June 16, 2011
A Visit to Zoorassic Park
A baby dilophosaurus at the Hogle Zoo. Photo by Brian Switek
Animatronic dinosaur exhibits have made a comeback during the past few years. Zoos all over the country have hosted menageries of jerking, growling dinosaurs. The Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, Utah is one of the latest to host a collection of robo-dinos, and when I heard about the temporary Zoorassic Park exhibit I thought I would check it out.
Even though I feel ambivalent about robotic dinosaur exhibits, kids obviously love them. Hordes of children screamed and jumped up and down at the sight of the Styracosaurus, Allosaurus, Parasaurolophus and, of course, Tyrannosaurus robots spread throughout the zoo, and quite a few obviously loved being sprayed by a spitting Dilophosaurus. The dinosaurs were a hit.
But the dinosaurs are only just one part of Zoorassic Park. Two other components add a significant amount of substance to the garden of dinosaurs: a small-scale museum exhibit featuring fossils from the nearby Utah Museum of Natural History and an indoor pathway that places modern creatures in the context of the prehistoric past. Real fossils and live animals were both used to make paleontology relevant to the visitors, though, admittedly, kids appeared to be far more enthusiastic about the snarling dinosaurs. This underscores the challenge of all these exhibits. Moving, roaring dinosaurs might help bring visitors into the park, but turning that attraction into a teachable moment is a difficult task.
View more dinosaurs at the Hogle Zoo in our gallery.
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I’m a Salt Lake City resident and promotions like this really undermine the pretense that zoos exist for the benefit of wild animal preservation through education. Yes, extinct animals were animals too, but the dinosaur focus is sales and marketing and with a very thin veneer of education. I don’t suppose that the zoo exhibit compares the current anthropogenic mass-extinction to the demise of non-avian dinosaurs, and that many if not most of the species on display at the zoo are on a steep path to extinction today?
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had a fascination with dinosaurs. I’m visiting Salt Lake City in a few months, so I’ll have to see the Hogle Zoo when I’m there.
BJ. This exhibit is absolutely designed to educate about the preservation of modern animals, endangered or not, and the extinction of past and future animals. The exhibit also was partially brought in as a “thank you” to visitors for having an understanding that part of the zoos exhibits are under construction and unavailable at this time. Don’t be so quick to judge without all of the information and don’t be so quick to dismiss the goals and objectives of this exhibit. Sales of merchandise and revenue go to further enable the zoo to continue the education of humans on the entire world, animals and all. Go enjoy the zoo and museum, they are fantastic!
[...] 1854—long before galleries of robotic dinosaurs would become a common sight—artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins unveiled a menagerie of sculpted [...]
I have been a Docent at the UMNH for 19 years, teaching about dinos, ice-age and modern animals. I have loved teaching the Zoo visitors about the dinosaurs and Zoo animals on Fridays.(In the old elephant building.) The dino exhibit brings people in to the zoo so they can learn about and appreciate the animals. Doesn’t a book have a nice cover to bring people to read it?? The Museum is a teaching, learning place and so is the Zoo, why shouldn’t they be together? We have co-ordinated together before and it works!! I applaud this effort!!! Children need encouragement to want to learn (so do adults.) I LOVE my Utah Museum of Natural History (soon to be called The Natural History Museum of Utah) and my Hogle Zoo!! What better pairing? Thank your Smithsonian, I enjoy your museums too!!