Self study
Updated
The Belo Horizonte Zoo-Botanic Foundation Natural Reserve
More than 1 million visitors every year enjoy the graceful complex of gardens, animal and plant exhibits that make up the Belo Horizonte Zoo-Botanic Foundation.
More than anything, this zoo is really a living classroom. Here, exhibits of native plants and animals give local people a greater understanding and appreciation for the nature in their own backyard. Zoos are important. Throughout the world, more people go to zoos than to the movies. So you have a strategic opportunity to shape perceptions about nature and about conservation. First of all, zoos must be fun. If you tell children or adults, come to the zoo and learn, they won’t come. So you tell them, come and have fun, and while they’re enjoying themselves, they learn.
Butterfly magic. Another major draw at the zoo is its butterfly garden, only one of three large ones in all of Brazil (read about its creator in “Science in the rough”, link on the right). Here visitors can step into a world of brightly hued, delicately patterned creatures, feeding at colorful flowers or even alighting on one’s shoulder.
Here too, education is part of the fun. For example, visitors learn that the heart of the butterfly garden is the zoo’s botanical garden, which provides the plants on which the butterfly caterpillars feed. Zoo Director Coelho is currently planning an ambitious new project to build an aquarium that will display the fish and other creatures of the São Francisco River.
Comment this topic!
This issue was produced by Kelen, Bárbara and Thaisa, edited and published by Flávio
2008
