Mining Empathy for Mission Success
![Three speakers and a moderator on stage at IAAPA Expo](/sites/default/files/styles/default_embedded_media_900/public/images/20211115_Fear-to-Fascination-018.png?itok=kGFeQAWZ)
One of the most common shared goals of the zoo and aquarium industry is conservation. Most of these facilities put forth a great effort to inspire their guests to give to conservation efforts. However, this isn’t always easy. At “Fear to Fascination: Saving Animals Using Immersive Experiences,” three industry members presented how empathy can be used to inspire guests to give support. However, they noted that empathy can be a challenge when it comes to animals that people may fear, avoid, or even, not know are animals at all.
Joshua Blaylock, assistant project manager at Georgia Aquarium, opened the session with a presentation about the aquarium’s newly created exhibit, “Sharks! Predators of the Deep,” which contains 29 live sharks and 21 educational interpretives. According to Blaylock, there are few animals less “demonized” than the shark, and the goal of the exhibit is to change people’s skewed view of the Hollywood “Jaws” shark and help them understand the importance of sharks to the ocean’s ecosystem.
“Of all species, sharks need really good publicists, and that’s the role we took on—being an advocate for these animals and trying to get people to care for these animals,” Blaylock said, adding that 100 million sharks are killed every year. “In order to do this, we had to create a storyline and an immersive experience: fear to fascination to conservation.”
The exhibit is divided by these three components, having the guests start at fear, with dark ambience, insidious music, and very little information, and then bringing them through learning experiences until the end, where hopefully, they have gained new knowledge and appreciation for sharks. It also includes an immersive—literally—component, where guests can get into a cage and be lowered into the shark tank for an up close and personal look.
Sharks aren’t the only animals that may have a hard time getting support from the everyday person. According to Sarah Brenkert, the principal evaluator at the Seattle Aquarium, there are many animals that experience this because they are not your typical, “charismatic mammal”—such as barnacles and sea anemones. Brenkert spoke on simple and affordable strategies for everyone to incorporate into their operations. One of the biggest ways she feels this can be done is “knowledge-based caring.” Which is educating guests in a way that evokes a connection, through an experience, and, therefore, pushes them down the “continuum of caring.”
Emily Insalaco, general curator for Denver Zoo, said she and her team curate these moments through “animal ambassador” and “close-up” experiences. She explained that these programs allow guests to have immersive, personal encounters with animals like pachyderms, which they may otherwise not encounter.
Brenkert cited Seattle’s “Life on the Edge” exhibit as an example of an opportunity for people to gain empathy for barnacles. Guests could touch a barnacle in the touch pools, causing them to release their legs and wrap around guests’ fingers, thereby creating a connection.
“Empathy can be grown,” Brenkert said. “Zoo and aquariums can be a gym to work out that ‘muscle’ and make it stronger.”