Industry Leadership
Wellington Zoo aims to be at the forefront of the Zoo industry, supporting national and international breeding and conservation programmes and providing knowledge, expertise and leadership on wildlife care, conservation and learning.
We play a key role as part of the Australasian Regional Association of Zoological Parks and Aquaria (ARAZPA) working together on breeding programmes, animal management and exchanging knowledge on all aspects of Zoo life, including new animal enrichment techniques and new ways of telling our stories.
In March, Wellington Zoo hosted the ARAZPA conference at Te Papa. Two hundred of our colleagues from Zoos all over Australasia attended the conference, the theme of which was 2107: Facing the challenges of the coming century.
Keynote speaker Dr. Jackie Ogden, Director of Animal Programs at Walt Disney World Resort, presented findings about visitor motivation and the long-term effects visiting conservation organisations have on people’s willingness to change their behaviour from the American Zoological Association’s (AZA) Multi-Institutional Research Project (MIRP). This information is crucial to all of us in the zoo world as we endeavour to encourage people to act on the conservation messages they ‘take home’ from the Zoo.
A number of Wellington Zoo staff presented at the ARAZPA conference, both as part of the plenary sessions and in the more informal poster session. Sarah Satterthwaite, one of Wellington Zoo’s educators, wrote a booklet for use in all Australasian zoos that summarises the threat caused by palm oil plantations to orang-utans and other South East Asian wildlife. This publication was a finalist for the ARAZPA publications award.
Wellington Zoo staff contribute their knowledge and expertise to the international zoo community through various positions held in ARAZPA and other conservation organisations.
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