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

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.