Sharyn Horowitz << back to resume

Project: Talking Storybooks

Client: Philadelphia Zoo

Role: Writer

Challenge: Communicate complex message in 45 seconds

Talking Storybooks are digital message repeaters at animal exhibits throughout the Philadelphia Zoo. Visitors purchase keys to operate the boxes. I also completed a research study on usage of the Talking Storybooks and presented the results at a meeting of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association.

Andean Condor

Andean Condors

Try this: stretch your arms out wide. Can you reach from one side of the path to the other? What if you hold hands with a friend? Two friends? If an Andean Condor stood on the path and stretched his wings, he could reach across almost the whole path all by himself. Soaring on their eight- to ten-foot wingspan, condors can fly 100 miles a day. As they fly, they search the ground for carrion.

Coati

Coati

Have you seen a raccoon sniffing around your garbage cans? If you were in Guatemala, you might see a coati doing the same thing. Coatis are members of the raccoon family. Like raccoons, coatis eat a variety of foods, including many items they find in garbage heaps. Since people make lots of garbage, coatis don't mind sharing space with us. That's unusual; most other animals of the tropical rainforest can't live alongside people. Thanks to their ability to adapt, coatis are plentiful throughout Central and South America.

Duiker

Red-flanked Duikers

At the Zoo, the duikers are easy to see. But it's not that way in Africa. I'm Karl Kranz, and I'm in charge of animal husbandry at the Zoo. In 1983, I spent three months in Liberia and never saw the kind of duiker I came to study. I saw some live duikers, but mostly I saw duiker meat in the market and duiker skins in people's homes. If the duikers die out, it's a double tragedy: the world will lose these fascinating animals, and the people will lose a much-needed source of protein. But with careful management, duikers will survive and continue to be a resource. The Philadelphia Zoo is working with the Chipingali Wildlife Trust on research that will help manage the duikers.

(I conceived the idea of Dr. Kranz telling the duikers' story. In the past, Talking Storybook audio had always been recorded by professionals. Once we got Dr. Kranz in the studio, the producer and I worked with him to improve his delivery.)