Animal Keeper's Association of Africa

JOHANNESURG ZOO/SRE DEVELOPMENTS/ANIMAL KEEPERS ASSOCIATION OF AFRICA (AKAA)/ AFRICAN ASSOCIATION OF ZOOS AND AQUARIA (PAAZAB)  ASSISTANCE TO THE UGANDA WILDLIFE EDUCATION CENTRE (UWEC)

Report back
Mr Dominic Moss (Executive Manager - Conservation & Research, Johannesburg Zoo; AKAA Vice-Chair and PAAZAB Conservation Research Committee Member) & Mr John Werth (Regent & Patron - AKAA and Associate Member & Patron - PAAZAB)

The Brief
The World Zoos and Aquariums Conservation Strategy (WZACS), encourages members to: “Become a centre of ex situ conservation excellence, following best practice guidelines and participating in skills transfer initiatives within Africa”. In the light of this mandate and following a request from the Executive Director of The Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC), Dr Andrew Seguya; Mr Dominic Moss & Mr John Werth, were invited to UWEC, to assist with the development of their Animal Department with an emphasis on career pathing, succession planning and training. What we did not know until our arrival, was that the time frame in which we had to have this all ratified by the Executive Director & Management before presentation to the UWEC Board of Governors. We had 7 and 9 days respectively - nothing like a bit of pressure. In addition to this, we were asked to survey/assess the facility & the procedures at UWEC with respect to the PAAZAB Operational Standards for compliance in 2011 by UWEC to these standards.

The suggested initial four prong approach aimed to focus on:

• The creation of an Animal Department Manual for UWEC.
• To work through and implement where possible with, The Standardized Guidelines for Animal Care which was put together and used as a template for a similar Training Exercise in Egypt. 
• To work through the PAAZAB Operational Standards Requirements and the alignment of UWEC to them. 
• To do training and lectures for the Keepers on a range of different topics (from basic animal nutrition to record keeping as so on).

The Outcome
We are pleased to report that all these areas were successfully addressed with very positive outcomes. An Animal Department Manual was created, Standardised Guidelines for Animal Care were worked through with every Keeper, PAAZAB Operational Standards were linked to daily activities and Dominic presented lectures on varied topics. A real highlight was being invited to an early morning blood sampling session with the Rhino Keepers. What made this particularly interesting was that, not only had the training been done by the Keepers (no formal course), but that the blood samples are able to be taken on a regular basis by just 2 Keepers.

Communication
The dedication & willingness of the staff to learn & most of all, for them to share their knowledge & experience turned our ‘mission’ into an interactive learning process. What became apparent yet again is that Africa has a tremendous amount of experiential knowledge which would be beneficial to Keepers & Zoos worldwide.  One of the biggest challenges within Africa is effective communication and one of the benefits of our visit was the development of an information ‘node’ at UWEC. Thanks to a very helpful & knowledgeable Information and Technology (IT) staff member, Ivan. This sharing of information is being made easier through the new structure of the Animal Keepers Association of Africa (AKAA) Website & will be expanded by setting up of local ‘nodes’ at other African facilities. These ‘nodes’ will now allow interactive networking via AKAA.  

Education and Outreach
Following on from a successful AKAA & Ed4PAAZAB symposium earlier this year in which we linked Zoo Educators & Zoo Keepers, Elize de Jager of The National Zoological Gardens (NZG) accompanied us to UWEC to see how they combined Educator & Keeper roles. UWEC also forms part of her PhD thesis. As far as Keepers & Educators working together, we were about to learn from Africa.  Keepers & Educators work in synergy to present very successful outreach programs into the communities. The Keepers not only take care of the live animals, but actively help the Educators with educating the communities. Taking live animals on outreach helps to enforce the message & give the communities a better understanding surrounding the conservation of wildlife.     

AKAA Membership  
All personnel of the Animal Department at UWEC either renewed their membership or joined AKAA as new members. AKAA/Ed4PAAZAB also welcomed its first member outside of South Africa in the form of The UWEC Education Manager responsible for outreach, Mr David Musingo. A meeting was very kindly arranged by UWEC head of Education between Executive Director of The Chimpanzee Sanctuary Wild-Life Conservation Trust (CSWCT) & John to discuss membership for the Keepers on Ngamba Island. An invitation was extended to Dominic & John to do a full day workshop on the island in November to cement this relationship.

Conclusion
Without an open minded approach and a willingness to share information, a mission like this would not be a success. We believe that all parties benefitted from our mission and that by creating career pathing and succession planning as well as the training and workshops, we made management and interactions easier which will be to the ultimate benefit to UWEC, conservation & education.  We would like to thank the following people and organisations for making this trip possible: Dr Stephen van Der Spuy and Johannesburg Zoo for their support of this mission, the UWEC team for their incredible hospitality & friendship and honest working relationship, SRE Developments cc for their sponsorship of this mission & PAAZAB for their trust & faith in us to undertake a mission of this magnitude.