Santa Barbara Zoo launches new
Zoo Ranger tour
Santa Barbara often is associated with beautiful beaches and
scenic surroundings. But it also is home to red pandas, flamingos, and even
giant anteaters.
The exotic creatures are, of course, housed at the Santa Barbara
Zoo, a local hotspot for any animal enthusiast.
In keeping with its mission to enhance the natural world through
education and recreation, the Zoo recently has launched a new program designed
to help visitors navigate the park.
Called the Zoo Ranger tour, it involves a palm-sized, interactive
video device equipped with a Global Positioning System that is triggered by a
visitor’s location within the zoo.
As users approach various areas throughout the park, the Zoo
Ranger will provide more information about the exhibits through multimedia
video, music, text, animation, and photographs.
After seeing the San Francisco Zoo’s success with the Zoo Ranger,
the Santa Barbara Zoo was eager to add the device. However, there will be one
added feature — the “Ranger Quest” program.
“Ranger Quest [is] an interactive scavenger-hunt-style game
whereby the users collect ‘points’ by visiting different animal exhibits and
sites around the zoo and correctly answering trivia questions,” said public
relations representative Cindy Tincher.
“This promises to make the new tour option quite popular with the
zoo’s younger visitors,” she said.
Now, visitors to the zoo can enjoy the same exhibits as always,
with the added educational benefits of the Zoo Ranger. The convenience and
versatility of the device are expected to provide each visitor with insightful
information in a fun format.
Visitors won’t be the only ones to benefit from the introduction
of the Zoo Ranger: the Santa Barbara Zoo also will be able to gain important
information from the device, which can track which areas of the park are the
most popular.
As Tincher noted, “This can provide great feedback to any venues —
which a zoo or park could use for resource management by allocating appropriate
funding to its most popular attractions and heavily trafficked sites,” she
said.
The Santa Barbara Zoo is even setting the standard for
institutions throughout the country. In fact, California Polytechnic State
University in San Luis Obispo recently added a similar GPS Ranger program for its
campus tours
It is “the first university in the nation to adopt this technology
for on-site campus tours for prospective students,” Tincher said.
To experience
the innovative Zoo Ranger as well as 160 different species of mammals,
reptiles, birds, and insects, stop by the Santa Barbara Zoo, which is open 10
a.m. to 5 p.m. every day.