South West Optics at Paignton Zoo: Thermal Vision Demonstration at the 101st Birthday Zoonanza Celebration
South West Optics at the Zoonanza
We here at South West Optics had the pleasure of being invited to Paignton Zoo’s Birthday Zoonanza, celebrating their 101st birthday. It was a great day, with an incredible atmosphere, packed full of of live music, a variety of activities, storytelling and animal enrichment-making. We were invited to the event to share our knowledge of thermal imaging devices with enthusiastic zoo visitors, giving them the chance to see the animals in a new and unexpected way through live demonstrations and the opportunity to use some of HIKMICRO's advanced thermal technology.
A Day at Gibbon Island
Excited for the day, we set off to Gibbon Island with all our gear, ready to demonstrate the HIKMICRO Habrok Thermal Binoculars and Lynx 2.0 Thermal Monocular. Visitors had the chance to try the devices themselves. After setting everything up, all that was left to do was wait for some curious participants to come by.
Luckily, the gibbons were a popular exhibit, and it didn’t take long for visitors to start lining up to learn about thermals. Once one person had a go, more followed, keeping us busy all day!
Bringing Thermal Imaging to Life
With the HIKMICRO Habrok Binoculars and the Lynx 2.0 Thermal Monocular in hand, we set to work demonstrating how thermals work, and explaining why they are so beneficial to wildlife observation, once out the way, everyone couldn't wait to have a go themselves.
With the HIKMICRO Habrok Binoculars and Lynx 2.0 Thermal Monocular in hand, we demonstrated how thermal imaging works and explained its benefits for wildlife observation, such as monitoring animal activity, tracking endangered species, and detecting health issues in animals. After that, everyone was eager to try it for themselves.
Sharing Our Passion for Thermal Optics
We loved sharing our knowledge with zoo visitors during the Birthday Zoonanza celebration, helping them discover the fascinating ways thermal imaging can enhance their wildlife observation experiences. We are in the perfect position to do this as South West Optics proudly offers the largest selection of thermal optics and thermal imaging devices available among birdwatching and nature observation specialty stores in the UK.
With the HIKMICRO thermals offering a variety of colour palettes, the children, in particular, found it great fun to flick through the the various options and see how it altered the view of the gibbons. They were also the quickest to learn how to use our thermal devices, which was great for us to see, though we're pretty sure some of the adults had just as much fun! We hope everyone we met left us feeling inspired and learnt something from about thermals.
Thermal Technology at the Paignton Zoo
Not only did we have a great day demonstrating the benefits of thermal spotters to the public, but we also gave a HIKMICRO Falcon FQ50 to Paignton Zoo for a few weeks. This will help them monitor their birds from a distance, particularly to keep an eye on nesting birds without disturbing them.
Check out the video below, from our YouTube channel where we go into a little more detail of how this will benefit them:
We had a great day showcasing HIKMICRO's thermal imaging devices to all those there celebrating Zoonanza and we loved being able to educate and give people a chance to view the gibbons through a completely different method. We really enjoyed ourselves and hope everyone else had as much fun as we did. We hope to get out and about some more to share our knowledge, so make sure you check back in to our blogs page to see what else we get up to!
Brands
Equipment
HIKMICRO Falcon FQ50 Pro 50mm 640x512 12µm 20mk Hand Held Thermal Imager Monocular
HIKMICRO Habrok 35mm 384px Multi-Spectrum Binoculars with 1000m LRF
HIKMICRO Habrok HE25L 25mm 5.5-22 x 60 4K Multi-Spectrum 256x192 <35mK 12um LRF Entry Level Thermal Binoculars
HIKMICRO Habrok Pro 35mm 640px Multi-Spectrum Binoculars with 1000m LRF
HIKMICRO Habrok Pro HQ50L Multi-Spectrum Thermal Binocular - 640px 50mm with 4K Optical Camera LRF and Harness
HIKMICRO Habrok Pro HX60L Multi-Spectrum Thermal Binocular - 1280px 60mm with 4K Optical Camera LRF and Harness
Useful Links
Night Vision & Thermal
Paignton Zoo
Partnerships
Thermals
Be sure to visit South West Optics for all your optical and thermal needs.