How AcuRite Helps Animals and Visitors of the Santa Barbara Zoo

The Santa Barbara Zoo offers Zoo Camps and Zoo Schools for students age 3-15. Whether your child is homeschooled, or you want to setup a fieldtrip for your kid’s school, there are many activities for students to learn about wildlife and animals at the Santa Barbara Zoo! Read on below to learn how the Santa Barbara Zoo uses an AcuRite weather station for educational purposes and to help feed the animals.

Problem

Within the 30-acre-property, the Santa Barbara Zoo has a dedicated space to growing and cultivating their own food for the zoo animals year-round. This garden area is prone to harsh California summers, with many months of no rainfall and hot temperatures – while the winter months can allow for periods of heavy rainfall. The garden space is nearby the zoo’s outdoor classroom which is used by the Zoo Camps and Zoo Schools.

Solution

Trent Barnhart, Animal Nutritionist at the Santa Barbara Zoo, has installed an AcuRite 5-in-1 Weather Station with HD Display plus Access, which allows the station to report data to the My AcuRite website and app. Trent said his AcuRite weather station has been a great addition to their garden and outdoor classroom area!

Results

By installing the AcuRite 5-in-1 Weather Station in the garden, the Santa Barbara Zoom team can better regulate the garden’s irrigation system. In the summer, they can be prepared for extra watering cycles when the weather station has reported multiple days of extreme heat. Alternatively, in the winter, they can measure exactly how much rainfall the garden has received and adjust their irrigation system accordingly.

Additionally, this process of understanding the weather for the benefit of the crops can be used as a learning experience for the visiting students. They can track short- and long-term temperature trends, measure daily, weekly, and seasonal rainfall accumulation, and also watch peak wind speeds during strong wind events.

The addition of a high-quality weather station will allow our participants to learn more about the weather and our ever-changing climate. We also participate in monarch monitoring which requires regular reporting of temperature and rainfall.

-Trent Barnhart, Animal Nutritionist, Santa Barbara Zoo