Description
Controversy occurs among professionals, such as veterinarians and zookeepers in Japan,
as to whether a zoo should be educational or recreational. The purpose of this paper is to examine how a
zoo’s culturally crafted entertainment value conflicts with educational value. Using a front/back
framework of the zoo, both entertainment and educational values are negotiated.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Negotiating entertainment and education: a zoo in Japan
Hiroko Yasuda
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To cite this document:
Hiroko Yasuda, (2013),"Negotiating entertainment and education: a zoo in J apan", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality
Research, Vol. 7 Iss 1 pp. 105 - 112
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International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 7 Iss 1 pp. 93-104http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506181311301390
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Antónia Correia, Metin Kozak, J oão Ferradeira, (2013),"From tourist motivations to tourist satisfaction", International J ournal of Culture,
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Negotiating entertainment and education:
a zoo in Japan
Hiroko Yasuda
Abstract
Purpose – Controversy occurs among professionals, such as veterinarians and zookeepers in Japan,
as to whether a zoo should be educational or recreational. The purpose of this paper is to examine howa
zoo’s culturally crafted entertainment value con?icts with educational value. Using a front/back
framework of the zoo, both entertainment and educational values are negotiated.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper conceptualizes differences between a zoo’s front and
back regions to examine operations and visitor behavior. Observing and interpreting visitor and zoo
employee interactions provide rich data about the educational versus recreational dynamic. The author
observes visitor behavior in both zoo regions and interprets their cognitive schema.
Findings – Animal representation in mass media reinforces the zoo animal’s amusement value to
visitors, leading to the construction of tourist texts. Tourist text images affect the viewer’s perception of
reality, sometimes con?icting with the animal’s reality. The zoo’s back region helps alleviate this paradox.
In this process, tour guides play a mediatory role between entertainment and educational values.
Originality/value – The author argues about zoos and zoo animals from the Cartesian dualism view of
‘‘culture/nature’’. A zoo represents culture’s triumph over nature. This paper develops this idea and
discusses how entertainment and educational values con?ict, and are reconciled, from the perspective
of symbolic and pragmatic dimensions.
Keywords Japan, Zoos, Animals, Consumer behaviour, Entertainment, Tourist text, Work display,
Tour guides
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
People visit zoos to gaze at wild animals originating from different habitats. These exotic wild
animals symbolize nature’s wildness contradicting culture – mankind’s attempts to control
the nature. Animals, especially mammals, serve as a boundary between nature and humans
(Desmond, 1999). Zoos enable humans to access nature through animals. Zoos are not
natural phenomena; instead, they are a cultural enterprise. Zoos represent nature in a
cultural form. Anderson (1995) argues that zoos serve as a cultural domestication of nature.
‘‘The dominant culture’s capacity for domesticating nature had been gloriously sublimated in
the social creation that was the Adelaide Zoo’’ (Anderson, 1995, p. 284).
A zoo’s front region displaying animal exhibitions exempli?es the ‘‘culturalization of nature’’
(Desmond, 1999, p. 176). This paper distinguishes between the zoo’s front and back
regions, paralleling businesses’ front and back of?ces. Goffman (1990, p. 115) coined the
terms ‘‘front region’’ and ‘‘back region’’. The two regions strongly delineate the business
atmosphere and function. These regional distinctions also problematize the ‘‘tourist gaze’’
consisting of viewer and viewed (Urry, 1991, p. 1).
Well-designed zoos attract many tourists. The zoo’s front region stages a playful atmosphere
creating a sense of amusement. Animal houses, restaurants and souvenir shops are themed
carefully with animal images aggressively promoting consumer goods. Bryman (2008)
con?rms that ‘‘theming’’ helps to provide an entertaining environment. In such an
DOI 10.1108/17506181311301408 VOL. 7 NO. 1 2013, pp. 105-112, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1750-6182
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PAGE 105
Hiroko Yasuda is based in
Komatsu City, Japan.
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environment, animal images are enthusiastically consumed by tourists by through shopping
and taking pictures. The tourists appear interested in gazing at animals through the
view?nders of cameras as well as with the naked eye.
Traditional Japanese zoos con?ned animals to small pens presenting just their physical
presence to the public. In contrast, new displays emphasize animal behavior in
pseudo-habitats rather than just their ?gures or forms as a marketing strategy. Hokkaido’s
Asahiyama Zoo ?rst created pseudo-habitats and many Japanese zoos soon followed. Zoo
visitors now see animals living in more spacious displays and exhibiting more natural
behavior. This development arguably shifts the direction of the gaze from animals to their
behavior, especially ‘‘species-speci?c behavior’’ (Desmond, 1999, p. 165; Kosuge, 2006,
p. 18).
However, the new method, supported by the media, gives tourists an entertaining
impression of animals, leading to misconceptions about their behavior. The media plays a
crucial role in forming the tourist’s gaze. Media images encode tourist texts (e.g. pamphlets,
picture postcards, and websites). Such images in?uence the viewer’s perception of reality.
As MacCannell (1999) suggests, tourists’ interests gravitate towards the media’s site
representation. Thus, the media play an essential role metaphorically constructing zoos,
where tourists entertain themselves and collect ‘‘signs’’ (Eco, 1979, p. 48; MacCannell,
1999, p. 109; Urry, 1991). Collecting signs is casual and spontaneous pleasure for tourists.
In contrast, the zoo’s back region elicits a different tourist response. To increase public
support, Japanese zoos recently began exposing the facility’s back region. Zoo visitors
consider the exposure of the back region to be synonymous with sharing insider information
only seen by employees. This exposed back region intrigues tourists because the area
remains conceptually a hidden sphere associated with ‘‘mysti?cation’’ (MacCannell, 1999,
p. 93). Prior to sharing the zoo’s inner workings, the back region’s work area is prepared for
the tourist’s gaze. Physical evidence becomes another staged servicescape, a ‘‘staged
back region’’ (MacCannell, 1999, p. 99). Cohen (2004, p. 102) calls this journey behind the
wall a ‘‘false back’’.
What do tourists experience in the back region? Does a staged back region transform the
zoo’s entertainment value into an educational experience? Entertainment value and
educational experiences appear paradoxical; however, the zookeeper’s work plays a role in
creating educational space. They become tour guides. The zoo’s tour guides are the
‘‘middle men’’ (Cohen, 2004, p. 165) connecting humans and animals, and ‘‘mentors’’
(Cohen, 2004, p. 160) allowing outsiders to access the conceptual back territory. Ultimately,
this study analyzes how a zoo projected as an advertisement relates to the media and tourist
texts, and how back region displays alleviate paradoxes created by media perspectives.
Additionally, tour guides play an essential role in this process and this study assesses how
they contribute to enriching tourists’ zoo experiences.
Method
Most visitors to Ishikawa Zoo carry digital cameras or mobile phones. They enthusiastically
take pictures of animals and performances. Many visitors are repeat customers who live in
the general vicinity (e.g. Ishikawa, Fukui, and Toyama). Why are zoo visitors enamored with
capturing animal images digitally when the same animals remain available for their future
visits? Perhaps visitors feel the need to construct virtual images of their experiences. Howdo
virtual images they construct relate to their interpretation of the tourist texts?
To answer these questions, the author employs ‘‘participant-observation’’ (see Stocking,
1983) and interpretive methodologies. These methods allow the researcher to observe
visitors participating in range of events, including a back region tour. Engaging other actors
in this sphere leads to an interpretation of their cognitive schema. The observations support
the proposition that tourists prefer taking pictures of animal performances. Some visitors wait
long time periods until the animals show desired movements or performances. Hall’s (2006)
media theories provide structure to classify their behaviors. Similarly, media-mediated tourist
texts affect visitor behavior (e.g. anticipation and reality perception).
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The present study also examines tourist texts that are publicly available on internet web
pages, Ishikawa Zoo’s magazine, the city’s magazines, television commercials, souvenirs,
and picture postcards sold in souvenir shops. These data points both inform and in?uence
the behavior of zoo visitors. The tourist texts include issues of Ishikawa Zoo’s quarterly
magazine, Animal Eyes, published from 2000 to 2009. Ten out of 38 front cover pictures
display animals exhibiting behaviors that are rarely seen. These images were selected from
among many others. Nine out of 17 picture postcards sold in souvenir shops also display
performance images. Four different performance images also are available to the public to
use as digital wallpaper for personal computers.
Website visitors can download these images free of charge. The zoo’s web pages include
animal descriptions of approximately 50 animal species. Embedded cultural narratives
stimulate psychological intimacy for viewers, and encourage the personi?cation of animals.
The stylized animal images and cultural narratives serve as powerful messages in the tourist
texts.
Displays and theatrics of animal behavior
Kanazawa Zoo, a precursor of Ishikawa Zoo, was privately owned, and in disrepair. In the
mid-1990s, Ishikawa Prefecture purchased the zoo. Five years later, Ishikawa Zoo relocated
to Nomi City to new buildings and modern methods of animal display. Traditional display
methods focus on showing animals con?ned to pens and cages. Zoos maintaining these
traditional display methods have seen dwindling visitor counts. New displays were
developed by veterinarian staff at Hokkaido’s Asahiyama Zoo to counter the dwindling
number of visitors.
First, the zoo staff created pseudo-environments depicting scenery similar to where the
display animals originate. Desmond (1999, p. 163) calls this a ‘‘fake in situ’’ or ‘‘unnatural
naturalism’’ technique to display animals. Second, the zoo staff wanted to present animals
exhibiting ‘‘species-speci?c physical ability’’ (Kosuge, 2006, p. 15) – display designs
needed to consider natural environmental conditions. Kosuge (2006), the former president
of Asahiyama Zoo, argues that displaying animal behavior enhances animals’ innate
physical power and abilities.
Modern displays provide display animals with more space, allowing them to roam in less
restrictive environments featuring terrain and conditions similar to their natural habitats. In
other words, the display animals are staged as natural in an arti?cial environment
emphasizing the dominance of culture over nature. The new approaches of ‘‘staging the
natural’’ appeal to visitors’ preference emphasizing the animals’ freedom and well-being.
Bryman (2008) concludes that placing animals in arti?cial recreations of nature appeals to
modern sensibilities. Captive wild animals instill a sense of guilt in humans; however, this
emotion is tempered with other emotions, such as ‘‘excitement, fear, wonder, distaste, and
nostalgia’’ (Anderson, 1995, p. 279). Consequently, these display techniques were
emulated by many Japanese zoos, including Ishikawa Zoo. However, the animals’ freedom
remains illusory.
The characteristic iron towers display the behavior of orangutans at Ishikawa Zoo. Ropes are
stretched out between two iron towers in the shape of an H, so that the orangutans can swing
across them. The sight of the orangutans swinging on the ropes appears to be natural. This
con?guration may enhance their innate physical abilities; however, orangutans attempting to
?ee from the area receive a charge of electric current, passing through the iron towers. New
invisible barriers replace pens and shackles. While the orangutan’s environment appears
natural, human intervention carefully stages and manipulates the display area.
Similarly, a section called ‘‘Valley of Cats’’ was refurbished in April, 2009. Viewing shelters
exist on a huge rock wall, enabling visitors to see lions from various angles unobserved. This
new design was built to stimulate tourists’ interest. This theatrical framework helps transform
the wild animal into an object attracting the tourists’ gaze. Zoo displays have evolved from
nineteenth century zoos’ bar-and-shackle stage to the current theatrical stage focusing on
mood setting (Desmond, 1999; Rothfels, 2002). These display methods appeal to tourists’
expectations that animals will perform amusingly as they do in the wild. Such methods
attract the media as well as tourists.
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Media and tourist texts
Do the virtual images created by the media affect zoo tourists? Arguably, images in
pamphlets, on television, and the internet dramatically in?uence tourists’ perceptions of
reality. Virtual images affect their construction of reality, which in turn affects virtual images.
Animal ?gures and behavior captured as photo opportunities are transformed into virtual
images and encoded into tourist texts. Virtual images of atypical animal behavior become
encoded in tourist texts are disseminated through mass media.
Each year, on the Day of the Elderly (in late September), an old hippopotamus called
Grandmother Deka receives a cake made from soybean paste. Kindergarten-age children
cerebrate this annual event. Images of Deka eating a cake surrounded by people are
disseminated through local TV stations. Also, a similar image of Deka appears on a zoo
pamphlet even though this event only happens once a year. The pamphlet also shows a
picture of an orangutan crossing a rope using his hands. This behavior also rarely occurs at
the zoo. Tourists seeing these images may expect these atypical events to occur on a daily
basis. The media transform these rare events into daily event expectations through tourist
texts.
An image of two young Borneo orangutans covers one page of the zoo’s pamphlet. One
tourist said she had looked for the cute young orangutans, but she could not ?nd them at all.
Later, she learned the pamphlet image was a picture taken when Brost and Done were only
one year old. The pamphlets were printed when Ishikawa Zoo was moved to Nomi City for
the re-opening of the zoo. The animals are now 14 years old and their appearance is
different. Souvenir shops still sell picture postcards emblazoned with youthful photographs
of Brost and Done. Photographs appear to freeze animal images into the past. Markwick
(2001, p. 420) argues that ‘‘the photograph freezes the image in space and time forever and
transports it to other contexts’’.
The internet helps to construct tourist texts. Two sea lions found side by side appear to be
talking to each other on the Zoo’s internet site. These decontextualized moments of atypical
animal behavior emotionally impact web page viewers. Crouch et al. (2006, p. 1) stress that
‘‘the media are heavily involved in promoting an emotional disposition’’. Plausible narratives
added to the animal images further detach themfromreality and create a utopian space. For
example, a narrative is added below the description of a mara: ‘‘My name is Blanco. I am
engaging in digging holes every day, but the holes I dig are entirely ?lled in the evening. So I
feel a little bit sad’’ (Ishikawa Zoo, 2009).
Subjective narratives induce emotional feelings in viewers, encouraging the personi?cation
of animals. Narrative viewers unconsciously overlay the mara’s image in the web text with a
human baby’s image. ‘‘Animals are cute when they exhibit behaviors coded as human’’
(Desmond, 1999, p. 174). Anthropomorphism allows people to build relationships between
humans and the natural world. Cultural narratives help viewers perceive animals as social
beings rather than natural beings, a common anthropomorphism technique.
Narratives encoded into tourist text invoke powerful messages appealing to website visitors.
Tourist text mediated by the media serves as a powerful promotional method to attract zoo
visitors. Anthropomorphism creates psychological intimacy towards animals and helps
create an imaginary utopia where humans and animals coexist in a friendly way. This
imagery helps alleviate tourists’ sensibilities towards ‘‘culture’s threat to nature’’ (Knight,
2006, p. 17) regarding animal con?nement at the zoo. Constructing tourist texts embellished
with cultural narratives serves as a persuasive promotional method to attract tourists to a
zoo.
Tourist texts and decoding of images mediated by media
The media serve as vehicles to create tourist texts. Here the way in which tourist texts are
constructed by the media is examined, together with the in?uence they exert on tourist
experiences. The tourism experience consists of a cycle – anticipation, activity and
retrospection (Crouch et al., 2006). How do tourist texts in?uence tourists’ anticipation? In
other words, how do the public interpret or decode tourist texts? How do digital devices
(e.g. cameras and mobile phones) help represent tourist experiences?
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Tourists often expect animal performances. Many visitors anticipate seeing an old
hippopotamus, called Deka (big) with her mouth gaping wide open in the water. Deka is an
iconic animal in the zoo. Her gaping mouth image is displayed in the advertising media and
souvenirs. The media catch a chance sight and freeze the image with the click of a camera
shutter. These atypical images become materials that create visitor expectations. Tourists
perceive these animal behaviors as ‘‘species-speci?c natural behaviors’’ and they become
disappointed when the orangutan does not cross a rope with their hands, or a lesser panda
does not stand on his legs every time they visit the zoo.
Sometimes, visitor disappointment is expressed overtly. A notice posted on the wall of
Deka’s house supports this proposition. The sign states, ‘‘Please do not throw stones in the
pool. Last year, 129 stones were removed from Deka’s pool. Angry visitors threw stones
because Deka stayed under the water for a long time. Similar visitor behavior caused a
hippo death at another zoo’’.
This evidence suggests visitor expectations were not met because Deka failed to performas
advertised. Visitors anticipate animal behavior similar to the media constructed images.
Deka is the animal most exposed by media coverage and her mouth always gapes wide.
The media image selection re?ects sensation and atypical behavior rather than a slice of
Deka’s real life. The animal’s natural behavior is constructed culturally by the zoo. Media
representation of animal behavior screens out certain natural behaviors (e.g. hunting and
?ghting) and highlights desirable natural behaviors, suggesting the animals are peaceful
and happy (e.g. grooming) (Anderson, 1995; Desmond, 1999). Zoo of?cials select only the
preferred natural behaviors for media dissemination. Thus, the media impressions largely
affect viewers’ perceptions of reality. Exploring the relationship between messages,
encoding, and decoding, Hall (2006) de?nes a three-mode typology.
Hall’s ?rst mode is the ‘‘dominant-hegemonic position’’, applying to the present case.
Tourists decode the media-encoded messages in the manner intended by the media. The
media provide a ‘‘dominant code’’ (Hall, 2006, p. 171) while the tourists are subordinate
code receivers. In a dominant hegemonic position, ‘‘the viewer operates inside the dominant
code’’ (Hall, 2006). When tourists cannot experience the media-encoded message, the gap
between reality and expectation creates tension. ‘‘I aimed to investigate the complex
relationship that visual media texts have with place, space, and travel and the tensions this
creates for tourists imbued with such images when they encounter the reality on which those
texts are based’’ (Jackson, 2006, p. 184).
The encoded images of Deka create visitor expectations. Hippopotamuses spend most of
their time in the water, so it is unlikely that visitors will see their preferred image of Deka every
time they visit. Deka’s normal behavior creates a gap from the media imagery of a
wide-mouthed hippo. The virtual images emphasize entertainment value, causing visitors to
misconceive the nature of animal behavior. Visitors seek spectacles performed by animals.
Disappointed visitors throwstones at Deka when she displays her natural behavior under the
water.
The media have the power to sensationalize behavior. In this case, the media institutionalizes
animal performances as normal behavior. In other words, institutionalizing atypical animal
behavior becomes ‘‘a ?xed formof aesthetics’’ (Nakamura, 2004, p. 103). The virtual images
of animal performances produce an aesthetic sense creating ‘‘signs’’ many people desire to
collect. Species-speci?c performance images are signi?ed through ‘‘signs’’. Aiming a
camera to capture a chance observation decontextualizes the animals from the
environment. Image viewers misconceive animal behavior. Not all tourists decode the
texts in this manner; however, this powerful imagery likely is decoded and stored in most
tourists’ unconscious memories. How can tourist reconcile this paradox? The following
section shows how tour guides play a crucial in the process.
Work display and tourist experience
Zoos are socially constructed and culturally consumed. The theatrical devices and the
media play important roles in constructing recreational space decontexualizing animals
from their environments. Tourists enjoy projecting their own desires and imaginations onto
the animals a zoo presents. Tourists desire to collect signs to construct their own utopias. In
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these utopias animals are anthropomorphized, and estheticized amusement and fantasy
merge. This highly problematic scenario draws a veil over the nature of animals and wild life.
In contrast, the zoo’s back region reconciles this paradox. The zoo’s back region display
negotiates amusement and educational values, grounding fantasy with reality. For example,
animal feeding originates from the back region. Front/back regions serve as a structural
division associated with different types of social performances, sometimes including a
division in architectural place:
Although architectural arrangements are mobilized to support this division, it is primarily a social
one, based on the type of social performance that is staged in a place, and on the social roles
found there. (MacCannell, 1999, p. 92)
The type of social performance determines whether an activity is part of the front or the back
region. Feeding animals is a social performance by zookeepers. Their work is displayed at
speci?c times during the day, conceptually categorizing the activity as the back region.
Feeding animals during visiting hours attracts tourists’ attention. Zookeepers feed their
animals twice each day. Short presentations often accompany feeding. Each animal species
has a different mealtime and the feedings are announced publicly at the zoo. Large crowds
gather during the mealtimes of popular animals. Exchanges between visitors and
zookeepers provide interesting insights on how the public perceives their viewing
experience.
Consider, for example, a zookeeper scattering horse mackerel to Magellan penguins in the
penguin house; however, the animals did not appear very interested in the ?sh. The other
keeper explained, ‘‘It is the breeding season now, so they lose their appetite for food. They
only eat horse mackerel, whose taste and texture meet their tastes’’. The audience learns
that each cute penguin has a different food taste. Although the animal looks like a
mass-produced, soft toy, the reality of penguins as animals is realized. While one keeper
scatters ?sh for the penguins, another keeper talks about the animal’s food habits. Each
person plays a role in this staged drama. This performance originates from the zoo’s back
region, where informational value is attached to entertainment value.
According to a zookeeper, the feeding times for beasts of prey (e.g. lions and tigers) are the
most popular, attracting large audiences. In the lion house, a zookeeper feeds the animals
using a pulley system. Large meat chunks are delivered to a lion, so the animal must stretch
to reach the food, creating a pleasing effect among the audience. This image is a ‘‘sign’’
visitors wanted to collect. ‘‘Eating raw meat’’ signi?es ‘‘wild nature’’ and ‘‘masculinity’’. Wild
beasts culturally symbolize nostalgia for a ‘‘lost arcadia’’ (Ivy, 1995, p. 59; Knight, 2006).
Ironically, a ?erce animal neutered by captivity delivers the image.
One observer murmured, ‘‘The chunk of meat given to one lion looks bigger than the other
chunk of meat for the other. Why?’’. Immediately, the keeper responded, ‘‘One chunk has a
bone while the other does not’’. Then, another person asked, ‘‘What kind of meat is it?’’. The
animal keeper responded again, ‘‘We give them horse meat’’. The keeper moved nearer to
the audience and said, ‘‘Horse meat is much leaner than any other meat. If we give them
high-fat meat, such as beef or pork, they do not come back to the bedroom at the time of
sleeping. So, we often use horse meat as their food’’.
The same explanation is posted on the lion house’s wall; tourists do not pay attention.
Listening to zookeepers’ experiences legitimizes the animals’ natural habits. The animals’
caretakers serve as tour guides bridging the gap between entertainment and education.
Using this bridge, visitor education can be expanded with backstage tours.
The role of tour guides in back region tours
Becoming more interested in animals can lead to participating in the back region, or the
‘‘backstage tour’’, offered once a month on Saturday mornings. This tour exposes the zoo’s
back region to public eyes. The tour visits different buildings every month in rotation. Tour
participants see the back region, such as the animal’s feeding and sleeping areas. These
areas are never seen by regular visitors. This tour is so popular that reservations are required
for places.
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The author participated in the backstage tour of the ‘‘Local Waterside and Tropical Rain
Forest of South America’’. This exhibit includes boa constrictors (snakes), frogs, green
iguanas, ring-tailed coatis, pacas, and other animals. Tour participants see the back region,
where crickets and mice are bred as food for animals. Zookeepers play a prominent role as
tour guides. According to one keeper, crickets are bred in cloth cases with pinholes to feed
the frogs because they only eat living insects. Each case accommodates a different size of
cricket to accommodate the differently sized mouths of frogs. Mice also are bred to feed the
boa constrictors.
The keeper shows visitors the natural food chain in the wild. Frogs eat the crickets. Snakes
eat frogs and mice. This natural food chain cannot be envisioned through the virtual images
of personi?ed animals constructed in tourist texts, or beautifully displayed showcases. Tour
guides help visitors understand the nature of life in the wild. Cohen (2004) divides a tourist
guide’s role into two areas, a ‘‘leadership sphere’’ and a ‘‘mediatory sphere’’. The zoo’s tour
guides serve as a mediatory sphere. They are knowledgeable and skillful in breeding or
nurturing animals. They are a ‘‘mentor’’ giving knowledge or advice to amateurs regarding
animal behavior (Cohen, 2004, p. 162). They also serve as ‘‘middlemen’’, bridging the
animal world to the human world (Cohen, 2004, p. 165). In this sense, a tour guide allows
outsiders to access the conceptual back territory, such as esoteric and expertise knowledge
as well as the spatial back region.
One participant, an elementary school pupil, wanted to know what was in the refrigerator.
Then, the guide opened the refrigerator door revealing frozen, new-born baby mice. He
explained that the frozen mice are purchased from an animal feed company in Nagoya. The
boy asked, ‘‘Why do you prepare two kinds of mice as food?’’. The keeper hesitated and
then said, ‘‘One day we serve raw mice, the next day the frozen ones. We are just concerned
about the variation of food we serve to animals’’. Animal food preparation differs little from
the human routine. Most participants appear satis?ed with his narratives.
Narratives based on the narrator’s knowledge can be classi?ed into two categories. First, a
master narrative combines scienti?c and expertise knowledge. Second, a minor narrative
links to the narrator’s own work experiences. Zookeeper narratives provide the audience with
a combination of master and minor narratives. A zookeeper interprets a master narrative into
a minor narrative. The minor narrative includes work experiences endorsing a scienti?c
meta-narrative. This narrative adds educational value to the zoo’s entertainment scenes.
Back region tours help to alleviate the contradiction a zoo creates.
Conclusions
Zoo managers, veterinarians and other stakeholders remain divided about whether a zoo
should be recreational or educational. Even zoo staff, who strongly advocate the educational
role, admit that the entertainment elements attract tourists. The discussion is developed from
the perspective of symbolism and pragmatism to address this paradox. A zoo is an
institution culturally representing nature.
Staging and/or theming a zoo involves entertainment value. Entertainment value entails
theatricality and anthropomorphism, which provides a misconception of the animal’s nature
for the visitors. However, it is unavoidable because humans are symbolic animals. A zoo is a
space where humans perform ‘‘cultural self-de?nition’’ (Anderson, 1995, p. 276). Visitors
re?ect the images they favor on animals.
Back region tours provide educational value complimenting the zoo’s entertainment value.
Tour guides play a key role. The minor narratives are more compelling than the
meta-narrative because the tour guides actually perform the tasks. Still, the minor narratives
are underpinned by a scienti?c meta-story. Thus, tour guidance through work displays
potentially reconciles the paradox that amusement value creates.
References
Anderson, K. (1995), ‘‘Culture and nature at the Adelaide Zoo: at the frontiers of a ‘human’ geography’’,
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 275-94.
Bryman, A. (2008), The Disneyization of Society, 2nd ed., Sage Publications, London.
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Cohen, E. (2004), Contemporary Tourism: Diversity and Change, Elsevier, Oxford.
Crouch, D., Jackson, R. and Thompson, F. (2006), ‘‘Introduction: the media and tourist imagination’’,
in Crouch, D., Jackson, R. and Thompson, F. (Eds), The Media and the Tourist Imagination: Converging
Cultures, Routledge, New York, NY, pp. 1-13.
Desmond, C.J. (1999), Staging Tourism: Bodies on Display from Waikiki to Sea World, University of
Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
Eco, U. (1979), A Theory of Semiotics, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN.
Goffman, E. (1990), The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Penguin Books, London.
Hall, S. (2006) in Durham, M. and Kellner, D. (Eds), Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks, Blackwell,
Oxford, pp. 163-73.
Ishikawa Zoo (2009), ‘‘Zoo diary’’, available at: www.pref.ishikawa.jp/zoo/diary/8007/expert.html
(accessed April 5, May 16, September 19, 2009).
Ivy, M. (1995), Discourses of the Vanishing: Modernity, Phantasm, Japan, University of Chicago Press,
Chicago, IL.
Jackson, R. (2006), ‘ ‘Converging cultures; converging gazes; contextualizing perspectives’’,
in Crouch, D., Jackson, R. and Thompson, F. (Eds), The Media and the Tourist Imagination:
Converging Cultures, Routledge, New York, NY, pp. 183-97.
Knight, J. (2006), Waiting for Wolves in Japan: An Anthropological Study of People-Wildlife Relations,
2nd ed., University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, HI.
Kosuge, M. (2006), Revolution in Asahiyama Zoo: A Revival Project, 2nd ed., Kadokawa Shoten, Tokyo.
MacCannell, D. (1999), The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class, 2nd ed., University of California
Press, Berkeley, CA.
Markwick, M. (2001), ‘‘Postcards from Malta: image, consumption, context’’, Annals of Tourism
Research, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 417-38.
Nakamura, Y. (2004), Construction of Landscapes: A Path to Environmental Aesthetics, NHK Library,
Tokyo.
Rothfels, N. (2002), Savages and Beasts: The Birth of Modern Zoo, Johns Hopkins University Press,
Baltimore, MD.
Stocking, G.W. Jr (1983), ‘‘The ethnographer’s magic: ?eldwork in British anthropology from Tylor to
Malinowski’’, in Stocking, G.W. Jr (Ed.), Observers Observed: Essays on Ethnographic Fieldwork,
University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI, pp. 70-120.
Urry, J. (1991), The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies, 2nd ed., Sage
Publications, London.
Further reading
Ishikawa Zoo (2000-2009), Animal Eyes, Vol. 1 No. 1-Vol. 10 No. 2, Ishikawa Zoo, Nomi.
About the author
Hiroko Yasuda completed a MA degree in Cultural Anthropology at California State
University, Los Angeles in 2001, and began the PhD program at the University of Wisconsin,
Madison in 2001, and leaving for medical reasons in 2003. She attended an international
summer conference on Popular Culture/American Culture held in Reykjavik, Iceland in 2007.
‘‘World heritage and cultural tourism in Japan’’ was published in International Journal of
Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research in 2010. Hiroko Yasuda can be contacted at:
[email protected]
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1. Aluisius Hery Pratono, Mario Antonio Lopez, Ruswiati Surya Saputra. 2014. Surabaya Zoo: a social enterprise on the cross
road. Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies 4:2, 1-13. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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doc_292699495.pdf
Controversy occurs among professionals, such as veterinarians and zookeepers in Japan,
as to whether a zoo should be educational or recreational. The purpose of this paper is to examine how a
zoo’s culturally crafted entertainment value conflicts with educational value. Using a front/back
framework of the zoo, both entertainment and educational values are negotiated.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Negotiating entertainment and education: a zoo in Japan
Hiroko Yasuda
Article information:
To cite this document:
Hiroko Yasuda, (2013),"Negotiating entertainment and education: a zoo in J apan", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality
Research, Vol. 7 Iss 1 pp. 105 - 112
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Negotiating entertainment and education:
a zoo in Japan
Hiroko Yasuda
Abstract
Purpose – Controversy occurs among professionals, such as veterinarians and zookeepers in Japan,
as to whether a zoo should be educational or recreational. The purpose of this paper is to examine howa
zoo’s culturally crafted entertainment value con?icts with educational value. Using a front/back
framework of the zoo, both entertainment and educational values are negotiated.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper conceptualizes differences between a zoo’s front and
back regions to examine operations and visitor behavior. Observing and interpreting visitor and zoo
employee interactions provide rich data about the educational versus recreational dynamic. The author
observes visitor behavior in both zoo regions and interprets their cognitive schema.
Findings – Animal representation in mass media reinforces the zoo animal’s amusement value to
visitors, leading to the construction of tourist texts. Tourist text images affect the viewer’s perception of
reality, sometimes con?icting with the animal’s reality. The zoo’s back region helps alleviate this paradox.
In this process, tour guides play a mediatory role between entertainment and educational values.
Originality/value – The author argues about zoos and zoo animals from the Cartesian dualism view of
‘‘culture/nature’’. A zoo represents culture’s triumph over nature. This paper develops this idea and
discusses how entertainment and educational values con?ict, and are reconciled, from the perspective
of symbolic and pragmatic dimensions.
Keywords Japan, Zoos, Animals, Consumer behaviour, Entertainment, Tourist text, Work display,
Tour guides
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
People visit zoos to gaze at wild animals originating from different habitats. These exotic wild
animals symbolize nature’s wildness contradicting culture – mankind’s attempts to control
the nature. Animals, especially mammals, serve as a boundary between nature and humans
(Desmond, 1999). Zoos enable humans to access nature through animals. Zoos are not
natural phenomena; instead, they are a cultural enterprise. Zoos represent nature in a
cultural form. Anderson (1995) argues that zoos serve as a cultural domestication of nature.
‘‘The dominant culture’s capacity for domesticating nature had been gloriously sublimated in
the social creation that was the Adelaide Zoo’’ (Anderson, 1995, p. 284).
A zoo’s front region displaying animal exhibitions exempli?es the ‘‘culturalization of nature’’
(Desmond, 1999, p. 176). This paper distinguishes between the zoo’s front and back
regions, paralleling businesses’ front and back of?ces. Goffman (1990, p. 115) coined the
terms ‘‘front region’’ and ‘‘back region’’. The two regions strongly delineate the business
atmosphere and function. These regional distinctions also problematize the ‘‘tourist gaze’’
consisting of viewer and viewed (Urry, 1991, p. 1).
Well-designed zoos attract many tourists. The zoo’s front region stages a playful atmosphere
creating a sense of amusement. Animal houses, restaurants and souvenir shops are themed
carefully with animal images aggressively promoting consumer goods. Bryman (2008)
con?rms that ‘‘theming’’ helps to provide an entertaining environment. In such an
DOI 10.1108/17506181311301408 VOL. 7 NO. 1 2013, pp. 105-112, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1750-6182
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PAGE 105
Hiroko Yasuda is based in
Komatsu City, Japan.
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environment, animal images are enthusiastically consumed by tourists by through shopping
and taking pictures. The tourists appear interested in gazing at animals through the
view?nders of cameras as well as with the naked eye.
Traditional Japanese zoos con?ned animals to small pens presenting just their physical
presence to the public. In contrast, new displays emphasize animal behavior in
pseudo-habitats rather than just their ?gures or forms as a marketing strategy. Hokkaido’s
Asahiyama Zoo ?rst created pseudo-habitats and many Japanese zoos soon followed. Zoo
visitors now see animals living in more spacious displays and exhibiting more natural
behavior. This development arguably shifts the direction of the gaze from animals to their
behavior, especially ‘‘species-speci?c behavior’’ (Desmond, 1999, p. 165; Kosuge, 2006,
p. 18).
However, the new method, supported by the media, gives tourists an entertaining
impression of animals, leading to misconceptions about their behavior. The media plays a
crucial role in forming the tourist’s gaze. Media images encode tourist texts (e.g. pamphlets,
picture postcards, and websites). Such images in?uence the viewer’s perception of reality.
As MacCannell (1999) suggests, tourists’ interests gravitate towards the media’s site
representation. Thus, the media play an essential role metaphorically constructing zoos,
where tourists entertain themselves and collect ‘‘signs’’ (Eco, 1979, p. 48; MacCannell,
1999, p. 109; Urry, 1991). Collecting signs is casual and spontaneous pleasure for tourists.
In contrast, the zoo’s back region elicits a different tourist response. To increase public
support, Japanese zoos recently began exposing the facility’s back region. Zoo visitors
consider the exposure of the back region to be synonymous with sharing insider information
only seen by employees. This exposed back region intrigues tourists because the area
remains conceptually a hidden sphere associated with ‘‘mysti?cation’’ (MacCannell, 1999,
p. 93). Prior to sharing the zoo’s inner workings, the back region’s work area is prepared for
the tourist’s gaze. Physical evidence becomes another staged servicescape, a ‘‘staged
back region’’ (MacCannell, 1999, p. 99). Cohen (2004, p. 102) calls this journey behind the
wall a ‘‘false back’’.
What do tourists experience in the back region? Does a staged back region transform the
zoo’s entertainment value into an educational experience? Entertainment value and
educational experiences appear paradoxical; however, the zookeeper’s work plays a role in
creating educational space. They become tour guides. The zoo’s tour guides are the
‘‘middle men’’ (Cohen, 2004, p. 165) connecting humans and animals, and ‘‘mentors’’
(Cohen, 2004, p. 160) allowing outsiders to access the conceptual back territory. Ultimately,
this study analyzes how a zoo projected as an advertisement relates to the media and tourist
texts, and how back region displays alleviate paradoxes created by media perspectives.
Additionally, tour guides play an essential role in this process and this study assesses how
they contribute to enriching tourists’ zoo experiences.
Method
Most visitors to Ishikawa Zoo carry digital cameras or mobile phones. They enthusiastically
take pictures of animals and performances. Many visitors are repeat customers who live in
the general vicinity (e.g. Ishikawa, Fukui, and Toyama). Why are zoo visitors enamored with
capturing animal images digitally when the same animals remain available for their future
visits? Perhaps visitors feel the need to construct virtual images of their experiences. Howdo
virtual images they construct relate to their interpretation of the tourist texts?
To answer these questions, the author employs ‘‘participant-observation’’ (see Stocking,
1983) and interpretive methodologies. These methods allow the researcher to observe
visitors participating in range of events, including a back region tour. Engaging other actors
in this sphere leads to an interpretation of their cognitive schema. The observations support
the proposition that tourists prefer taking pictures of animal performances. Some visitors wait
long time periods until the animals show desired movements or performances. Hall’s (2006)
media theories provide structure to classify their behaviors. Similarly, media-mediated tourist
texts affect visitor behavior (e.g. anticipation and reality perception).
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The present study also examines tourist texts that are publicly available on internet web
pages, Ishikawa Zoo’s magazine, the city’s magazines, television commercials, souvenirs,
and picture postcards sold in souvenir shops. These data points both inform and in?uence
the behavior of zoo visitors. The tourist texts include issues of Ishikawa Zoo’s quarterly
magazine, Animal Eyes, published from 2000 to 2009. Ten out of 38 front cover pictures
display animals exhibiting behaviors that are rarely seen. These images were selected from
among many others. Nine out of 17 picture postcards sold in souvenir shops also display
performance images. Four different performance images also are available to the public to
use as digital wallpaper for personal computers.
Website visitors can download these images free of charge. The zoo’s web pages include
animal descriptions of approximately 50 animal species. Embedded cultural narratives
stimulate psychological intimacy for viewers, and encourage the personi?cation of animals.
The stylized animal images and cultural narratives serve as powerful messages in the tourist
texts.
Displays and theatrics of animal behavior
Kanazawa Zoo, a precursor of Ishikawa Zoo, was privately owned, and in disrepair. In the
mid-1990s, Ishikawa Prefecture purchased the zoo. Five years later, Ishikawa Zoo relocated
to Nomi City to new buildings and modern methods of animal display. Traditional display
methods focus on showing animals con?ned to pens and cages. Zoos maintaining these
traditional display methods have seen dwindling visitor counts. New displays were
developed by veterinarian staff at Hokkaido’s Asahiyama Zoo to counter the dwindling
number of visitors.
First, the zoo staff created pseudo-environments depicting scenery similar to where the
display animals originate. Desmond (1999, p. 163) calls this a ‘‘fake in situ’’ or ‘‘unnatural
naturalism’’ technique to display animals. Second, the zoo staff wanted to present animals
exhibiting ‘‘species-speci?c physical ability’’ (Kosuge, 2006, p. 15) – display designs
needed to consider natural environmental conditions. Kosuge (2006), the former president
of Asahiyama Zoo, argues that displaying animal behavior enhances animals’ innate
physical power and abilities.
Modern displays provide display animals with more space, allowing them to roam in less
restrictive environments featuring terrain and conditions similar to their natural habitats. In
other words, the display animals are staged as natural in an arti?cial environment
emphasizing the dominance of culture over nature. The new approaches of ‘‘staging the
natural’’ appeal to visitors’ preference emphasizing the animals’ freedom and well-being.
Bryman (2008) concludes that placing animals in arti?cial recreations of nature appeals to
modern sensibilities. Captive wild animals instill a sense of guilt in humans; however, this
emotion is tempered with other emotions, such as ‘‘excitement, fear, wonder, distaste, and
nostalgia’’ (Anderson, 1995, p. 279). Consequently, these display techniques were
emulated by many Japanese zoos, including Ishikawa Zoo. However, the animals’ freedom
remains illusory.
The characteristic iron towers display the behavior of orangutans at Ishikawa Zoo. Ropes are
stretched out between two iron towers in the shape of an H, so that the orangutans can swing
across them. The sight of the orangutans swinging on the ropes appears to be natural. This
con?guration may enhance their innate physical abilities; however, orangutans attempting to
?ee from the area receive a charge of electric current, passing through the iron towers. New
invisible barriers replace pens and shackles. While the orangutan’s environment appears
natural, human intervention carefully stages and manipulates the display area.
Similarly, a section called ‘‘Valley of Cats’’ was refurbished in April, 2009. Viewing shelters
exist on a huge rock wall, enabling visitors to see lions from various angles unobserved. This
new design was built to stimulate tourists’ interest. This theatrical framework helps transform
the wild animal into an object attracting the tourists’ gaze. Zoo displays have evolved from
nineteenth century zoos’ bar-and-shackle stage to the current theatrical stage focusing on
mood setting (Desmond, 1999; Rothfels, 2002). These display methods appeal to tourists’
expectations that animals will perform amusingly as they do in the wild. Such methods
attract the media as well as tourists.
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Media and tourist texts
Do the virtual images created by the media affect zoo tourists? Arguably, images in
pamphlets, on television, and the internet dramatically in?uence tourists’ perceptions of
reality. Virtual images affect their construction of reality, which in turn affects virtual images.
Animal ?gures and behavior captured as photo opportunities are transformed into virtual
images and encoded into tourist texts. Virtual images of atypical animal behavior become
encoded in tourist texts are disseminated through mass media.
Each year, on the Day of the Elderly (in late September), an old hippopotamus called
Grandmother Deka receives a cake made from soybean paste. Kindergarten-age children
cerebrate this annual event. Images of Deka eating a cake surrounded by people are
disseminated through local TV stations. Also, a similar image of Deka appears on a zoo
pamphlet even though this event only happens once a year. The pamphlet also shows a
picture of an orangutan crossing a rope using his hands. This behavior also rarely occurs at
the zoo. Tourists seeing these images may expect these atypical events to occur on a daily
basis. The media transform these rare events into daily event expectations through tourist
texts.
An image of two young Borneo orangutans covers one page of the zoo’s pamphlet. One
tourist said she had looked for the cute young orangutans, but she could not ?nd them at all.
Later, she learned the pamphlet image was a picture taken when Brost and Done were only
one year old. The pamphlets were printed when Ishikawa Zoo was moved to Nomi City for
the re-opening of the zoo. The animals are now 14 years old and their appearance is
different. Souvenir shops still sell picture postcards emblazoned with youthful photographs
of Brost and Done. Photographs appear to freeze animal images into the past. Markwick
(2001, p. 420) argues that ‘‘the photograph freezes the image in space and time forever and
transports it to other contexts’’.
The internet helps to construct tourist texts. Two sea lions found side by side appear to be
talking to each other on the Zoo’s internet site. These decontextualized moments of atypical
animal behavior emotionally impact web page viewers. Crouch et al. (2006, p. 1) stress that
‘‘the media are heavily involved in promoting an emotional disposition’’. Plausible narratives
added to the animal images further detach themfromreality and create a utopian space. For
example, a narrative is added below the description of a mara: ‘‘My name is Blanco. I am
engaging in digging holes every day, but the holes I dig are entirely ?lled in the evening. So I
feel a little bit sad’’ (Ishikawa Zoo, 2009).
Subjective narratives induce emotional feelings in viewers, encouraging the personi?cation
of animals. Narrative viewers unconsciously overlay the mara’s image in the web text with a
human baby’s image. ‘‘Animals are cute when they exhibit behaviors coded as human’’
(Desmond, 1999, p. 174). Anthropomorphism allows people to build relationships between
humans and the natural world. Cultural narratives help viewers perceive animals as social
beings rather than natural beings, a common anthropomorphism technique.
Narratives encoded into tourist text invoke powerful messages appealing to website visitors.
Tourist text mediated by the media serves as a powerful promotional method to attract zoo
visitors. Anthropomorphism creates psychological intimacy towards animals and helps
create an imaginary utopia where humans and animals coexist in a friendly way. This
imagery helps alleviate tourists’ sensibilities towards ‘‘culture’s threat to nature’’ (Knight,
2006, p. 17) regarding animal con?nement at the zoo. Constructing tourist texts embellished
with cultural narratives serves as a persuasive promotional method to attract tourists to a
zoo.
Tourist texts and decoding of images mediated by media
The media serve as vehicles to create tourist texts. Here the way in which tourist texts are
constructed by the media is examined, together with the in?uence they exert on tourist
experiences. The tourism experience consists of a cycle – anticipation, activity and
retrospection (Crouch et al., 2006). How do tourist texts in?uence tourists’ anticipation? In
other words, how do the public interpret or decode tourist texts? How do digital devices
(e.g. cameras and mobile phones) help represent tourist experiences?
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Tourists often expect animal performances. Many visitors anticipate seeing an old
hippopotamus, called Deka (big) with her mouth gaping wide open in the water. Deka is an
iconic animal in the zoo. Her gaping mouth image is displayed in the advertising media and
souvenirs. The media catch a chance sight and freeze the image with the click of a camera
shutter. These atypical images become materials that create visitor expectations. Tourists
perceive these animal behaviors as ‘‘species-speci?c natural behaviors’’ and they become
disappointed when the orangutan does not cross a rope with their hands, or a lesser panda
does not stand on his legs every time they visit the zoo.
Sometimes, visitor disappointment is expressed overtly. A notice posted on the wall of
Deka’s house supports this proposition. The sign states, ‘‘Please do not throw stones in the
pool. Last year, 129 stones were removed from Deka’s pool. Angry visitors threw stones
because Deka stayed under the water for a long time. Similar visitor behavior caused a
hippo death at another zoo’’.
This evidence suggests visitor expectations were not met because Deka failed to performas
advertised. Visitors anticipate animal behavior similar to the media constructed images.
Deka is the animal most exposed by media coverage and her mouth always gapes wide.
The media image selection re?ects sensation and atypical behavior rather than a slice of
Deka’s real life. The animal’s natural behavior is constructed culturally by the zoo. Media
representation of animal behavior screens out certain natural behaviors (e.g. hunting and
?ghting) and highlights desirable natural behaviors, suggesting the animals are peaceful
and happy (e.g. grooming) (Anderson, 1995; Desmond, 1999). Zoo of?cials select only the
preferred natural behaviors for media dissemination. Thus, the media impressions largely
affect viewers’ perceptions of reality. Exploring the relationship between messages,
encoding, and decoding, Hall (2006) de?nes a three-mode typology.
Hall’s ?rst mode is the ‘‘dominant-hegemonic position’’, applying to the present case.
Tourists decode the media-encoded messages in the manner intended by the media. The
media provide a ‘‘dominant code’’ (Hall, 2006, p. 171) while the tourists are subordinate
code receivers. In a dominant hegemonic position, ‘‘the viewer operates inside the dominant
code’’ (Hall, 2006). When tourists cannot experience the media-encoded message, the gap
between reality and expectation creates tension. ‘‘I aimed to investigate the complex
relationship that visual media texts have with place, space, and travel and the tensions this
creates for tourists imbued with such images when they encounter the reality on which those
texts are based’’ (Jackson, 2006, p. 184).
The encoded images of Deka create visitor expectations. Hippopotamuses spend most of
their time in the water, so it is unlikely that visitors will see their preferred image of Deka every
time they visit. Deka’s normal behavior creates a gap from the media imagery of a
wide-mouthed hippo. The virtual images emphasize entertainment value, causing visitors to
misconceive the nature of animal behavior. Visitors seek spectacles performed by animals.
Disappointed visitors throwstones at Deka when she displays her natural behavior under the
water.
The media have the power to sensationalize behavior. In this case, the media institutionalizes
animal performances as normal behavior. In other words, institutionalizing atypical animal
behavior becomes ‘‘a ?xed formof aesthetics’’ (Nakamura, 2004, p. 103). The virtual images
of animal performances produce an aesthetic sense creating ‘‘signs’’ many people desire to
collect. Species-speci?c performance images are signi?ed through ‘‘signs’’. Aiming a
camera to capture a chance observation decontextualizes the animals from the
environment. Image viewers misconceive animal behavior. Not all tourists decode the
texts in this manner; however, this powerful imagery likely is decoded and stored in most
tourists’ unconscious memories. How can tourist reconcile this paradox? The following
section shows how tour guides play a crucial in the process.
Work display and tourist experience
Zoos are socially constructed and culturally consumed. The theatrical devices and the
media play important roles in constructing recreational space decontexualizing animals
from their environments. Tourists enjoy projecting their own desires and imaginations onto
the animals a zoo presents. Tourists desire to collect signs to construct their own utopias. In
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these utopias animals are anthropomorphized, and estheticized amusement and fantasy
merge. This highly problematic scenario draws a veil over the nature of animals and wild life.
In contrast, the zoo’s back region reconciles this paradox. The zoo’s back region display
negotiates amusement and educational values, grounding fantasy with reality. For example,
animal feeding originates from the back region. Front/back regions serve as a structural
division associated with different types of social performances, sometimes including a
division in architectural place:
Although architectural arrangements are mobilized to support this division, it is primarily a social
one, based on the type of social performance that is staged in a place, and on the social roles
found there. (MacCannell, 1999, p. 92)
The type of social performance determines whether an activity is part of the front or the back
region. Feeding animals is a social performance by zookeepers. Their work is displayed at
speci?c times during the day, conceptually categorizing the activity as the back region.
Feeding animals during visiting hours attracts tourists’ attention. Zookeepers feed their
animals twice each day. Short presentations often accompany feeding. Each animal species
has a different mealtime and the feedings are announced publicly at the zoo. Large crowds
gather during the mealtimes of popular animals. Exchanges between visitors and
zookeepers provide interesting insights on how the public perceives their viewing
experience.
Consider, for example, a zookeeper scattering horse mackerel to Magellan penguins in the
penguin house; however, the animals did not appear very interested in the ?sh. The other
keeper explained, ‘‘It is the breeding season now, so they lose their appetite for food. They
only eat horse mackerel, whose taste and texture meet their tastes’’. The audience learns
that each cute penguin has a different food taste. Although the animal looks like a
mass-produced, soft toy, the reality of penguins as animals is realized. While one keeper
scatters ?sh for the penguins, another keeper talks about the animal’s food habits. Each
person plays a role in this staged drama. This performance originates from the zoo’s back
region, where informational value is attached to entertainment value.
According to a zookeeper, the feeding times for beasts of prey (e.g. lions and tigers) are the
most popular, attracting large audiences. In the lion house, a zookeeper feeds the animals
using a pulley system. Large meat chunks are delivered to a lion, so the animal must stretch
to reach the food, creating a pleasing effect among the audience. This image is a ‘‘sign’’
visitors wanted to collect. ‘‘Eating raw meat’’ signi?es ‘‘wild nature’’ and ‘‘masculinity’’. Wild
beasts culturally symbolize nostalgia for a ‘‘lost arcadia’’ (Ivy, 1995, p. 59; Knight, 2006).
Ironically, a ?erce animal neutered by captivity delivers the image.
One observer murmured, ‘‘The chunk of meat given to one lion looks bigger than the other
chunk of meat for the other. Why?’’. Immediately, the keeper responded, ‘‘One chunk has a
bone while the other does not’’. Then, another person asked, ‘‘What kind of meat is it?’’. The
animal keeper responded again, ‘‘We give them horse meat’’. The keeper moved nearer to
the audience and said, ‘‘Horse meat is much leaner than any other meat. If we give them
high-fat meat, such as beef or pork, they do not come back to the bedroom at the time of
sleeping. So, we often use horse meat as their food’’.
The same explanation is posted on the lion house’s wall; tourists do not pay attention.
Listening to zookeepers’ experiences legitimizes the animals’ natural habits. The animals’
caretakers serve as tour guides bridging the gap between entertainment and education.
Using this bridge, visitor education can be expanded with backstage tours.
The role of tour guides in back region tours
Becoming more interested in animals can lead to participating in the back region, or the
‘‘backstage tour’’, offered once a month on Saturday mornings. This tour exposes the zoo’s
back region to public eyes. The tour visits different buildings every month in rotation. Tour
participants see the back region, such as the animal’s feeding and sleeping areas. These
areas are never seen by regular visitors. This tour is so popular that reservations are required
for places.
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The author participated in the backstage tour of the ‘‘Local Waterside and Tropical Rain
Forest of South America’’. This exhibit includes boa constrictors (snakes), frogs, green
iguanas, ring-tailed coatis, pacas, and other animals. Tour participants see the back region,
where crickets and mice are bred as food for animals. Zookeepers play a prominent role as
tour guides. According to one keeper, crickets are bred in cloth cases with pinholes to feed
the frogs because they only eat living insects. Each case accommodates a different size of
cricket to accommodate the differently sized mouths of frogs. Mice also are bred to feed the
boa constrictors.
The keeper shows visitors the natural food chain in the wild. Frogs eat the crickets. Snakes
eat frogs and mice. This natural food chain cannot be envisioned through the virtual images
of personi?ed animals constructed in tourist texts, or beautifully displayed showcases. Tour
guides help visitors understand the nature of life in the wild. Cohen (2004) divides a tourist
guide’s role into two areas, a ‘‘leadership sphere’’ and a ‘‘mediatory sphere’’. The zoo’s tour
guides serve as a mediatory sphere. They are knowledgeable and skillful in breeding or
nurturing animals. They are a ‘‘mentor’’ giving knowledge or advice to amateurs regarding
animal behavior (Cohen, 2004, p. 162). They also serve as ‘‘middlemen’’, bridging the
animal world to the human world (Cohen, 2004, p. 165). In this sense, a tour guide allows
outsiders to access the conceptual back territory, such as esoteric and expertise knowledge
as well as the spatial back region.
One participant, an elementary school pupil, wanted to know what was in the refrigerator.
Then, the guide opened the refrigerator door revealing frozen, new-born baby mice. He
explained that the frozen mice are purchased from an animal feed company in Nagoya. The
boy asked, ‘‘Why do you prepare two kinds of mice as food?’’. The keeper hesitated and
then said, ‘‘One day we serve raw mice, the next day the frozen ones. We are just concerned
about the variation of food we serve to animals’’. Animal food preparation differs little from
the human routine. Most participants appear satis?ed with his narratives.
Narratives based on the narrator’s knowledge can be classi?ed into two categories. First, a
master narrative combines scienti?c and expertise knowledge. Second, a minor narrative
links to the narrator’s own work experiences. Zookeeper narratives provide the audience with
a combination of master and minor narratives. A zookeeper interprets a master narrative into
a minor narrative. The minor narrative includes work experiences endorsing a scienti?c
meta-narrative. This narrative adds educational value to the zoo’s entertainment scenes.
Back region tours help to alleviate the contradiction a zoo creates.
Conclusions
Zoo managers, veterinarians and other stakeholders remain divided about whether a zoo
should be recreational or educational. Even zoo staff, who strongly advocate the educational
role, admit that the entertainment elements attract tourists. The discussion is developed from
the perspective of symbolism and pragmatism to address this paradox. A zoo is an
institution culturally representing nature.
Staging and/or theming a zoo involves entertainment value. Entertainment value entails
theatricality and anthropomorphism, which provides a misconception of the animal’s nature
for the visitors. However, it is unavoidable because humans are symbolic animals. A zoo is a
space where humans perform ‘‘cultural self-de?nition’’ (Anderson, 1995, p. 276). Visitors
re?ect the images they favor on animals.
Back region tours provide educational value complimenting the zoo’s entertainment value.
Tour guides play a key role. The minor narratives are more compelling than the
meta-narrative because the tour guides actually perform the tasks. Still, the minor narratives
are underpinned by a scienti?c meta-story. Thus, tour guidance through work displays
potentially reconciles the paradox that amusement value creates.
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About the author
Hiroko Yasuda completed a MA degree in Cultural Anthropology at California State
University, Los Angeles in 2001, and began the PhD program at the University of Wisconsin,
Madison in 2001, and leaving for medical reasons in 2003. She attended an international
summer conference on Popular Culture/American Culture held in Reykjavik, Iceland in 2007.
‘‘World heritage and cultural tourism in Japan’’ was published in International Journal of
Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research in 2010. Hiroko Yasuda can be contacted at:
[email protected]
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