Taipei City Zoo launches Animal Behavior Academy

Описание: At the Taipei Zoo, school is in session. The zoo has launched the Animal Behavior Academy to help visitors learn more about its denizens. Starting January, visitors can get a better understanding of animal behavior through 30-minute lectures by zookeepers. Formosa News reporter Stephany Yang sits in on a class.

Stephany Yang
Formosa News reporter
The Taipei Zoo has launched the Animal Behavior Academy. You can learn more about parrots.

Visitors to the zoo are often curious about the animals they see and want to learn more about their behavior. To satisfy that curiosity, Taipei Zoo has launched the Animal Behavior Academy. Visitors can attend educational lectures featuring animals, to learn about their body structure, locomotion, and their abilities to adapt to different environments.

Shawn Peng
Taipei City Zoo animal department curator
The Animal Behavior Academy is originally from our idea to perform like animal theater. But the Behavior Academy are more educational tools. We are using different kinds of animals to show animals locomotion in the wild.

Classes began in January and will be held two Sundays a month. In every class, visitors can watch several animals engage in their natural behaviors. The featured animals are those that have lived in the zoo’s children''s area for a long time. There are Florida king snakes, hens, lemurs, white-necked lemurs, raccoons, sunflower-crested cockatoos, meerkats, alpacas and mini horses.

Shawn Peng
Taipei City Zoo animal department curator
For instance, we show how the snake crawls. How the meerkat dig. To show how lemurs jump. We use chickens to see how they can fly a short distance. How parrots do long distance flying. Difference between horse and alpacas. We use lots of animal training methodology. We are not a circus because the circus tends to use negative ways to train the animal. We use positive reinforcement training methodlogy. We are using it for animal welfare issues. Animals are doing this on their own spirit. They are not forced to do these activities.

All visitors are invited to attend the Animal Behavior Academy, which will be hosted at the zoo’s children’s area. There will be a 30-minute class in the morning twice a month, and admission is free.