zoo husbandry

The first manuals on zoo husbandry

Ram Brahma Sanyal 1858-1908

 •First Superintendent of Calcutta Zoological Gardens

•One of the earliest zookeepers trained as a biologist

•Succeeded in captive breeding Sumatran rhino in 1889 (next success was 2001)

•Corresponding member of the Zoological Society of London

•Wrote the first Zoo Husbandry Book

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Lee Crandall – General Curator of Bronx Zoo 1943 – 1952

• Book first published in 1964 

• Summarised 50 years of observations on feeding, housing, reproduction and longevity

Modern animal husbandry

⭐️Zoo licencing act 1981 (amended 2002) is key for regulating UK zoo animal husbandry

•UK version of the EC Zoos Directive for EU Member States (Directive 1999/22/EC)

•All zoos displaying wild animals to the public for more than 7 days per year must have a license

•Must also undergo full inspections every 10 years, with an interim inspection at year six

•Aims to ensure that captive animals are provided with a suitable environment and opportunity to express normal behaviour

•Maintains welfare under the Five Freedoms

Under the Act, zoos must operate according to the Secretary of State’s Standards of Modern Zoo Practice (SSSMZP)

Taxon Advisory Groups (TAGs)

•Each major taxonomic group has an advisory panel, which consist of a range of members:

•Zoo professionals including studbook keepers

•Scientists

•Conservationists (in-situ and ex-situ)

•Responsible for guiding:

•Husbandry – produce best practice guidelines

•Conservation

•Research

•System was originally developed in 1990 by AZA – then adopted by EAZA

-association of british and irish wild animal keepers

- american association of zoo keepers

Best practice guidelines example (EAZA)

Example for jaguar (Panthera onca)

Summarises:

•Biology e.g. taxonomy, longevity

•Field data e.g. ecology, diet

•Enclosure and housing design

•Feeding management

•Breeding management

•Behaviour

•Training

•Handling

•Veterinary considerations

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Husbandry

• Daily Inspections-

-legal reauirement, usually twice a day

-daily records

• Nutrition -

-Nutrition Advisory Group to the

Association of Zoos and Aquariums

-Database to compare nutritional content of food items and calculate overall nutritional composition of diets (zootrition)

• Health care-

-training needed for inspection

-may have chronic illness

• Post mortem-

-determine and record cause of death- vet staff

• Moving animals-

-new enclosures

-medical facilities

-different zoos

-need to look at movement laws of animals

• Population Management-

-appropriate group size maintained

- apart of captive breeding programme

- managed as metapopulations

Studbooks

Important tool to manage size, demographic stability and high level of genetic diversity in ex-situ populations

•Contains information on individual animals:

•Registration number

•Sex

•Birth date

•Parentage – used to calculate inbreeding/kinship

•Birth location

•Any zoo transfers or releases

•Death record

•Each studbook maintained by a “studbook

Species 360

Centralised database software to help manage animal records, medical histories, husbandry data and studbooks.

•Currently used by 1000+ zoological associations in 102 countries

•22000 species, 10 million animals, and 82 million medical records

•Widely used for research on zoo animals – improving both ex-situ husbandry and in-situ