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Neither format is a universal winner. Educational touchscreen games have increased knowledge of specific scientific ideas in zoo exhibits, and one game increased interest in science. Separate randomized studies found that seeing a live animal experience produced stronger knowledge, emotional, empathy, and conservation-intent outcomes than watching a recording of the same or a comparable experience. Those studies did not directly compare a general-purpose video game with a live display, so the useful question is not which format wins in every case. It is which outcome you need—attention, learning, emotional connection, or conservation action—and how the activity is designed and facilitated.
What “engagement” should mean in a zoo
Engagement is not one score. A visitor can spend ten minutes at a screen without learning, or spend two focused minutes watching an animal and leave with a stronger conservation intention. Evaluate the outcome you actually care about.
| Engagement dimension | What to measure | What the available evidence can and cannot show |
|---|---|---|
| Attention and time | Dwell time, observed interaction, attention to animals or interpretation | Shows opportunity for engagement, not automatically learning or action. |
| Learning | Immediate knowledge or recall of the scientific idea presented | Game studies found gains for specific findings; persistence over time is less established. |
| Affect and connection | Enjoyment, emotional response, empathy and concern for animals | Live encounters outperformed control conditions in separate experiments; results are context-specific. |
| Conservation outcomes | Stated intention to support conservation or change behavior | Intent is not the same as verified behavior. |
| Audience and context | Age, species, exhibit layout, group composition, facilitation and activity purpose | Different samples and settings mean results should not be generalized to every zoo. |
This distinction also prevents a common category error: a video game, a video recording of an animal and a live animal display are different interventions. Evidence comparing recorded and live encounters cannot be presented as a direct test of games against live displays.
What educational zoo games have demonstrated
Touchscreen games at Marwell and Edinburgh
A 2014 PLOS ONE evaluation examined touchscreen public-engagement games at Marwell Zoo’s Macaque Study Centre and Edinburgh Zoo’s Budongo Trail chimpanzee exhibit. Both games increased visitors’ knowledge of the particular scientific findings they presented. Only one of the two games produced a statistically significant increase in interest in science.
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Visitors younger than 16 were significantly more likely to engage with the games. That age pattern matters for planning: a game can be useful for a family audience even when adult participation is lower, but the finding does not show that every child will play or that every game will improve learning.
The evidence supports educational games as a tool with a defined job—making a scientific idea interactive—not as a guarantee of broad engagement. The question is whether the game’s mechanics require visitors to think about the exhibit’s subject. A quiz that simply rewards rapid tapping may generate activity without producing the knowledge gain observed in these studies.
What the game studies do not establish
- They do not compare a touchscreen game and a live display in the same experiment, at the same site, with the same visitors.
- They do not show that game-based learning persists months later.
- They do not establish an effect on animal welfare, animal behavior or verified conservation action.
- They do not show that installing a screen, without educational content and suitable placement, increases engagement.
What live animal experiences have demonstrated
Brookfield Zoo’s randomized polar-bear study
A 2020 Zoo Biology study randomly assigned 124 Brookfield Zoo members to one of three conditions: a live polar-bear training session, a video of that same session, or an audio-based control. Compared with the control, the live condition was associated with a higher probability of correct answers, a more positive emotional experience, greater empathic concern for wild bears and stronger conservation intent.
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The 2025 in-person versus recorded viewing study
A later study randomly assigned 300 zoo members to in-person viewing with touch, in-person viewing without touch, or video-recorded viewing. Participants watched elephant or stingray encounters. Video viewers scored significantly lower than in-person viewers on every measured outcome except knowledge. There was no significant difference between the two in-person conditions, so adding touch did not produce a detectable advantage in this experiment.
Species also mattered: stingray participants had lower scores than elephant participants. The sample therefore cannot support a blanket claim about every animal, encounter or audience. It does show a recurring direction across several outcomes: being physically present may strengthen affective and conservation-related responses even when recorded video can convey comparable factual information.
Attention, dwell time and the limits of time-based comparisons
Lincoln Park Zoo observation
Researchers at Lincoln Park Zoo’s Regenstein African Journey tracked 338 visitors over nine weeks. The observations were made in 2003 and published in 2009. The median visit to the exhibit was 11.08 minutes; visitors spent 41% of that time looking at animals and 9% engaging with interpretive elements.
Those percentages describe that exhibit and that observation period. They are not a universal benchmark for how long visitors should use a game or watch an animal. They also illustrate why dwell time must be paired with another measure: a longer stay may create more opportunities to notice interpretation, but it does not prove that a visitor understood it.
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Staff and guide effects in free-flight aviaries
A 2023 Zoo Biology study of two free-flight aviaries found that visitors who used a bird guide stayed 59% to 82% longer than visitors who did not use one. Visitors who conversed with exhibit-specific staff stayed 67% to 89% longer. These are associations in particular aviaries, not proof that a guide or conversation caused every extra minute.
The practical lesson is that a low-tech aid or a trained person can hold attention as effectively as a digital installation. If a zoo wants to test a game, it should measure it against the existing interpretation and staff support rather than assuming the new screen is responsible for any change.
Why exhibit design and interpretation change the result
Interactive interpretation at ZooTampa
In a ZooTampa interactive lorikeet aviary, visitors preferred interacting with a live interpreter to reading posted signage. Interaction with the animals was the strongest indicator of the desired outcomes measured in that study. A live interpreter could answer questions, direct attention to behavior and adapt the explanation to the group in a way a fixed sign could not.
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Walk-through versus traditional exhibits
A 2019 Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research study comparing walk-through and traditional exhibits found more surface-level and deeper-level visitor comments at walk-through exhibits. Educators or volunteers could enhance engagement. The study also identified an important boundary: more comments do not by themselves demonstrate that visitors developed conservation knowledge or took conservation action.
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For a planner, this means the physical route, sightlines, animal activity, signage and human facilitation may matter as much as the choice between screen and live display. A game placed where visitors cannot see the animal may compete with the exhibit; a game that prompts visitors to look for a behavior can connect digital interaction to the live setting.
Why a screen alone may not increase engagement
At a Zoo Atlanta orangutan exhibit, activating an on-exhibit touchscreen did not change visitor stay time or overall experience ratings. Visitors nevertheless reported positive attitudes toward the technology. This result is not a contradiction of the educational-game findings. It separates acceptance of technology from measurable engagement and separates the presence of equipment from the quality of content.
A touchscreen can be ignored, used briefly or treated as entertainment. To test whether it helps, record what visitors do with it, what they learn and whether the activity changes their response to the animals or conservation message. Counting installations or positive opinions about technology is insufficient.
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| Question | Educational touchscreen game | Live animal experience | What can responsibly be concluded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Can it teach a specific scientific idea? | Yes, both evaluated zoo games increased knowledge of their targeted findings. | Yes; live conditions produced higher correct-answer probability than an audio control in the polar-bear study. | Both can teach, but the interventions and tests were different. |
| Does it increase interest or enjoyment? | Only one of the two evaluated games significantly increased interest in science; younger visitors engaged more often. | Live polar-bear training produced a more positive emotional experience than control; the 2025 study found lower scores for video on most outcomes. | Effects depend on the activity, audience and outcome. |
| Does it build empathy? | Not established by the cited game studies. | Live polar-bear training increased empathic concern for wild bears versus control. | Live contact has evidence for empathy in specific settings; do not transfer that claim to every display. |
| Does it increase conservation intent? | Not established by the cited game evaluations. | Live polar-bear training increased conservation intent versus control; in-person viewing also outperformed video on several outcomes in 2025. | Intent was measured, not verified conservation behavior. |
| Does it hold visitors longer? | Game interaction was observed, but the cited evaluations do not provide a universal dwell-time advantage. | Live displays can attract attention, while staff and guides were associated with longer stays in aviaries. | Measure dwell time locally; do not infer it from format. |
Choosing a format for a particular objective
Choose an educational game when
- The learning objective can be expressed as a decision, puzzle, prediction or feedback loop.
- You need a repeatable explanation that can operate when educators are unavailable.
- Your audience includes children and families; visitors under 16 were more likely to engage in the cited game evaluation.
- You can connect each task to an animal, behavior or scientific finding visible in the exhibit.
Prioritize a live display or encounter when
- You want visitors to notice behavior, feel an emotional connection or consider the animal’s welfare and wild counterparts.
- The experience benefits from real-time interpretation, questions or social presence.
- You can manage crowding, accessibility, animal choice and predictable viewing conditions.
- You are measuring empathy or conservation intent, outcomes for which live conditions showed advantages over controls or recordings in the cited studies.
Combine the formats when their jobs are different
A strong hybrid sequence might begin with a short game that asks visitors to predict how an animal will behave, direct them to observe the live animal, and then offer an interpreter or follow-up prompt. The game supplies an active question; the animal supplies evidence and emotion; the person or final prompt helps visitors connect the observation to conservation. This is a design pattern, not a result tested as a single package in the cited studies, so evaluate it rather than promising an effect.
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How to evaluate a zoo game or live display
- Write one primary outcome. Specify whether the goal is dwell time, a knowledge item, emotional response, empathy or conservation intent. Add secondary outcomes only when you can measure them reliably.
- Define the audience and setting. Record age group, membership status, group size, species, exhibit type, time of day and whether an educator or volunteer was present. These variables differed across the available studies.
- Use a meaningful comparison. Compare the new game with the current sign, staff interaction or ordinary viewing. If you compare live and recorded experiences, label the comparison accurately; it is not a game-versus-live trial.
- Measure behavior as well as opinion. Log starts, completions, repeat use, observed attention and time. Collect a brief knowledge or attitude measure rather than relying only on visitors saying they liked the technology.
- Keep questions tied to the content. Ask about the scientific finding, species or conservation issue actually presented. Avoid a general quiz that cannot reveal what the intervention taught.
- Account for facilitation. Note whether staff prompted visitors, answered questions or demonstrated an activity. The aviary studies show that staff conversation can coincide with substantially longer stays.
- Check for unequal access. Test readability, reach, language, hearing and vision access, queueing and whether a group can participate without one person controlling the device.
- Follow up when the claim is important. An exit response measures immediate effect. A later survey or observed action is needed before claiming durable learning or behavior change.
- Report uncertainty. Give the sample size, species and exhibit, describe the comparison, and avoid presenting a local association as a universal effect.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
- Calling every digital activity a video game. A touchscreen quiz, an interactive simulation and a video recording have different mechanisms and should be named separately.
- Using dwell time as a proxy for learning. Pair observation with a content-specific knowledge measure.
- Assuming realism always wins. Live viewing can strengthen affective outcomes, but a well-designed game may explain an invisible process more clearly than a brief animal sighting.
- Assuming touch adds value. In the 2025 study, in-person viewing with touch did not differ significantly from in-person viewing without touch.
- Ignoring species differences. Stingray participants scored lower than elephant participants in that study; animal type and encounter design can influence results.
- Treating stated intent as action. A visitor who says they intend to support conservation has not necessarily changed behavior.
- Installing hardware without content planning. The Zoo Atlanta touchscreen study found no change in stay time or overall experience ratings despite positive attitudes toward the technology.
- Overclaiming from one audience. Zoo members, children, families and casual tourists may respond differently.
What visitors and educators can take from the evidence
If you are visiting with children, an educational game can be a useful prompt: ask what the game predicts, then look for the behavior or feature in the enclosure. If you are teaching a group, use the live animal or interpreter for questions that depend on observation and empathy, and use a game for classification, sequencing or testing a hypothesis. Do not judge the success of either activity solely by how long the group remains nearby.
For visitors who prefer a self-guided experience, a printed field guide is also a reasonable aid. In the two free-flight aviaries studied in 2023, guide users stayed 59% to 82% longer than non-users. That finding is specific to those aviaries and shows association rather than causation; it does not validate any particular commercial guide.
Evidence boundaries
The available literature does not provide a matched, same-site, same-sample trial of general video games versus live animal displays. The strongest direct digital-versus-live evidence concerns video recordings of animal experiences. Game evaluations focused on particular touchscreen activities and scientific knowledge. Observational studies measured time, comments or interactions in specific exhibits. Because the measures, species, audiences and settings differ, combining them into one engagement score would create a false precision.
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Bottom line
Use an educational game when you need an active, repeatable way to teach a defined idea; use a live animal experience when presence, emotion, empathy or conservation intention is central; and measure both rather than assuming either format is engaging by default. The evidence favors careful matching of format to outcome, not a universal verdict for games or live displays.
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