assist the reader in employing the design guidelines most effectively learning principles explain the fundamental learning concepts grounding the guideline. Also, seven example projects illustrate the use of the guidelines. The guidelines, learning principles and example projects are hyperlinked to facilitate learning and application.

Naturalistic exhibits have become popular among zoo designers as well as zoo visitors. However, one problem associated with naturalistic exhibits is that many times visitors cannot see the animals. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the effect of this lack of visibility on visitor experience. Other goals of this study were 1) to theorize the relationship between visitor experience and exhibit design, 2) to present the implications of this study on current practices in zoo exhibit design, and 3) to provide a series of design recommendations which will enhance current design practices. The results of this study suggest that there is a significant relationship between animal visibility and visitor experience. Most importantly, the results indicate that animal visibility can significantly influence how visitors use the interpretive materials associated with the exhibits. These results are important because a primary zoo objective is visitor education through sign readership. The most valuable contributions made by this study are 1) the theory proposed in this thesis which provides designers a stronger theoretical foundation from which to begin the design of zoo exhibits, 2) the findings provide additional empirical data in identifying qualities of exhibits which stimulate visitors to read, and 3) the findings provide researchers additional evidence concerning what factors of an exhibit are most significant in influencing visitor attitudes. / Master of Landscape Architecture

This project stems out of the need to improve the quality of life for both animals and humans, and facilitate the interaction between both environments into one habitat. The design will serve as a framework for the co-habitation and interaction of humans and animals in one habitat. At the core of this dissertation lies the concept of an animan habitat. This term embodies the concept of an intergrated habitat for all species. In arriving at the final design, a sequential thought process was applied. The logic behind this process will now be outlined (each corresponding section will be addressed in this document). Exploring the diversity of Architectural habitats and products has made it evident that involving Architects and Interior Architects into projects concerning animal space design can benefit wild animals and humans alike. Research into South African recreational nature spaces show the importance of the conservation of these existing spaces to different parties on local, national and international levels. The investigation of the importance of experiential nature spaces in Tshwane and the Tshwane CBDs (section 2.2.2) shows the importance and location of an establishment (the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa) with great human experiential, and animal conservation opportunities. The study of the contributions of global zoos to the world (section 2.3) confirms that any designs need to consider the principles and ethics followed by these zoos-conservation, recreation, education, experience, research, and community values. Behavioural enrichment (section 2.4) as a conservation contribution of zoos is an aspect that can be reinterpreted and incorporated into animal enclosures to enrich their environments, and further educate visitors. Studies about zoo evolutions (section 2.5) through the ages show how thoughts about captive environments are evolving. The subsequent study of exhibit design (section 2.6) makes clear the importance of considering the needs of the environment, animals, zoo occupants and visitors alike. Furthermore, research into design styles and illusions (section2.6) prove that designs (using whichever approach) should consider the wellbeing of animals before educating or entertaining humans. Design illusions could instead be used to change mans’ negative perceptions about zoos and other conserving environments. A study into design elements and principles (as studied by Ching and Miller) are currently used at the Zoo (section 2.7) to claim human and animal spaces. A variety of precedent investigations (section 3) make it clear that other institutions, zoos, reserves, bird parks, discovery centres, playgrounds, and an amphitheater, individuals (the work of Frei Otto) or companies (lightweight structure experts) offer products and techniques that could well suit animan space design. The result of the above is the cohabitation and respect for humans, animal and the environment in a bidirectional habitat. This forms the core of the animan concept and approach for the design of the Parrot Animan Precinct at the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa (Zoo). This development is a turnkey solution comprising of Site Selection and Study (section 4); Design Discourse (section 5); Technical Investigation (section 6) and Design Drawings (section 7). / Dissertation (MInt(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Architecture / unrestricted