The COVID-19 pandemic may have forced the Hattiesburg Zoo to temporarily close its gates, but zoo staff is coming up with creative measures to ensure they stay engaged with their guests from a safe distance.
In particular, officials from the Hattiesburg Convention Commission – which runs the zoo – are using social media and other means to reach out to the zoo’s target demographic.
“We always joke that our core customers are 2 to 12-year-olds and the people who drive here, but we remind ourselves that really is the prime market for zoos,” said Rick Taylor, executive director of the Hattiesburg Convention Commission. “So we want to provide an essential service – these are some long days at home, and we want them to keep in mind that when we all can get back together, we’ll come back out to the zoo.
“But we also want to make sure there are some educational components to it as well. We want people to know that the natural world is still going, and we’re doing our part in trying to share that with that core market.”
The zoo is using its Facebook page to share frequent videos with its audience, including episodes of “The Real World – Zoo Edition,” which chronicles the exploits of some of the facility’s employees. There’s also Story Time videos in which keepers will read children’s books for children who are at home because of school closures.
In addition, the Facebook page also features pictures and videos of ambassador animals and other zoo residents, including a baby blue duiker that was recently born.
The zoo also is working to set up Zoom meetings featuring animals after hearing from a group of friends who requested that an animal join in the meeting.
“So that kind of sparked an idea for us, and that would be able to offer our annual pass holders and others who have got a real strong affinity for us to get on a Zoom meeting,” Taylor said. “We’d have a limited number of people that could get on it, and it would feature a certain animal as a part of that.
“With technology today, we could go on there and talk about Lindsay Loham, our new little Kunekune pig, and hopefully Lindsay would agree to stand still long enough to be a part of a little Zoom meeting. Folks could ask questions, and we could have kind of a little one-on-one and showcase those animals.”
Taylor said it’s very important for the staff to be able to reach out weekly – and ideally, daily – to take a moment with the zoo’s guests, especially with children.
“We want to keep them engaged, keep them excited, and keep them looking to the future,” he said.
In addition, zoo officials are hoping to expedite the much-anticipated opening of the upcoming giraffe exhibit, which was initially expected to open later this year in the northwest quadrant of the zoo. The exhibit will now open as soon as it is safe to do so in the hopes of drawing more people to the zoo and to Hattiesburg in general.
“We’re working on giraffes coming out of the Columbus Zoo and its affiliate The Wilds, which is a nature preserve,” Taylor said. “So we’re closing in on that and just kind of getting details – we’re just now getting into transportation costs and things like that.
“We’re optimistic that our work will allow us to open that a little earlier than we had planned. So far, that still seems to be doable.”
