Animal counts

[Lafone]

I was looking at the annual stock list for Whipsnade recently and I was wondering about the public nature of the animal audit in some zoos.
ZSL Whipsnade and London and Marwell zoo etc here in the U.K. create some news stories around counting the stock with footage of keepers counting the seven otters they know they have etc and animals standing next to blackboards and what have you. Of course a side benefit is the publication of stock lists and annual counts from zoos who do it, which doesn’t seem to be that common but is great as a Zoo enthusiast!

Obviously stock lists and knowing where the animals are and in what number are important to any zoo. It stands to reason you don’t wait all year to check you have four lions, for example. But in some animals like rodents or insects they might be harder to keep track of I guess?

So I wondered how often stock takes / overall counts and ‘whole zoo’ audits are done, is an annual count standard practice or does it all completely vary across different zoos or countries?

Does it align to insurance or to animal programme management or is it institution specific?

I also wondered whether there is a hard link between the activity being annual and the publicity (as it can generate some nice coverage) and if the publicity is a driver or a side benefit?

 

[Torgos]

I think you already worked it out. I'm certain the concept of stocktaking a zoo is basically a fun publicity stunt. In reality if you don't know how many animals of which species are in your zoo you're pretty incompetent! All animals will normally be in a database where births, deaths, transfers etc are recorded. London Zoo is a highly professional place. They don't have to count their primates, they know what they have!
The exception is animals managed as groups. Hissing cockroaches etc are usually managed as a single group so it's not really important if you have 30 or 300. Prairie dogs managed traditionally are hard to identify as individuals and changes are not easy to record as much of their life is underground. A great paper was published on managing prairie dogs at Frank Buck Zoo where they are all now scale trained, can be shifted, identified, given individual vet care etc. That's not possible in a traditionally managed situation where they just get on with life but it's also a management system that really doesn't allow for vet care for example.

 

[Lafone]

I think you already worked it out. I'm certain the concept of stocktaking a zoo is basically a fun publicity stunt. In reality if you don't know how many animals of which species are in your zoo you're pretty incompetent! All animals will normally be in a database where births, deaths, transfers etc are recorded. London Zoo is a highly professional place. They don't have to count their primates, they know what they have!
The exception is animals managed as groups. Hissing cockroaches etc are usually managed as a single group so it's not really important if you have 30 or 300. Prairie dogs managed traditionally are hard to identify as individuals and changes are not easy to record as much of their life is underground. A great paper was published on managing prairie dogs at Frank Buck Zoo where they are all now scale trained, can be shifted, identified, given individual vet care etc. That's not possible in a traditionally managed situation where they just get on with life but it's also a management system that really doesn't allow for vet care for example.

Thanks! That’s really interesting on managing some animals as groups - I’ve wondered how they do that.

 

[15399]

Thanks! That’s really interesting on managing some animals as groups - I’ve wondered how they do that.

I know the AZA SSPs manage certain species in terms of groups instead of individuals as well- it makes the genetics a little bit more uncertain/complicated, but it helps for something like, say, certain fruit bat species, where some zoos have colonies of extremely large size. Some other common species, like naked mole rats, vampire bats, and prairie dogs, the AZA doesn't manage and I'd imagine it's often for similar reasons

 

[Jana]

Legislation of several countries (namely the UK and Czech republic I am avare of) put detailed stipulation into their zoo licencing act that requires all licensed zoos to submit annual animal stock lists to the licencing authority. And, at least in Czech republic, zoos also must publish these animal stock lists so they are available to general public.

Some zoos like London or Olomouc turned this occasion into public stunts that generate media coverage. Good for them.

It should be however noted that all tax-liable companies must do physical audit of their assets to verify their value at the end of financial year. Doesn´t matter if those assets are live animals, real estate or excavators, as long as you put them on your bilance.

 

[Benosaurus]