EAZA Tiger Campaign 2002/4
Campaign efforts in Dublin Zoo
EAZA Tiger Campaign at Dublin Zoo roarsThe tiger team at Dublin Zoo, which is being spearheaded by Ciaran McMahon and Gerry Creighton (Jr) has already achieved a massive awareness level nationwide in terms of both the campaign itself and in terms of educating our visitors and potential visitors about the huge threats facing these amazing animals.
The Tiger Campaign at Dublin Zoo was launched amid a fanfare of publicity which resulted in much coverage by the national press during the following few days. A large colour photograph appeared in the only two national papers and coverage by national TV ensured that our message was conveyed to almost every citizen.
Dublin Zoo invited RTE, the main national TV station, to be a partner and now the main children’s programme (The Den on Network 2) is part of the whole campaign. This means that updates regarding the campaign are communicated five days a week to this key audience of six to twelve year olds – giving the campaign an outstanding level of publicity. This has resulted in children nationwide either organising some fundraising activity themselves or otherwise carrying the message to their schools, resulting in many schools organising innovative fundraising events. We are also working with the other national TV station (TV3) and hence there is no home in any part of Ireland which has not heard about the Tiger Campaign at Dublin Zoo!
We are delighted with the level of commitment which children have demonstrated: they are busy washing cars, organising toy sales, doing sponsored walks or simply begging support from their aunties, uncles and parents – all with the single aim of raising as much funds as possible for this very wortwhile cause. To further encourage children and their parents to become involved we arranged for the TV station (RTE) to interview a young girl who was one of the first people to get involved. She was delighted with the opportunity, the TV station was delighted to be associated with this very good cause and very importantly her appearance on TV stimulated other children in Ireland to follow suit!
The two tiger keepers (Ciaran and Gerry) have put a lot of energy and time into the campaign to date and it is their level of enthusiasm which has made it such a success. They are also organising a special ‘Tiger Talk’ for a group of corporates who will be visiting the zoo in the next few weeks, with all proceeds from the talk going directly to the funds. The National Lottery has selected Dublin Zoo as the location for shooting its next advertisement, and as Ciaran will be featuring in this advertisement we have decided to contribute the resulting income to the Tiger Fund. This means that we have already exceeded the initial target of € 5,000 stated in our application! Therefore, Dublin Zoo has decided to increase the target to € 50,000, setting a real challenge to see if one of the smallest countries in the world could make a very significant contribution to a large campaign.
The majority of the fundraising activities are based in the Rainforest Live room. A huge tiger eye window advertises the EAZA Tiger Campaign and orange tiger paw prints on the floor lead visitors inside.
Here there are two computer terminals from which the public can get free access to the Paignton Zoo and Rainforest Live websites. Rainforest animal and bird specimens are on hand for people to see and touch. Volunteers provide information on all the specimens and on rainforests in general.
There is a changing line-up of children’s activities within the room based around tigers, including brass rubbing, colouring sheets and the making of tiger magnets and masks – we ask for small donations towards the campaign from people joining in.
Over the summer the activities will be increased and will include badge making, a tiger quiz with a prize draw, making tiger print bandanas, a tiger trail around the Zoo and the sale of tiger tails.
There are also posters about the campaign outside our tiger enclosure and tiger costume characters can be found around the Zoo. In addition we are selling raffle tickets and tiger key rings. It’s set to be a tiger summer!
