There is such a place in the world
Here, you can take a walk with the penguin brothers
You can also stroke the nose of your seal sister through the glass
Face to face with brother monkey is more funny
You can even see polar bears swimming and eating up close from two meters away
You can also sleep comfortably in the arms of Uncle Hippo on the way to the zoo
And the cautious giraffe aunt who drives the car doesn't want to go? This interesting place is located in Asahikawa City, Hokkaido, Japan, called "Asahiyama Zoo".
Asahiyama Zoo is the most popular zoo in Japan. This may seem bizarre, because unlike many well-known zoos in the world, Asahikawa City, Hokkaido, where Asahiyama Zoo is located, is not a metropolis, and Hokkaido itself is remote, and the vast majority of its tourist composition comes from outside the island. So, what kind of charm does Asahiyama Zoo have to attract waves of tourists to visit the park?
History of the rise and fall of Asahiyama Zoo
Asahiyama Zoo was first conceived in 1964, when the mayor of Asahikawa secured a budget for the establishment of the zoo and chose the site for its construction. Two years later, construction of the zoo was officially started, and a year later, it was completed and opened in 1967.
With the continued prosperity of the Japanese economy and the steady growth of the population of Asahikawa City, the number of visitors to Asahiyama Zoo has been steadily increasing, reaching nearly 600,000 visitors in 1983. However, the good times did not last long, and in the following years, due to the lack of new ideas and new changes, the number of visitors did not increase further, but began to decline.
In 1994, due to the death of animals infected with echinococcus tapeworm in the park, the park management had to close the zoo before the peak season arrived in order to protect the health and safety of visitors. The incident caused a sharp drop in visitor numbers, and asahiyama Zoo entered a period of depression in the Menkoro, a sight that lasted for several years.
By 1997, the management decided to start experimenting with changes in the hope of saving the zoo, which was on the verge of closure. Due to long-term poor management, Asahiyama Zoo does not have any special resources to use. Therefore, the team will make a plan and decide to work harder on the existing resources and tap the potential.
What other resources can the zoo have? Only animals anymore. At this point, all the keepers of Asahiyama Zoo have a consensus that the fundamental mission of a successful zoo is to "let people know the cuteness of wild animals." The means to revitalize Asahiyama should also come from here.
But at the time, that goal seemed out of reach. Most of the animals in the garden lie lazily in their cages, eating and sleeping and snoozing every day, which is not cute at all. "Animals don't move, just sleeping, it's really not interesting." More and more tourists are complaining about this, which makes the keepers who work hard to take care of the animals every day feel very uncomfortable.
This sparked a big debate within the zoo: Where exactly did the problem arise?
Change: Let the animals be themselves
For keepers who spend a lot of time with animals, this question is not difficult to answer: the root of the problem is not in the animals themselves, but in the design of the zoo.
Traditional zoos, for reasons of safety, management and cost, almost all keep animals in small cages and let them be visited by tourists in that environment. It should be noted that such an environment is not the ecological environment of these animals, which will naturally cause them psychological tension and instinctive defense. Over time, they will also lose their original wild instincts and become livestock breeding species that are lazy all day.
After making this clear, Asahiyama's keepers began to discuss how to design an ideal zoo – the "ideal" here, not only for tourists, but also for animals. After much discussion and debate, Asahiyama's team drew 14 sketches of their ideas, and the then director of the park lobbied the mayor of Asahikawa and successfully won the construction funds.
In 1997, the children's ranch designed based on this concept was officially opened to the public, allowing children to touch small animals in the natural environment, and the following year, the beast hall with a three-dimensional design cage was completed, allowing visitors to safely enjoy the posture of the beast at close range. In the following years, Monkey Mountain, Penguin Pavilion, Orangutan Pavilion, Polar Bear Pavilion and Seal Pavilion designed according to the new concept were opened to visitors. Tourists were surprised to find that in the new environment, the animals changed their usual laziness and became "alive and jumping"!
Years later, a manager at Asahiyama Zoo concluded: "Building a place for animals that has moderate stimulation and can make them play their instinctive characteristics is conducive to their lively temperament." ”
Take chimpanzees, for example. "In the past, as soon as I approached the cage, they were very vigilant, making noise at me or splashing water, spitting, etc. However, soon after the living environment changed, they stopped threatening. In the past, chimpanzees would never let their children be seen. When they are in an environment where they are at their advantage, they are spacious and can climb to heights at any time, which gives them a sense of peace of mind. The same goes for other animals. ”
With this concept, the orangutan house opened in 2001 has built an unprecedented 17-meter-high "air sports field" for the orangutans, recreating the life of wild orangutans wandering in the jungle. At the same time, in order to allow visitors to observe the most authentic state of the orangutans, the zoo also launched a special activity of "eating time": the bait is placed under the large pillar opposite the orangutan, so that the orangutan moves briskly along the iron frame of more than ten meters high to the opposite pillar, and the visitor watches the orangutan's "aerial walk" directly below - there is no block between the tourist and the orangutan. In 2006, a glass aerial tunnel 5 meters above the ground was added to the museum, allowing visitors to observe the orangutans living in the trees up close.
The remodeled Seal Pavilion is also a refreshing place for visitors. Inside the museum, there is a cylindrical "sea road" with a diameter of 1.5 meters connected to the large sink. It is the habit of seals to move up and down in the water, and although the diameter of 1.5 meters is not wide, it still attracts seals to travel back and forth in this passage. More importantly, it provides visitors with a unique perspective on the state of the seals under rapid swimming. "It turns out that seals move so fast in the water!" This is a new discovery made by many children after coming to the seal house.
These changes have contributed to the great success of Asahiyama Zoo. This zoo, Japan's northernmost zoo, has seen more than 1 million visitors per year since 2000, and even set a crazy record of more than 3 million visitors. The operating data shows that the income after the renovation not only completely covers the amount of investment originally used for the construction of the new venue, but also creates several times the operating income.
Asahiyama has created a legend.
Don't forget your original intention, you have to be consistent
How is the legend forged?
There is no doubt that the change at Asahiyama Zoo is an "innovation". But unlike the technological innovation and model innovation that we often talk about, the innovation of Asahiyama Zoo does not come from technological change, nor from model change. According to the zoo management team itself, it only changed the "display method" - changing the traditional static display and cage display into "action display" and "ecological display".
To put it bluntly, animals are still those animals, but they have become attractive overnight! In the most difficult moments of The Asahiyama Zoo, the team was not discouraged, let alone give up, they did not inject new resources, they refocused their attention back on the fundamental mission of the zoo "to let people know the cuteness of wild animals", starting from the product itself, completed a breathtaking big turnaround.
Asahiyama, now Japan's most popular zoo, has not stopped innovating. The breeding and displaying staff are constantly brewing new ideas in order to bring more new experiences to visitors.
"What we expect every visitor to bring back from Asahiyama Zoo is a passion for wildlife. Through personal contact with wild animals, understand the beauty of the animal world, feel the preciousness of living beings, so as to arouse more people's concern and attention to the regional environment where they live and the global environment, so that wild animals and the global environment can be truly protected. Only in this way can Asahiyama Zoo have its existence value, and the real success of Asahiyama Zoo lies in this point. The head of the park, Masao Kosuga, said meaningfully.
The zoo is not a prison for animals, but a place where visitors learn how to live in harmony with wildlife and nature. "Don't forget your original intention, you have to be consistent." Asahiyama Zoo is truly a model for practicing this philosophy!