With lessons, activities and learning all going online during the lockdown, Arignar Anna Zoological Park in Vandalur too will be hosting a virtual Zoo Ambassadors camp this year from May 4.
For the last few years, the zoo has played host to children and college students as part of their popular Zoo Ambassadors camp during the summer holidays. “We were planning to have the ambassadors camp this year as well but the Zoo has been shut from March 17 owing to the lockdown. We’ve now decided to host online sessions by field experts as part of a virtual camp for students from the age of 10 to 20 years,” said Sudha Ramen, Deputy Director, Anna Arignar Zoological Park.
From May 4 to May 10, interactive sessions in English and Tamil with field experts, which include veterinarians and biologists who work with the zoo, will be organised for an hour every day. There will be live as well as recorded videos of the animals and birds in the zoo and participants will be encouraged to ask questions to the experts about the work they do at the zoo as well as how the animals are looked after.
“There will be two sessions focusing on butterflies and the butterfly park which the zoo houses,” Ms. Ramen said. The zoo has been a pioneer in hosting live streams online of the animals over the years on their website and the virtual ambassadors programme too, has evoked good response so far.
To register for the virtual Zoo ambassadors camp, persons interested can log on to http://aazp.in/vzap/