Just two months ago, officials from the Hattiesburg Zoo announced that the zoo had broken its attendance record three times in one week during Spring Break, with approximately 3,000 guests on March 16, 4,053 guests on March 17 and more than 5,000 visitors on March 19.
Now the zoo has set yet another milestone, welcoming more than 15,000 students through its customizable field trip program during the period of September of last year through mid-May of this year.
“That’s really quite a number,” said Rick Taylor, executive director of the Hattiesburg Convention Commission, which runs the zoo. “We’re very pleased with it.”
Taylor said he is especially impressed with the zoo’s numbers when comparing them to the Santa Barbara Zoo in California. That site welcomes 750,000 visitors each year, and like the Hattiesburg Zoo, sees 15,000 students during field trips.
“We stumbled on (those numbers) from an industry magazine, and we were like, ‘wow,’” Taylor said. “We have about 230,000 visitors, and we do 15,000 (during field trips).
“That may be because there’s more things to do field trips on in the Santa Barbara area than in Hattiesburg, but we’re proud of that little fact.”
Schools participating in the Hattiesburg Zoo’s customizable field trips are coming from as far away as Leroy, Alabama; Franklinton, Lousiana; Biloxi, Meridian and Madison. The zoo also gets a large amount of traffic from public schools from the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana, as well as Leake, Greene, and other nearby Mississippi counties.
“We have, over the years, just really become a good place for field trips, and obviously all the public schools in the area (come to visit us),” Taylor said. “It’s really important to us to not only host them and keep up those relationships, but we take that as very much a part of our mission in education.
“There’s no better way to provide education than directly to kids that are in school, that are in an educational mindset. They’re accompanied by teachers and chaperones, so it’s a great opportunity for us to further the education side of the mission of the Hattiesburg Zoo.”
Taylor attributes the large number of visitors from around the region, in part, to the zoo’s education department.
“They’re passionate, they’re friendly, they love connecting with the kids and connecting those kids with the natural world and with the animals we have,” he said. “I think that’s first and foremost – I think it’s a quality program that’s based on the school educational standards. So it’s not just a trip; it’s a meaningful part of the students’ education.
“I credit our education staff for that, but I think what also makes it work for us is the manageability of the zoo and the size of it, with the students, as well as the other amenities. (That includes) operating a train and some of the entertainment side of education that helps engage the kids.”
Taylor expects more large crowds throughout this summer, especially from children being out of school, unrelated vacations and activities such as vacation Bible school.
“We anticipate continuing to see that group,” Taylor said. “Sometimes with the groups – unlike a field trip – they may just take it as a group trip to the zoo.
“But if they do that, there’s not a direct educational component, other than what they may learn at the zoo.”
In fact, zoo staff will often get requests from those groups to hold an animal encounter, which allows guests to get up close and personal with an animal while a keeper is on hand to answer questions and give information.
“They’ll go to one of our indoor pavilions, and they’ll bring some of the animals out,” Taylor said. “They’ll introduce them to the kids and talk about how they’re different, how they’re unique, and the important role they play in the natural world and the environment.
“So it all depends, during the summer months, what the group planner wants. With the field trip, it’s very specific, very direct – it’s an educational field trip, not just a recreational one.”
