On August 6 a few visitors to Monkeyland, Birds of Eden and Jukani will, over and above searching for the resident wildlife, also have the opportunity to look for Pokémon characters with the launch of the sanctuaries’ first Pokémon Go tour. Photo: Ewald Stander
Several Plettenberg Bay animal sanctuaries are set to go wild for the latest in mobile gaming crazes with the introduction of a Pokémon Go tour.
Pokémon Go is a location-based augmented reality mobile game developed by Niantic for iOS and Android devices, and about 40-million people have downloaded it since its launch earlier this month.
It is part of the Japanese Pokémon franchise, which was created in 1995, about fictional creatures called Pokémon, trained for battle by humans. It started out as video games, but later expanded to include trading card games, animated television shows, movies, comic books and toys.
During the first week of its release it became the most downloaded Apple App Store app and have seen young and old search their surroundings for these Pokémon characters.
The app allows the user to see their surroundings – whether it is a street or a park or area where you can walk around – through their mobile device using its camera. While walking around, a Pokémon character will appear on the screen and the user can catch it with a “Poké ball”.
These Poké balls can be collected at various PokéStops which can be anything from an area landmark, to a community location such as a church or a post office.
“It turns out both our Monkeyland and Jukani sanctuary gates are PokéStops,” spokesperson for the SA Animal Sanctuary Alliance, Vivjer Jonck said.
Jonck said after looking into the game and speaking to other players, she realised how “big it really was”.
“And what makes it so great is that it gets people walking. You have to walk in order for the game to work.”
Jonck said she and most of the staff at the parks found the game “so much fun” and therefore decided to introduce a Pokémon Go tour.
“Visitors will be able to stock up on some Poké balls at Monkeyland and then we follow the Pokemons through the sanctuary. When we are done there we will go to Birds of Eden to continue our search. We’ve noticed that because of all the dams and water at Birds of Eden, we found more water-based Pokémons there. We will finish the tour at Jukani where players can refill their Poké balls supplies.”
She added in between Pokemon searching, she would also provide players with information about the animals at all the sanctuaries.
“Not only does Pokémon Go get people moving, a tour of this nature is also going to help our conservation efforts.”
Jonck explained that each player will pay R140 to be part of the tour, but will include visits to all three sanctuaries, which usually cost R400.
“The game also allows you to take photographs of your surroundings with a Pokémon character in it, so we will also have a prize up for grabs for the best photograph with both character and a sanctuary animal in it.”
There are 17 spots on the tour and can be booked by contacting info@saasa.org.za.
Article courtesy of Knysna-Plett Herald
