DANAUS

Nowadays we are living a change in ethical and moral considerations towards animals. Our society has been gradually changing its perspective on the animal life and its relationship with the rest of living beings. Currently, it is a reality that zoological centers exist, but they must be adapted to new social needs and legal obligations or they will be destined to disappear.

Our main objective is to promote the functions that a zoo must play in our society: promoting wildlife conservation and public awareness. Therefore, the study of animals, the adaptation of the design of the facilities to the animals that inhabit them and the training of the zoo staff are necessary to achieve these targets.

The facilities are spaces that house the animals and, therefore, they are one of the fundamental pieces of animal welfare. For this reason, its design should be a key part in a zoological centre, since it fulfils two indispensable and closely linked functions. First, the purpose of the enclosure is intended to achieve the empowerment of the animal over its environment, adapting the environment to the behavioural needs of each animal. This is achieved through two different approaches that include ethological and “use of space” studies. In other words, we optimize the design of the facilities for the animals that will use it. In this way, we favour the animal natural or innate behaviours, ensuring their well-being.

The second function that we want to achieve with our design of the facilities is to change the perception of visitor have of this animal. We try to ensure that the visitor not only sees the animal, but also understands the animal in a complex context, in its habitat, moving away the current idea that enclosure have of “jail-cage”. Everything is designed in order to favour the transmission to the visitor of a message of ex-situ conservation that is based on the respect for animals and on the admiration of the complexity of the ecosystems in danger.

Emotion is crucial in our designs, because only from it is born the experience and subsequent learning. This is how the visitor gets out of the centre with a different sensation to how they entered; more aware of the complexity and weakness of the ecosystems, more aware of their responsibility in environmental conservation.

Visitor loyalty is therefore not the main objective of our service, but the logical result obtained by making you feel part of a conservation project based on the wonders of natural ecosystems.