I have just heard that Chessington World of Adventures are banning guests from wearing animal print in the park as it is confusing the resident wildlife! The announcement made the BBC news but that doesn’t mean it is true. Merlin Entertainments have a long history of gaining valuable publicity from PR stunts and this might turn out to be just another of those. If it is I think it might be a bit counterproductive as this policy is something which is guaranteed to annoy people.
Frankly I have never heard of a wildlife park or zoo trying to tell guests what to wear and in the absence of any headline stories about an unfortunate member of the public in a zebra onesie being eaten by a lion, I am not surprised. The news story claims that animal prints are confusing the wildlife at the park particularly on the new Zufari safari ride.
The mention of Zufari makes me even more suspicious. This was the parks new attraction for 2013 but it wouldn’t shock me to learn that it has not dragged hoards of new visitors to the park. The experience on this ride is rather underwhelming to say the least. There are few animals to encounter en route and most of the ones that are there are giraffes. Passengers are transported in large trucks and I don’t believe for one second that even a myopic rhino with no sense of smell would mistake a safari jeep full of people for a wild animal. There is another problem too. This is an attraction that will appeal most to small children but small children can’t ride because there is a height restriction of 1.0m.
Previous publicity stunts have included Thorpe Park’s announcement that Storm Surge was being built on a haunted site or that test dummies on the Swarm had had their arms severed on the circuit! Then there was the invitation to donate urine samples for the sensory experience at the Saw Maze! Yes some people actually fell for that one and turned up vials in hand!
I suppose it is possible to argue that animals could be confused by clothing but it is a bit of a stretch and apart from on the Zufari ride, the wildlife is not roaming free. Visitors to the park are not in imminent danger of being hunted by the lions or pounced on by tigers. Having said that a binturong did recently escape from its enclosure only to be eaten by the neighbouring lions in full view of the guests! If a big cat was to escape would an animal print dress make a visitor a target? I don’t think lions are that discerning. I am sure they would view a person as a decent meal whether they actually looked like a zebra or not. The policy seems even more ludicrous when you consider the Madagascar show which is one of the highlights of the park. Here actors are dressed as, yes you’ve guessed it, animals!
The next time I visit Chessington I will leave my nice Masai tunic at home but not because I have concerns about the reactions of the animals or the policy of the park. I would never wear anything nice to Chessington because of the globs of oil that can assault you on the Vampire coaster and the inevitability of getting soaked on the water rides.
Byline
Article by Sally Stacey