Just Where Are Zoos Going?

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Just Where Are Zoos Going?

I am all in favor of training zoo animals. It occupies their minds, it exercises their body and makes shifting and medical procedures so much easier. To my way of looking at it all good Zoo Keepers are Trainers and all good Trainers are Zoo Keepers. It is all about animal husbandry and complete care. Good training has the extra benefit of interesting the public and gives the opportunity to educate visitors. It is Edutainment and at its best can raise extra cash for the collection and for conservation.

Where I draw the line is when training becomes 'circus'. Where animals are pulled from their mothers and bottle raised for performances. Where freaks are used in shows. Where animals are presented in settings which do nothing for the natural.

Anyone who knows me is only to aware that I am wholly against hands on with big cats be it for 'walks' or using them as photographic stooges. So it will come as no surprise that when I read of the plans of Zoo d’Amnéville en Lorraine, an EAZA member I was both shocked and disappointed. Just what are they thinking about?

They have planned for 2015....'Tiger World'........ Okay I have said my piece, here is the Google translation and link to the article:

Tiger World Zoo Amneville Lorraine

The Amneville Zoo in April 2015 is expected to usher in a new space for tigers. Called "Tiger World" project, which is a private investment of $ 14 million, includes an arena 15 meters high with the 1854 seats. Show a single tiger in the world will be given in a breathtaking backdrop.

The tiger enclosures, host cats between two representations is already completed, so that the training of wild animals can already begin. The theater, which is itself under construction, should be ready in April 2014, a year before the public opening. Trainers will have time to work with animals in this new environment. They need to build a relationship of trust with the tigers at an early age.eleven or twelve tigers should be involved in future show.However, the training program was built with eighteen tigers. Some animals are indeed not suitable for training as they can be too aggressive or too unruly. Others have instead been brought to bottle and thus have easy contact with humans. It should be able to choose those that best lend themselves to the show. Fifteen of the eighteen tigers have already arrived at the zoo. These are Siberian tigers, Bengal tigers and white tigers who have less than a year. Three were born in Amneville, couples presented at the zoo. The others come from various zoos and circuses in Europe. Before entering the room, the public borrow a themed corridor in which it is aware of the protection of tigers. The circular arena will be completely hidden by a jungle landscape with vegetation, rocks, ponds and waterfalls. The show will take place in a setting of Khmer temples. The tiger cage is suspended from the ceiling and descend on the scene time representation. With this new investment,Amneville Zoo will have an indoor heated room that will make it more attractive in case of bad weather. The show will also be given during the Christmas season and be offered to business committees. The structure will finally host seminars and professional events. All should generate additional revenue for the zoo.

Follow the link to read original article   http://www.obiwi.fr/voyage-decouvertes/escapades/98600-tiger-world-au-zoo-d-amneville-en-lorraine 

Tell me I've got it all wrong. I will sleep better. The only bit I like in the above is the "themed corridor".

EAZA IUCN/SSC Southeast Asia Campaign

EAZA IUCN/SSC Southeast Asia Campaign

The leading zoos and aquariums of Europe, through the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), and the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) raise funds and awareness for the conservation of the biodiversity of Southeast Asia. The IUCN/SSC has identified that big animals, those over 1kg, in Southeast Asia are declining most rapidly and that without immediate action could disappear forever.

The EAZA-IUCN SSC Southeast Asia campaign aims to raise €750,000 towards projects conserving this amazing diversity of life on our planet.

Help to halt the biodiversity crisis in Southeast Asia and join us now!

TO LEARN MORE OF HOW YOU CAN HELP PLEASE CLICK
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EAZA Academy - Prospectus 2011

EAZA Academy - Prospectus 2011

Dear Colleagues,

We are delighted to send you the first ever EAZA Academy prospectus (see link below) detailing the training opportunities available over the next few months. From breeding programme management to collection planning, from planning new education programmes to conservation psychology, we hope to deliver training across a spectrum of disciplines; this prospectus represents the first fruits of the generous donation from Fondation Segré, which enabled EAZA to hire a dedicated Training Officer, Myfanwy Griffiths.

This prospectus will be a developing, living document, over time featuring increasing numbers of training opportunities. Most editions of the prospectus, including this first edition, will not be published in print. Therefore we would be grateful if you could ensure that the attached document is forwarded to as many of your staff and interested colleagues as possible.

I would like to draw special attention to the first ever EAZA course on zoo management, to be taught by peers with both Masters of Business Administration qualifications and collectively decades of practical management experience in zoos and beyond. The Introduction to Zoo and Aquarium Management will take place in Amsterdam from 30 August to 1 September. If you have staff in your facility that would benefit from this three-day course then please do consider sending them to sunny Amsterdam to learn more.

You will note that two of the listed courses take place in venues outside of the EAZA Executive Office and we would be interested to hear from zoos and aquariums from around the EAZA membership that would be able to host training courses. In addition if you feel you have teaching skills that would benefit the Academy and would like to find out more about teaching on courses then please contact myfanwy.griffith@eaza.net

We hope you enjoy reading the prospectus and we look forward to seeing you on EAZA Academy training courses in the near future.

Warmest regards,

Dr Lesley Dickie
Executive Director, EAZA

P.S. You can find the prospectus on the EAZA Academy pages on our website, where you'll also find the forms you need to apply for courses. Look for the EAZA Academy logo on the front page.

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Zooquaria 72 - Winter 2010

- Opinion: Monkeys for nothing and your chicks for free 
- Photos and notes from the Verona conference
- The opening of Yukon Bay in Hannover
- Ape Campaign: the first projects are picked
- Creating a venomous reptile ICP at Leipzig
- Przewalski's horses in Hungary
- Update from Africa with PAAZAB
- Progress with ZIMS at Givskud Zoo
- The new EAZA website one year later
- Sea turtle husbandry
- Breeding programme focus: the Mexican military macaw ESB
- Report from the CBSG and WAZA conferences in Cologne
...and enrichment in Eskilstuna, a new Conservation Education Strategy, a PHVA for the red panda, representation in Brussels, the latest news from the EEO, and more!

To download and read please click

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'No Mirrors Involved'

Snow Leopards

Photo supplied by Peter Litherland of the

Welsh Mountain Zoo

 

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EAZA Conservation Forum 2010

EAZA Conservation Forum 2010

"Working for Biodiversity"

29th June - 2nd July

Hosted by the Papiliorama Foundation, Switzerland

Coinciding with the International Year of Biodiversity, the EAZA Conservation Forum 2010, hosted by the Papiliorama Foundation in Switzerland, will take place at the Loewenberg Centre close to the Papiliorama Swiss Tropical Gardens.

Key themes for discussion will include:

The extinction crisis in Southeast Asia

European endangered species

Focus on apes, ahead of the EAZA Ape Campaign

A special emphasis will be placed on the involvement of local communities in biodiversity conservation and on how conservation success can be measured.

Learn more by Clicking HERE

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Register Now for the EAZA Conservation Forum 2010

Register Now for the EAZA Conservation Forum 2010

EAZA Conservation Forum 2010

“Working for Biodiversity”

Murten, Switzerland – June 29th to July 3rd

EAZA, the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, will hold its flagship event for the International Year of Biodiversity in Switzerland at the end of June. The EAZA Conservation Forum 2010 will be hosted by the Papiliorama Foundation and will take place in the medieval town of Murten, about twenty minutes from Bern.

Key themes for the Conservation Forum will include:

· The extinction crisis in Southeast Asia – keynote from Simon Stuart, IUCN-SSC

· European endangered species – keynote from Eladio Fernandez Galiano, Council of Europe

· The threat to all species of apes – keynote from Thomas Breuer, WCS Congo

For more information on how to register, or for information about submitting a presentation proposal, please visit the EAZA website: http://www.eaza.net/activities/Pages/Conservation2010.aspx

Troubled Times in Kiev Zoo

Tight Times in Ukraine Means Cramped Quarters for Its Zoo Animals

Tatyana Shvets strode through the Kiev Zoo recently as if it were her own backyard, feeding scraps of bread to the bison (“Hello, my dears!”), cooing to the storks (“Oh, you must be cold!”) and lavishing love upon every creature in sight, as she has since she first visited as a child half a century ago.




But often enough, her glee turned to dismay.



The camels’ corral was a mess, she insisted. The elephant was scrawny. The hippopotamus seemed depressed. And the monkeys’ cramped accommodations?



“God, what a nightmare,” she said.



Ms. Shvets chased after and berated zoo workers, making mental notes about complaints that she would send to the zoo’s management. There was a lot to write up.



The Kiev Zoo, it seems, has seen better days. Ukraine’s government is in disarray and the political discord has been unrelenting — and, yes, now even the lions and tigers and bears have been drawn in.



The zoo was expelled from the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria in 2007 over poor conditions and mistreatment of animals. Advocates and former workers maintained that a giraffe and other animals died from the zoo’s ineptitude, and that money was siphoned from the zoo’s budget through corrupt schemes.



The zoo’s director was dismissed last year by Kiev’s eccentric mayor, Leonid M. Chernovetsky, after failing to find a mate for an elephant — or so Mr. Chernovetsky said. The new director has stirred an uproar among the staff for her supposedly tyrannical ways, and in October, a brawl erupted among workers during a celebration of the zoo’s centennial.



Lately, animal rights advocates, including Ms. Shvets, have contended that the zoo’s distress has been orchestrated by top city officials who want to sell the zoo’s choice urban real estate to developers and move the animals to the suburbs. The advocates call the strategy, “No animal, no problem,” a play on Stalin’s infamous saying, “No person, no problem.”



“This is being done so there are less and less animals, and they can make money from the land,” said Ms. Shvets, 60, a retired government worker. “The authorities in Kiev these days, all they care about is money.”



The troubles are not always immediately obvious. During a walk around the zoo on a Saturday morning, the place seemed more shabby than squalid, as if it once aspired to great-zoo status but had fallen on hard times for lack of money and attention.



Still, advocates said the worst conditions were obscured behind closed doors, and they have circulated photographs
 
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