The value of an animal encounter: Is it worth it?
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Authors
Kemp, Caralyn
Shaw, W.
Melfi, V.
Shaw, W.
Melfi, V.
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2025-07
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Conference Contribution - Oral Presentation
Ngā Upoko Tukutuku (Māori subject headings)
Keyword
Taronga Zoo Sydney
zoos
charitable contributions
fund raising
biophilia
zoos
charitable contributions
fund raising
biophilia
ANZSRC Field of Research Code (2020)
Citation
Kemp, C., Shaw, W.S., & Melfi, V. (2025, July, 8-9). The value of an animal encounter: Is it worth it? [Paper presentation].BIAZA Research Conference, British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquarium, Chester, Cheshire, England
https://hdl.handle.net/10652/7059
Abstract
Zoos and aquariums require additional funds beyond entrance fees for the care of their animals and for running conservation programmes. Two ways further funding is achieved is by offering paid visitor-animal interactions and through donations. However, little is known about the donating giving behaviour of zoo visitor and their motivations to donate. Incentives are sometimes used to encourage donation giving, such as small interactive experiences with animals. We investigated donation giving at the end of a free-flight bird presentation at an Australian zoo to understand the motivation of visitors to donate. Donation giving was tested under three treatments: (1) bird taking donations, (2) bird present but not taking donations, (3) no bird present. There was also an opportunity for donators to get a badge as a thank you for donating AUD$5+; therefore, this study also considered two conditions: (A) with the audience receiving the message about the badge, (B) with no message, across all treatments. As expected, more of the audience (18.6%) donated to interact with the bird (Treatment 1) compared to putting the donation in the box themselves (9%). However, individual donations were low, but, interestingly, larger donations (AUD$3.5) were given when the bird was not taking donations (Treatments 2 and 3; AUD$2.2). Condition A was particularly important for motivating donation giving. Across presentation audiences, the mean donation was only $0.34; as the bird presentation donation box was the most profitable in the zoo, it suggests that altruistic donation giving by zoo visitors is rare and minimal, and needs to be incentivised or motivated in some way. Visitors place little value on an encounter with a bird. These results indicate that revenue can be raised without allowing direct interactions between visitors and animals. Further investigation is needed into other avenues which could be equally inspiring and more appropriate.
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