LEARNING THROUGH EXPERIENCE
More than 500,000 people visit Blackpool Zoo every year and over 65,000 of those visit as part of an organised educational trip; this puts us in a fantastic position to teach and inspire a wide and diverse audience. In order to want to protect the natural world and secure a future for Asian elephants, we first need to understand and care about what it is we are being asked to protect. Project Elephant Base Camp can offer visitors a personal connection with our herd and through effective educational programmes - they can direct this emotional response towards a conservation goal.
INFORMATIONAL SIGNAGE & TALKS
As with all zoo exhibits, Project Elephant Base Camp is furnished with information boards and artefacts. From a life-sized image adorned with fun facts and interactive elements, to a television screen showing what goes on behind the scenes; we hope our visitors use this to learn a little more about this magnificent species and the challenges they face in the wild. Base Camp interpretation is designed to enhance the connection to these amazing animals and hopefully provide visitors with enthusiasm and passion for supporting the valuable work of BECT and Blackpool Zoo.
Project Elephant features daily on our talks and feeds schedule (which can be found here), giving visitors an opportunity to hear first-hand from our passionate Education team.
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Education is evolving away from classroom based lectures to interactive workshops. Base Camp is perfect for this as there are areas of tactile learning, but also the enclosure itself provides endless opportunities for discussing natural elephant behaviours.~ Amanda Taylor, Education and Work Experience Officer
ONLINE RESOURCE
For those visitors who want to know a little bit more about Project Elephant and the work we are doing, we hope that this website will provide an invaluable insight into our work at Blackpool Zoo and beyond. As you'll see, you can find out about how we care for our herd, why Base Camp has been built the way it has and read a little more about the work we are doing with our chosen charities to help secure the future of Asian elephants in the wild.