LEGO Zoo #0014: Audio Tour Kiosk

This week's playset is a little outdated in the age of smartphones, but it was a fun challenge to try to replicate in LEGOs.  At a lot of museums and zoos you can rent a pre-recorded audio tour from the audio tour kiosk:

This kiosk provides headsets that are programmed to provide information about the animals in a particular enclosure when the corresponding numeric code is entered:

The theming in the kiosk uses the motif of insects to relate the complex communication methods used by insects to the information provided by the audio tour.  You have your choice of headsets from a variety of colorful beetles:

Will has already selected a headset and is enjoying learning all kinds of fascinating facts about the audio tour kiosk:

The cashier desk repeats the insect motif with a sculpture of butterflies and beetles:

Guests with smartphones can also get information about education apps they can use throughout the zoo.

WARNING:  When using the audio tour, look both ways before crossing keeper pathways:

Minifigures:
Arnold, Will 

Created with LEGO Digital Designer

LEGO Zoo #0013: Rabbit Hutch

As today is Easter Sunday, this week's playset features the rabbit hutch previously mentioned in this post:

A hutch is a very simple building designed to protect free-ranging rabbits from the elements and from natural predators.  This one is designed to match the Dutch colonial style characteristic of the LEGO Zoo's petting zoo:

Domestic rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) are varieties of the European rabbit that have been selectively bred by humans.  As with other species in the petting zoo, both of the breeds shown here originated in America.  The one currently in the hutch is a cinnamon rabbit, which can grow up to 11 lbs. in weight:

When the weather is nice, the rabbits can leave the hutch and graze freely in the side yard.  This one is an American rabbit, a large white breed that was originally a greyish-blue color:

Meredith, one of the petting zoo keepers, has finally reached the rabbit hutch with her cartload of vegetables after having left the nutrition center several weeks ago:

The door at the back of the hutch allows Meredith to easily access the rabbits' food dish and clean out the hutch:

Here are the two sets shown together:

The petting zoo is slowly coming together.  Here is the rabbit hutch alongside its sister set, the pig petting corral:

Animals and Minifigures:
rabbits (2), Meredith

Created with LEGO Digital Designer

LEGO Zoo #0012: Water Fountain

Here's a water fountain.  That's all I have time for this week.

What's that you say?  There's no water?  Fine, here's some water made with MS Paint.

 

Created with LEGO Digital Designer

LEGO Zoo #0011: Macaw Perch

I'm in the thickest clump of deadlines for the semester, so I had to push this design back by a week.  I'm also keeping it small.  The design in this playset demonstrates that not all enclosures need obvious barriers to keep the animals contained.  One popular and simple design for birds with clipped wings is to display them on a natural tree with plenty of roosting spots, and the birds will happily remain on their perches all day.  This one is designed for multiple species of macaw:

Thick natural foliage among the lower branches discourages the birds from climbing down to the ground, and keeping the upper canopy complete offers the birds shade from the sun:

Macaws are a colorful family of large pounds found in Central and South America.  They are highly intelligent and can live up to 70 years in captivity.  The perch allows zoo visitors to view the birds from below, as they would in the wild:

Pedro is a scarlet macaw, one of the  more common species.  He is feeding on one of the pieces of fruit attached to the perch daily by the keepers.  An advantage of using natural trees for perches is that branches that are too small to hold birds can still be used as skewers for food or supports for enrichment devices.

Maria is a hyacinth macaw, the longest species of parrot in the world, from beak to tail:

Macaws have incredible dexterity with their feet and can easily hang upside-down from a branch to reach food on lower branches.  Here, Maria is going for the banana offered to her by Andrea the docent:

Animals and Minifigures:
macaws (2), Andrea

Created with LEGO Digital Designer