Designs for Handling Animals

[khakibob]

Its interesting that so much time is spent discussing the designs of exhibits yet very little is discussed here about the design of the facilities to safely handle animals.

Other than running a facility of the end of a dart gun, what are folks ideas about the basic principles of design for handling captive wildlife. Its pretty hard to find any definitive resources on designs.

It would seem that in many places design & function of the handling facilities is second to the exhibits. Is it that there just isn't good practical information available on this subject, or is it still a dark art?

Cheers Khakibob

 

[Hyak_II]

Probably because 80% of zoo animals are able to be operated under free contact, so there is no real need to get anything more advanced than the display exhibit its self and perhaps an off exhibit area as well.

Even for non-free contact animals, it could be as simple as a display exhibit, a squeeze chute, and then leading out of the chute to an off exhibit holding.

Really, its as simple or complicated as the designer wants it to be.

 

[Nanook]

I think there has always been a tendency for zoo designers and architects to concentrate their efforts on the actual exhibits themselves, with an emphasis on the public and what they can see. Unfortunately the needs of the animals are not always put first, and even less so, are the needs and requirements of the keepers working with the animals. All of these things SHOULD be treated equally, but they are not. On so many occasions a great exhibit, in theory, is created, yet behind the scenes the facilities for the animals and keepers are so often very basic and very poorly designed. One reason for this is that keepers are not usually involved in designs, in fact they are not even consulted about it most of the time. Keepers need to be more involved in the design of such exhibits from the start and by this I mean in particular the off-show facilities as well.

 

[khakibob]

Probably because 80% of zoo animals are able to be operated under free contact, so there is no real need to get anything more advanced than the display exhibit its self and perhaps an off exhibit area as well.

Even for non-free contact animals, it could be as simple as a display exhibit, a squeeze chute, and then leading out of the chute to an off exhibit holding.

Really, its as simple or complicated as the designer wants it to be.

So how do you get the animal into a simple squeeze chute? Tranq it or bulldog it & carry it there? What about capture myopathy? No thoughts on lane ways? Covered uncovered? Light or dark? How wide? How tall? Best materials? Any bends to improve flow? "Breaking down" facilities for draughting out a single animal? One facility used for several species? Etc, etc, etc?

I think the subject is far from simple.

Cheers Khakibob

 

[khakibob]

I think there has always been a tendency for zoo designers and architects to concentrate their efforts on the actual exhibits themselves, with an emphasis on the public and what they can see. Unfortunately the needs of the animals are not always put first, and even less so, are the needs and requirements of the keepers working with the animals. All of these things SHOULD be treated equally, but they are not. On so many occasions a great exhibit, in theory, is created, yet behind the scenes the facilities for the animals and keepers are so often very basic and very poorly designed. One reason for this is that keepers are not usually involved in designs, in fact they are not even consulted about it most of the time. Keepers need to be more involved in the design of such exhibits from the start and by this I mean in particular the off-show facilities as well.

I've seen several pretty basic mistakes in zoos handling facilities. I believe its because the designers "think" that animals will think & act in a similar fashion to humans. How often have we seen animals refuse to enter the handling facilities, & when forced too, its overly stressful for them & the handlers.

Sometimes the "fix" might be as simple as another wall or gate, or just covering the facility if it is outside, yet the improvements are never made.

As so much discussion occurs about zoos here, I would have thought that the actual management of the animals would have seen some discussion & some ideas thrown around. Particularly where problems were fixed & the thoughts behind the solution.

Cheers Khakibob

 

[Hyak_II]

So how do you get the animal into a simple squeeze chute? Tranq it or bulldog it & carry it there? What about capture myopathy? No thoughts on lane ways? Covered uncovered? Light or dark? How wide? How tall? Best materials? Any bends to improve flow? "Breaking down" facilities for draughting out a single animal? One facility used for several species? Etc, etc, etc?

I think the subject is far from simple.

Cheers Khakibob

O.k, one by one:

Training. Any zoo worth its salt would have its animals trained to use the squeeze cute. If its the only access between off exhibit and on display the animal has to use it irregardless. No need to tranq (which would eliminate the point of a chute) or use physical force to get it in there (plus having to go in with an animal to force it into a chute completely eliminates the purpose of protected contact anyway.).

Capture myopathy is just something you have to work with. I work with several different birds prone to it, and we don't treat them any different from the others. If we move them we just net them like all the others. Once again, with animals like that, its an issue of training, no matter how fancy the exhibit if the animal becomes triggered it will happen.

I'm not familiar with lane ways. Working mainly with birds and aquatics those aren't things that we regularly use

Also for Covered/uncovered Light/dark How wide? How tall? Best materials? Any bends to improve flow? All that depends on the species intended to be housed in the exhibit and the location/space constraints and other external factors for the exhibit. There is no one answer to those questions.

"Breaking down" facilities for draughting out a single animal? Once again, with proper training/depending on the species, this isn't a major concern. For complicated enclosures with species that can't really be trained (such as most birds) A few weeks prior to capture the animals can be fed from a smaller cage placed within the exhibit. When the animal needs to be captured the cage can simply be closed. This also works well with species prone to capture myopathy.


Everything else is a case by case basis, so those are much harder to answer.

 

[Nanook]

I've seen several pretty basic mistakes in zoos handling facilities. I believe its because the designers "think" that animals will think & act in a similar fashion to humans. How often have we seen animals refuse to enter the handling facilities, & when forced too, its overly stressful for them & the handlers.

Sometimes the "fix" might be as simple as another wall or gate, or just covering the facility if it is outside, yet the improvements are never made.

As so much discussion occurs about zoos here, I would have thought that the actual management of the animals would have seen some discussion & some ideas thrown around. Particularly where problems were fixed & the thoughts behind the solution.

Cheers Khakibob

I think also, for the zoos themselves, it`s often about saving money or cutting costs - especially when most of the outlay has been spent on the main facility or exhibit initially, then whatever is left, usually not much, is then used for the off-show facilities and keeper facilities etc..

Incidentally I know some zoos do read "Zoochat" from time to time, but what they really need to do is listen to their staff in the very least , and ideally, involve them in these decisions which might prevent issues in the first place.
I have learnt that sometimes cutting corners, to save money initially, only results in spending even greater amounts later on to put it all right!!

 

[dean]

I think also, for the zoos themselves, it`s often about saving money or cutting costs - especially when most of the outlay has been spent on the main facility or exhibit initially, then whatever is left, usually not much, is then used for the off-show facilities and keeper facilities etc..

Incidentally I know some zoos do read "Zoochat" from time to time, but what they really need to do is listen to their staff in the very least , and ideally, involve them in these decisions which might prevent issues in the first place.
I have learnt that sometimes cutting corners, to save money initially, only results in spending even greater amounts later on to put it all right!!

Here here, sadly this isn't just down to zoo's it happens a lot in my line of work too, garden designers are a case in point. They have some wonderful ideas but a lot of the time they aren't practical, and the poor gardener has to make it work on a lesser wage than the designer.

From my experiance architect and design people don't always like to be told what they should be doing, they like to tell you.

 

[cracker]

I think also, for the zoos themselves, it`s often about saving money or cutting costs - especially when most of the outlay has been spent on the main facility or exhibit initially, then whatever is left, usually not much, is then used for the off-show facilities and keeper facilities etc..

Incidentally I know some zoos do read "Zoochat" from time to time, but what they really need to do is listen to their staff in the very least , and ideally, involve them in these decisions which might prevent issues in the first place.
I have learnt that sometimes cutting corners, to save money initially, only results in spending even greater amounts later on to put it all right!!

Yes, I agree with this fully, it's a problem in many zoos and doesn't seem to improve over time. As well as wasting money, building enclosures with inadequate facilities wastes keeper time and that is just as valuable as money. It's time they could be spending training animals, enriching them, speaking to the visitors and so on - instead of moving water to drains, unblocking drains etc. etc.

 

[khakibob]

Is there any resources which describes the design & function of handling facilities for various animals?

I think I have a pretty good library on this & associated subjects, yet there is very little insight other than a few basic sketches of designs & very little explanation of the reasons behind the design, or how they are to be worked. For example I can control the speed of animals down a race by using the width (narrow/faster), I have never seen this explained. What about animals voluntarily moving from light to dark, & visa versa? Should walls be solid, or do animals settle faster if they can see around? What species contradict these ideas?

Is there a definitive, or even a subjective resource on this subject?

Cheers Khakibob