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by Juliana Gilling
 For one heart-stopping moment, I recently found myself face-to-face with a rhino and forgot I was at a zoo. I was safe behind a hidden ha-ha (ditch), but that feeling of awe and connection is what Europe’s zoos want to instill in guests. Inspire people, and you are one step closer to changing their behavior and values.
“We need to offer an unforgettable experience,” says Pepa Crespo, communication director at Bioparc Valencia in Spain. “We want to educate visitors about the need to conserve the environment through the thrill of seeing animals in natural settings. It is easier to learn through entertainment; you have to feel the emotion to change.”
Open for just three years, Bioparc Valencia is one of Europe’s youngest zoos. Spanish company Rain Forest S.L. designed and developed the zoological park in addition to revamping an older zoo in Fuengirola, Spain (Bioparc Fuengirola). The Valencia zoo has more than 100,000 square meters (24.7 acres) of realistic habitats that include the savannah, Madagascar, equatorial forests, and wetlands.
Bioparc Valencia’s re-creation of the Kitum Cave on the Kenya-Uganda border is unique, says Crespo. The structure offers views of elephants (which once sought the salt in Kitum’s walls), gorillas, and crocodiles swimming underwater. Letting visitors see species in their natural habitats without visible barriers provides insights into the animals’ behavior in the wild, says Crespo.
Behind the scenes, Bioparc Valencia’s green design includes five sewage treatment plants that recycle all of the park’s water (powered by photovoltaic modules), and fish that naturally rid the water of pests. Attractions at the park include a cinema, a children’s playground, and a 1,000-seat amphitheater for live shows. Another innovative project is Bioparc+, which enables schoolchildren to combine a visit to the park with an off-site boat trip to the Albufera wetlands.
Burgers’ Zoo Delivers ‘Eco-Displays’
Burgers’ Zoo, in the Netherlands, has long been a pioneer of large-scale, immersive “eco-displays.” Zoo director Alex van Hooff is the fourth generation in his family to run the 98-year-old facility, founded by his great-grandfather, Johan Burgers. Renewal has always been the keystone of the zoo’s survival, especially since its near-destruction during the Battle of Arnhem in 1944. Under the leadership of Alex’s father, the zoo’s innovations included a safari park (the first in the Netherlands) and a lion park (second only to Longleat). In 1988, the zoo’s first giant eco-display, “Burgers’ Bush,” made its debut. This covered tropical rainforest is a meticulous re-creation of an ecosystem that brings plants and animals together. It spans 1.5 hectares and has influenced developments like the Eden Project.
Burgers’ Bush was followed by new areas, including the Malaysian-themed Rimba rainforest and Burgers’ Ocean. “Burgers’ Ocean is an experience aquarium that focuses on one ecosystem: the tropical coral reef of Southeast Asia,” explains van Hooff. “Visitors start on the beach, go to the lagoon, then to the outer reef, and into the open ocean. People should feel like they are diving on the reef without getting wet. … We’re always trying to build something in our zoo that you can’t find anywhere else in the world.”
Planning is now under way for the next big eco-display, due to open at Burgers’ Zoo in 2017. Incremental improvements will continue in the lead-up to the zoo’s centenary in 2013. All developments are funded privately, without subsidies. The zoo receives 1.4-1.5 million visitors a year and has a thriving conference business at its Safari Business Centre, which opened in 2007.
In the past three years, van Hooff has developed the zoo’s restaurants; an expanded team cooks 80 percent of food from scratch. “It was a huge decision from a cost point of view, but we’ve noticed that spending from the day visitors has risen every year, even during the recession. The improvements in quality are good for us and the visitors. Restaurants are an important part of the experience when people stay with us for five to six hours,” says van Hooff. He is now considering how to develop the zoo’s shops and education programs.
According to van Hooff, one of the great changes in the European zoos sector in the past decade is that visitors are no longer regarded as an inconvenience by state-funded institutions. This shift has produced “big improvements,” generated positive word of mouth, increased visits, and improved revenues, Each success feeds back into the zoos and conservation programs. “It is important for us that all zoos get better, because if visitors see animals or facilities in bad shape, they won’t go to another zoo,” says van Hooff.
Paris’ Parc Zoologique in Midst of Massive Renovation
Parc Zoologique de Paris—a state zoo that dates back to 1934—is undergoing total renovation thanks to a public/private partnership between the Chrysalis consortium and the National Natural History Museum. Chrysalis is working with landscape designer Jacqueline Osty, architects Bernard Tschumi, Véronique Descharrieres, Synthèse Architecture, and construction company Setec Bâtiment to create “a zoo for the 21st century.”
The new zoo will feature six “biozones,” including Patagonia, Europe, Guyana, and Sahel-Sudan. Each zone will highlight a conservation issue such as deforestation, pollution, or global warming. The zoo’s 65-meter-high (213-foothigh) Great Rock—restored in 1997—will house new vivariums. A 2,000-square-meter (.5-acre) aviary will extend out from the rock. Animal welfare and “visitor immersion” will be at the heart of the project, which is due to open in 2014.
Chester Zoo Uses Animatronic Dinosaurs to Draw Crowds
The UK’s Chester Zoo is always evolving. Managing Director Barbara Smith is striving for developments that are “contemporary, without forgetting our roots.” Additions for 2011 include an African Painted Dogs enclosure themed after the Mkomazi National Park, a refurbished restaurant, and 13 animatronic dinosaurs starring in the “Dinosaurs at Large!” exhibit (which runs until October). Visitor numbers this year are up 4 percent at the zoo, which attracts 1.3 million annually. Keeping the offer fresh encourages the zoo’s members (all 37,506 of them) to return year after year.
Chester Zoo’s next major project is Islands, which is slated to open in 2014. The £30 million ($48 million) attraction has obtained planning permission and will re-create an “island-hopping experience” for guests, says Smith. A boat ride will take visitors to Sumatra, Madagascar, the Mascarenes, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Visitors can expect eye-to-eye contact with species ranging from orangutans to tapirs, lemurs to Komodo Dragons. There will be dedicated retail, F&B outlets, educational exhibits, and play areas. “For me, it’s about creating a seamless visitor experience from the moment you walk through the door—from the customer service to everything you see. Islands will be really immersive. We’ll be placing ourselves on the world stage with this project,” says Smith.
Merlin Keeps Focus on Family-Friendly Fare with New Sea Life Centres
Merlin Entertainments Group continues to roll out the Sea Life Centres, with a new site in Jesolo, Italy, in 2011 and another launching in Rome in 2012. “Our target market is families with children, so we are constantly introducing new initiatives to engage with this audience,” says Mark Oakley, head of public relations (Sea Life) at Merlin. Happy kids mean happy parents, so more child-friendly features are included in each new center: “Our ray tanks now have childonly crawl-through tunnels and viewing windows. We use costume characters; we have entertainment teams; and we organize themed events such as a Turtle Festival and Shark Weeks. Supervised touch pools feature in every center, and many of these have been equipped recently with visitoroperated underwater mini-cams, which are hugely popular,” Oakley says.
 There is a growing appetite for more hands-on, more in-depth aquarium experiences, so Sea Life is expanding its behind-the-scenes tours and has piloted a new initiative called “Sea Life Sea Happy” at its London aquarium. “It’s a more interactive presentation of our conservation, research, and welfare activity. It features a news channel, a conservation hub, and facts about each display. We are also expanding our adoption program and offering special packages such as a shark trainer or seahorse ‘keeper for a day’,” says Oakley.
Prague Zoo Embraces Social Media
From a business perspective, Merlin is achieving good results through online sales and by integrating all of its social media channels. Similarly, Prague Zoo in the Czech Republic has used social media to its advantage. Its Facebook application, “We Entertain the Animals,” proved successful over the summer: “Our Facebook friends are allowed to choose the toy, or some activity for the animals,” says Jana Jirátová, press secretary for the zoo, which attracts 1.3 million visitors annually. Nothing beats the appeal of seeing animals in action, and Prague Zoo’s priority is to “keep working on the education mission between the trainers and the visitors, showing how and why we work with the animals,” says Jirátová.
The role of zoos will only expand as the need to convince people to protect nature becomes more apparent. Also, at a time when people are spending more time connected to computers, zoos have an enviable selling point. “We have the real thing; we show real life, and it’s an experience that children, parents, and grandparents can all share together,” says van Hooff.
Juliana Gilling is a specialist attractions journalist. E-mail: julianagilling@gmail.com.
 What’s New This Year at European Zoos and Aquariums?
- ZSL London opened its £2 million ($3 million) “Penguin Beach” in May. Up to 200 birds will be able to enjoy the 1,200-square-meter (.3-acre) pool, the largest in England. It holds 450,000 liters (118,877 gallons) of water and offers underwater viewing areas. www.zsl.org
 Odense Zoo unveiled its new Africa area, Kiwara, in June. It combines optimal living quarters for the zoo’s inhabitants with immersive visitor experiences, including tours and games. It is the only zoo in Northern Europe where visitors can feed the giraffes from three purpose-built platforms. The Danish zoo’s meadows are now a savannah, filled with zebras, ostriches, and sitatungas. A suspension bridge links the African attraction with other areas of the zoo. www.odensezoo.dk
- ”Histoires d’Iles” (“Island Stories”) is the latest offering from French aquarium Nausicaa. The exhibition blends inventive sets and multimedia animations to share the stories of the people and the species that occupy small island states. Islands include the Seychelles, Maldives, and Tuvalu. www.nausicaa.fr
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