Encouraging quietness during zoo trips can help visitors better appreciate their inhabitants and lead to more fulfilling, respectful and informative experiences, a new paper argues.
More opportunities for silence would allow people to better notice the natural world and the behaviour of animals, researchers say.
Being considerately and respectfully quiet may help visitors to care more about the animals and work of zoos to protect species. The paper says it is possible for zoos to be places of entertainment and quiet recreation.
The study is by Alexander Badman-King, Tom Rice, Samantha Hurn and Paul Rose from the University of Exeter and Adam Reed, from the University of St Andrews.
Researchers conducted experimental silent zoo visits in the South West of the UK. A high proportion of those who took part suggested that they would be willing to pay a premium to gain access to the zoo for designated quiet visiting times.
Participants in the silent and quiet visits run as part of the Listening to the Zoo project frequently mentioned feeling that being quiet made their experience of the zoo conducive to meditation, mindfulness and relaxation. The visits allowed them to engage with the zoo environments in ways which they felt enhanced their wellbeing.
Dr Badman-King said: "During quiet appreciation people can still experience enjoyment, even fun, and quietness is best suited to the learning and conservation aims of zoos.
"If we say 'here are some animals which we are keeping in captivity so that you can come and appreciate them in a respectful way and learn about the plight of their wild counterparts', then we are engaging in a very different kind of activity from the more conventional 'fun day out' way of thinking about zoo visits.
"Zookeepers pay close and quiet attention to both individual animals and species more generally. They can provide an example of the kind of appreciation towards which this culture shift should point.
"It is important not to misconstrue this suggestion as being an oddly macabre insistence that everyone should be miserable when they visit zoos. Zoos must and should communicate some unpleasant facts, they also show us profound beauty, the almost unfathomable wonder of the natural world, and yes, the funny, cute and intimidating forms and behaviour of these animals. An attitude of appreciation, one which is coterminous with being quiet, fits this complex mixture of experiences far better than a culture of zoogoing which regards noise as normal."
Professor Rice said: "By encouraging and allowing visitors to direct their attention more fully at the animals, plants, environments and information in zoos, these places can offer us all something far richer and more valuable than they already do."
The study says encouraging more quietness in zoos could help to partially restore their original purpose as places for quieting overstimulated minds, with related benefits in terms of health and wellbeing for human visitors, and many non-human residents of the zoo. But any changes will require initiatives from zoos themselves.
The Listening to the Zoo project was funded by the ESRC and carried out at zoos in Bristol and Paignton.
