Osnabrück Zoo: an expedition through the world of animals with four adventure playgrounds
Osnabrück Zoo has long been aware of the power of attraction of playgrounds for its visitors, especially the families amongst them. And playgrounds represent an important diversion for those holding annual season tickets. The zoo sells some 20,000 family season tickets every year but it is usually the case that the corresponding families only stay for two or three hours at the zoo. They are not interested in taking the whole day to see everything that the zoo has to offer; they prefer just to pop in and see how their favourite animals ‒ maybe one or two ‒ are getting on and then move on to a playground. Although children are fascinated by animals, they find attractive playgrounds just as exciting and they provide a welcome distraction from merely watching what creatures are doing. To meet the needs of their family season card holders and ensure that they continue to be season card holders, Osnabrück Zoo has spent €1.5 million on developing new play areas in combination with new animal zones.
Among the recently completed attractions is the 'Neue OZ-Streichelland', a petting zoo that is part of the 'Angkor Wat' Asiatic animal zone (2013). At a cost of €230,000, the zoo has brought together a playground with a petting enclosure containing goats and sheep. Once upon a time the area was a petting enclosure only. Unfortunately, the animals preferred to withdraw into their own area leaving the children standing around in an empty space without animals or anything else to amuse them. Then someone came up with the idea of linking the petting enclosure with a playground. The design of the play area, intended to represent an Asian village, complements the animal world. The children can discover a hairdressers, a school and a blacksmith's forge in the various themed huts. Appropriate tools and pieces of furniture are provided so that the play area is almost like a film set that will stimulate the children to invent imaginative games. The goats and sheep still have places they can retreat to but are also happy to use the climbing ramps that were originally designed for the children. There is a section for toddlers with slide, house and sand outside the petting enclosure.
Another of the zoo's highlights is the tree house village 'Makatanda' (2010) in its 'Takamanda' African animal zone. A complete film set-like situation has been created here too. There are five tree houses that are linked by means of a net and tubes. To ensure that the children using the attraction are old enough and already have the necessary motor skills, the climb up to the houses is quite a challenge in order to deliberately deter toddlers from accessing them. There is a separate area on which children can propel themselves into the sky on various swings or pretend to be on safari in an old immobilised Jeep. Another of the special features here is the so-called 'bongo swing': several children at once can occupy the swinging basket, which is only open at the bottom, and enjoy a circular trip through the air. The zoo's outlay for the diverting 'Makatanda' play world was €500,000.
The two older playgrounds, the 'Giraffenspielplatz' and the 'Neue OZ-Kinderland' continue to be popular with children. The 'Neue OZ-Kinderland' is divided into two sections and is located directly next to the zoo's main restaurant. The most frequently visited of these sections in summer is the water play area with pump and its wooden water sprites ‒ parents in the know bring a change of clothing for their children in awareness of what the result of all the splashing around will be. There is a wooden footbridge that crosses a pond and leads to the other section of the' Neue OZ-Kinderland', where there is a play village with huts that are connected by subterranean tunnels. The giraffe-themed 'Giraffenspielplatz' is also a real draw for children. Those with a head for heights can climb up the 10-metre high wooden giraffe and then glide back to the ground in a covered slide. There are smaller slides, a push roundabout, a long jump pit and monkey bars ‒ children can test their abilities against those of the animals.
'Makatanda', the 'Neue OZ-Kinderland' and the 'Neue OZ-Streichelland' were built by the creative wood design company Künstlerische Holzgestaltung Bergmann GmbH. The visionary and holistic approach taken by its CEO and chief designer, Jürgen Bergmann, is apparent in the case of all three attractions.
The zoo will be making €5000 available annually for the upkeep of these extraordinary play areas. All have been inspected and approved by the TÜV and their safety aspects are audited at the start of each season by an appropriate specialist company.
Playgrounds and gastronomy
Important add-ons in the case of all playgrounds are refreshment outlets with seating for adults. The combination of attractive playgrounds and food and drink mean that visitors tend to stay longer and consume more. The main zoo restaurant next to the 'Neue OZ-Kinderland' is open all year round; the outlets at the other playgrounds are open only during the main season or at weekends outside the main season.
As Osnabrück Zoo sees it, a well-designed playground in a zoo is not just simply another attraction, but an absolute must. Its playgrounds are an integral part of its marketing strategy. On opening, for example, children are invited to test them and they are assigned a prominent place in the zoo's marketing publications. In the designations 'Neue OZ-Streichelland' and 'Neue OZ-Kinderland', the zoo has shown its gratitude to its local newspaper the 'Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung' ('Neue OZ' for short) that sponsored the attractions, by including its name – another way of ensuring that the newspaper takes a positive attitude towards the zoo.
The results of customer satisfaction surveys demonstrate that the zoo is taking the ideal route with its playground strategy. The surveys for the zoo are undertaken monthly during the season by the customer management company buw. The playgrounds score very highly in the category 'Child- and family-friendliness', which category produces the best results in comparison with others. The playgrounds also frequently get a positive mention in the section on the survey forms where customers are asked to state what they find particularly attractive.
Zoological gardens can thus profit from good playgrounds in several respects ‒ the investment certainly pays off as can be seen in the case of Osnabrück Zoo.
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