In a modest rectangle-shaped enclosure surrounded by sporadic green bushes, simply past the primary gate of San Diego Zoo Safari Park, a middle-aged hyacinth macaw blasts Daft Punk on his bespoke boombox. His name is Sampson and he likes to dance.
Sampson can run the boombox, appropriately called JoyBranch, by biting or hanging on to a sort of joystick made to appear like a piece of log with a branch extending from it. Movement sensing units (called BobTrigger) keep the music going as long as he bobs and nods, dipping his head in rhythm. Within weeks of its setup, the boombox altered the characteristics of Sampson’s interactions with visitors. To draw them in, he might rock out. When he tired of amusing, he might stop dancing to turn off the music. Most of the time, when the program was over, his visitors proceeded.
It’s actually about reconsidering the culture of zoos.
JoyBranch is among a variety of sound jobs at San Diego Zoo and other zoos around the nation that intend to offer captive animals more firm over their environments. The boombox entered into wanting Sampson’s caretakers saw just how much the bird took pleasure in grooving to the rhythms wafting from an iPhone throughout care sessions.