The Health Benefits of Visiting a Zoo, Park, and Aquarium for Older Japanese

Akiyama, Junko; Sakagami, Taketo; Uchiyama, Hidehiko; Ohta, Mitsuaki

doi:10.1080/08927936.2021.1898211

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 29 publications

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“…Direct contact with the natural world (and with animals in particular) also enhances positive mental states ( Maller et al, 2006 ; Yerbury et al, 2021 ). Whilst access to many types of green space has consistently shown to promote many positive affective states in humans ( Mensah et al, 2016 ), the green environment of the zoo that is combined with the animal collection may be more enhancing for (positive) human wellbeing than visits to other forms of green space ( Akiyama et al, 2021 ). Being close to an animal has psychological benefits, which are further enhanced if an educator is also involved with the visitor-animal interaction ( Sahlin et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Promoting Connectivity With Naturementioning

confidence: 99%

Expanding the role of the future zoo: Wellbeing should become the fifth aim for modern zoos

Rose

Riley

2022

Front. Psychol.

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Zoos and aquariums have an enormous global reach and hence an ability to craft meaningful conservation action for threatened species, implement educational strategies to encourage human engagement, development and behavior change, and conduct scientific research to enhance the husbandry, roles and impacts of the living collection. The recreational role of the zoo is also vast- people enjoy visiting the zoo and this is often a shared experience amongst family and friends. Evaluating how the zoo influences this “captive audience” and extending its reach to include a compassionate approach to animals and people can further enhance the mission, value, and relevance of their work. The modern zoo’s current aims—Conservation, Education, Research and Recreation—provide useful foundations for the activities that zoos conduct at a local and national level. However, to improve sustainability of their actions and outcomes, we feel that Wellbeing should become the fifth aim of the modern zoo for the future- both from an animal perspective (ensuring that populations are managed according to prevailing behavioral needs) and from a human perspective (enhancing access to nature, promoting planetary friendly behavior changes and ways of living, and advancing the wellbeing of the zoo’s workforce). This paper provides discussion and review of how Wellbeing is already a substantial part of what zoos work on as well as posing the idea of altering the Recreation aim of the zoo to one of Engagement, which potentially is more measurable and therefore can allow zoo researchers and managers further options for the collection of evidence on the local and global reach of their zoo’s aims. Education, Engagement, Conservation, Research and Wellbeing provide a more complete picture of the roles of the modern zoo for the animals (both in situ and ex situ), human visitors and workforce, and to society more widely.

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