The Most Engaging Elephant Experience Outside of Africa or Asia! A proposal for the Toronto Zoo

1. The Most Engaging Elephant Experience Outside of Africa or Asia!A proposal for the Toronto Zoo

2. We Have an Opportunity to Build North America’s Most Innovative and Engaging Elephant Experience in Toronto! The current Toronto Zoo elephant exhibit does not hold visitor attention for more than a few minutes. In the winter, the confined space provides little opportunity for fun or learning. Current Toronto Zoo Elephant Exhibit Building a larger version of the same exhibit will not provide an improved visitor experience. Why not take this opportunity to build something new and exciting to improve visitor experience & learning?

3. Let’s Have Some FunWhile We are Learning? • Fun and interactive exhibits are significantly more engaging for both children and adults. • They provide greater learning opportunities and help zoo visitors to love and respect wild animals and the ecosystems they live in. • Visitors will stay longer and leave with a greater understanding of and respect for elephants.

4. Elephant Communication Imagine standing in a place where you are surrounded by an elephant family having a discussion with each other and under your feet you can feel infrasound (vibration) simulating the various ways that elephants communicate. In this circle-vision display with surround sound you will learn how elephants communicate in the wild.

5. Take an African Safari Next enter a safari simulator bus. Inside you will experience a guided tour of the African Savannah to help you understand the environment and the cohabitants of the African elephant.

6. All Kids are Fascinated by Poop! Learn about the diet of elephants by seeing how field biologists study their dung. Kids can use the same techniques to explore faux elephant poop to learn for themselves. You will also learn about products made from recycled elephant dung and how the proceeds benefit elephant conservation in the wild.

7. What Do You Know About Elephants? Touch-technology computer screens will give everyone a chance to show how much they know about elephants. A series of questions will be presented such as: • Can elephants jump? • Do elephants really have good memories? • Are elephants really afraid of mice? • Is it true that elephants are self aware? There is no end to the possibilities for learning using this technology and this display can be expanded as visitors come up with new questions.

8. How Elephants Use Their Trunks With the help of a robotic elephant trunk, you will be able to try to manipulate items and will learn how elephants use their trunks to pick up food as small as a grape.

9. Skeletons are Cool Too! While viewing full size elephant skeletons, you will learn about how elephants often visit the bones of their ancestors in an apparent grieving ritual and how poaching for the ivory trade has led to the demise of certain populations of elephants.

10. Stand on an elephant-sized scale with your friends to compare your combined weight to that of an elephant. Compare your footprint to an elephant’s. How much food do you eat in a day compared to an elephant? How far can you reach compared to the reach of an elephant browsing on leaves in a treetop? Let’s Learn More About Elephants By Comparing Ourselves To Them!

11. View Live Video Feed of Elephants in the Wild & in a Sanctuary Terminals throughout the complex will allow visitors to view real-time video of elephants in the wild or see what the Toronto Zoo elephants are doing in their new home. PAWS Sanctuary photos

12. Children’s Activity Centre Another part of the centre provides children opportunities to play together by participating in all sorts of fun and educational activities such as: • Assembling Puzzles(including a life size baby elephant made of foam that children assemble) • Doing Art work • Listening to stories • Dressing up in animal costumes • And so much more

13. Elephant Conservation Theatre A small theatre will provide an opportunity to share information through film about the conservation issues that wild elephants are facing and will seek to inspire every visitor to become active on conservation issues facing elephants in the wild.

14. Helping People Protect Elephants! As visitors exit the theatre inspired to help elephants, they will have an opportunity to send a personal message from a computer terminal about a current elephant issue and learn where to go to find more information about how they can help elephants.

15. A Place for Kids to Burn Off Energyand Parents to Relax. What parent would not want to relax in a garden café drinking shade-grown coffee while watching their children play? Kids will love it because they can climb up to look out through the eyes of a life sized African elephant and then slide out the back end or play on the other African animal play equipment.

16. And while we are having all this fun, we will be learning too!!! Fully immersed in the sights and sounds of the African Savannah here are some of the things we can learn about…

17. There are More Than Two Species of Elephants! Many people are not aware that there are actually 4 species of elephants and 3 sub species. One group even mines for salt inside caves. Learn all about the similarities and differences of the various species of elephants. Borneo Pygmy Elephant African Forest Elephant African Savannah Elephant Asian Elephant

18. Natural Biology & Behaviour Learn incredible facts about elephant behaviour such as: • The reasons that female elephants stay with their families for life; • How they find food and water; • How they communicate over long distances; • Changes they have made in order to survive alongside people; • And so much more…

19. Elephant Families Let’s teach our kids about how elephants learn from their mothers and grandmothers to rear infants, where to find food and water in the dry-seasons, migration routes, language, and other survival skills.

20. The Evolution of Elephants Full size models of elephant ancestors will help teach fascinating facts about elephant evolution such as: • Elephant ancestors are some of the first known mammals to walk the Earth during the Paleocene era, 65.5 to 55 million years ago • Scientists have found the fossil of a 60-million-year-old creature in Morocco, which is the rabbit sized ancestor of the modern day elephant. Understanding this natural history will help visitors see how elephants have evolved to the animal we recognize today.

21. Learn about the history elephants have with people and how these magnificent animals have been used for centuries in various industries such as ivory and logging, for human entertainment, during times of war, and how people and elephants are starting to learn to live side by side at last. And Even Sneak in a History Lesson or Two

22. At the Same Time Let’s AlsoHelp Raise Funds for Elephants The Elephant Learning Centre can help raise funds for wild elephant conservation projects at concession stands and at the café or by facilitating fundraising events such as lectures.

23. Advantages of an Elephant Display Without Live Elephants BETTER EXPERIENCE: Provide a more enjoyable experience for families to learn about elephants together through interactive displays all year round. NEW VISITORS: An engaging innovative Elephant Learning Center will draw new people to the zoo and keep them there longer. BETTER LEARNING: Learning opportunities improve when people are engaged in the experience. PROMOTE ELEPHANT PROTECTION: Informed visitors are more likely to become active in helping to protect elephants SAVE MONEY: Building an Elephant Learning Centre will cost between $10 -15 million, saving the zoo $25 – 30 million. BE A WORLD LEADER FOR ELEPHANTS: Join the esteemed list of 15 North American zoos who have already decided to stop keeping live elephants including: Detroit Zoo, Philadelphia Zoo, San Francisco Zoo, Sacramento Zoo, Bronx Zoo, the Alaska Zoo, and many others worldwide.

24. And of Best of All, This New Exhibit Supports the Toronto Zoo’s Mission To be a dynamic and exciting action centre that inspires people to love, respect and protect wildlife and wild spaces.

25. Let’s open the way for new and exciting ideas for Torontonians to learn about elephants!

26. For more information contact: Julie Woodyer Zoocheck Canada 788 ½ O’Connor Dr. Toronto, Ont M4B 2S6 Tel: 416-285-1744 Cell: 416-451-5976 julie@zoocheck.com