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ZOO/WILD's 2012 Activities . . .
Sally made two side trips during her visit, one to Bangladesh and from Bangladesh to Nepal.
Bangladesh: In Bangladesh she discussed current activities of the Ministry and Zoo with senior officials and officers regarding the renovation of the zoo. As usual, she stressed the need for continuity of all levels of staff members and long term, serious zoo management training at all levels. She conducted a short but serious inspection of the zoo premises over two days, to the extent possible in a short time, using the WAZA Zoo Assessment Tool Model. Sally used the model to compare Dhaka Zoo of today with years past as well as to ascertain its overall quality in all respects. This was to establish whether sufficient improvement had been made to justify the order of over 250 exotic animals from South Africa. The Dhaka Zoo condition had not improved much and Sally conveyed her overall opinion in a recent issue of ZOOS’ PRINT (see www.zoosprint.org).
The Dhaka Zoo has a lot of work to do to make the zoo fit for our precious wild animals. This leopard spent his time lying in the middle of his cage, which was open on all sides, to get as far from the jeering public as possible. He seemed to have nothing left of life except total despair. Photo by Sally Walker.
Sally encouraged the Dhaka Zoo people to start a Bangladesh Zoo Association involving all the zoos in the country. Mr. Abdur Razzaque, former D.G., Animal Husbandry Department, will help out with this. Zoo and Ministry officials informed that the Bangladesh Zoo Act would be passed soon. A report of Sally’s visit and the Dhaka Zoo Crisis can be found in ZOOS’ PRINT, June 2012 at www.zooreach.org.
Nepal:
In Nepal Sally attended the first meeting of the Nepal Zoo Network, a brainchild of Director of NTNC/Central Zoo, Sarita Jnawali. The meeting went very well with all attendees on board with the new idea of a national network and meeting often to discuss and hopefully solve some of the problems. Sarita Jnawali showed Sally around the entire Central Zoo which, for the last year and a half, NTNC/Central Zoo have been making dramatic renovations to the small zoo. Already it could be seen that animals were more comfortable, safe and at the same time more easily seen by visitors. Important landscaping has been done and also still in process, making the zoo more attractive and spacious while adding to animals and visitors comfort. The NTNC/Central Zoo runs an outstanding education programme supported largely by memberships in their Friends of the Zoo of which there are over 100,000 members. Central Zoo is now on the right track in all aspects, e.g., conservation, animal welfare, training of staff, veterinary care, nutrition, signage, education programmes; you name it ... they got it. See details of Central Zoo's work in July 2012, ZOOS' PRINT.
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D.G. Wildlife along with Director, Central Zoo ran the first meeting of the Nepal Zoo Network. Zoo owners and directors from all over Nepal attended. Photo by Rachana Shah, Central Zoo. |
Sally, now in USA, will attend a meeting of Association Chairs and WAZA Council mid-August before returning to India in September and from there going to Melbourne to attend CBSG and WAZA.
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