Event name:Field Trip
Event time and place: Smithsonian National Zoo, Washington DC, May 5, 2024
The first exhibit that I visited at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington DC was the small mammal exhibit. In this exhibit, I saw Golden-headed Tamarins, the provost’s Squirrel, Fennec Fox, and Brush Tailed Bettong’s. All of these enclosures included the name, where the mammal is originally from, their natural habitat, and what they eat, and some included a fun fact. These exhibits were meant for young children, probably 8 and up just because some of the displays required a 3rd or 4th grade reading level. But most of the children didn’t pay attention to the information on the plaques, they just looked at all the animals. Some of the parents were reading the information on the plaques to their children but most people didn’t care about anything but the animals. The cool thing about this exhibit was there were interactive displays with skeletons of the animals all around the exhibit. These displays were very informative, and they helped me understand what I was looking at.
The second exhibit that I visited was the reptile exhibit. I went on a guided tour with Dr. Holtz, and he told us a bunch of fun facts about the different animals in the exhibit. In this exhibit, I saw Komodo dragons, African Plated Lizards, Snouted Cobra’s, and Mangrove Snakes. Once again, they listed the name of the animal, where it was originally from, its natural habitat, its diet, and some included a fun fact. This exhibit was meant for young kids because there was very little writing on the plaques and the writing that was on them was very simple. But once again I didn’t really see anyone looking at the plagues, most people were just looking at the animals. This exhibit had some really cool displays that showed skeletons of reptiles and humans being compared which I found very informative because a lot of the reptiles had very similar organs.
I think that the zoo really went out of their way to make sure that everyone is able to the animals and their ecosystems. Like when we went to the Amazonia exhibit there were volunteers there in case, we had questions, and they really knew what they were talking about. They also offer VR tours so that you can learn information about all the different animals and see them in their natural habitat. There were also little interactive questions that you could answer as you walked around the exhibits to test yourself to see how much you knew.
The zoo also makes sure the animal's mental/emotional welfare is first priority. In all the exhibits that I went to, there were things in the enclosures to make the animals feel like they were in their natural habitat. They added a waterfall to Lemur Island because some of the lemurs are from the rainforest and in the rainforest, there are waterfalls. Also, when I was in the bird exhibit in Amazonia they had real trees growing inside for the birds and they kept it humid to feel like the rainforest because that is what the birds are used to in their natural habitats.