Zoo welfare reforms

rhinofan12 said:
I thought this might be a good idea to have it's own thread to discuss the news about the new welfare reforms that have been announced.
I don't think anything is unexpected and it's should be all doable for most zoos.
Here is the link to the news story.
Zoo animals to get more space in 'long overdue' welfare reforms
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I think it’s good Chester’s Elephant enclosure is long overdue of a expansion also I think some general maintenance is needed in the elephant enclosure to ensure optimal welfare but does anyone know when this is happening?
 
Orca obsessed said:
I think it’s good Chester’s Elephant enclosure is long overdue of a expansion also I think some general maintenance is needed in the elephant enclosure to ensure optimal welfare but does anyone know when this is happening?
Click to expand...
The Chester elephant enclosure is well furnished for its small size, but I think an expansion/new enclosure (I think the free space by the lions would be the best bet) may have to wait a small while as they're trying to re-establish their herd.
 
Rajang-GOAT said:
The Chester elephant enclosure is well furnished for its small size, but I think an expansion/new enclosure (I think the free space by the lions would be the best bet) may have to wait a small while as they're trying to re-establish their herd.
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The report says zoos have 2 years to make all these changes so they can't wait to much longer before starting.
 
rhinofan12 said:
The report says zoos have 2 years to make all these changes so they can't wait to much longer before starting.
Click to expand...
Later in the document it states zoos have until 2040 to meet the new elephant requirements, which makes much more sense.

I've had a skin over the document, seems pretty sensible, most major thing I noticed is probably that vertebrates, cephalopods and decapods will no longer be allowed in aquarium touch pools.
 
rhinofan12 said:
The report says zoos have 2 years to make all these changes so they can't wait to much longer before starting.
Click to expand...
The minimum size requirements for elephants are to be met by 2040 as it says in the full document. Regardless that's not a massive amount of time for new elephant exhibits (or major extensions/upgrades) to be planned and completed. The only zoo I'm fairly confident may meet the new indoor/outdoor size requirement already is Noah's Ark, though I'm unsure about Woburn. All others are likely to either need to improve outside and or inside space (especially Howletts) for the animals. Colchester are the only facility I'm aware have definite plans for a brand new exhibit in the future already.
The new elephant enclosure size requirements are as follows:
  • "A8.14 Elephants in all indoor herd facilities must have at least 600 square meters of available space for four, or fewer, animals. This must be increased by at least 100 square metres for each additional animal over two years old. Indoor bull facilities, if separate, must be at least 320 square metres in area for each bull. In exceptional situations where a single cow is being kept, the minimum size must be at least 320 square metres. All collections must meet these minimum requirements by 1 January 2040."
  • "A8.19 Outdoor areas for bulls and cows must provide all animals with a minimum shared space of 20,000 square metres (2 hectares) for five or fewer group-living adults throughout the year. This must be increased by at least 2,500 square metres for each additional animal over 2 years old. All collections must meet these minimum requirements by 1 January 2040."
 
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I read the document with a sense of trepidation but actually everything in it seems to me fairly sensible.

Whipsnade, the elephant collection that I know best, could conceivably expand into the unused fields behind the elephant paddocks with relative ease, if they even needed to. I'm unsure on the actual size of the exhibit.
 
If Chester want to expand the elephant complex without relocating them then it would also be (relatively!) straightforward to push the car park back a bit further into the zoo-owned fields behind it and use a chunk for the new paddock (the elephants are before the pay barrier anyway). This is certainly something that has been mooted in the past.
 
Fallax said:
I've had a skin over the document, seems pretty sensible, most major thing I noticed is probably that vertebrates, cephalopods and decapods will no longer be allowed in aquarium touch pools.
Click to expand...

Extremely surprised and pleased about this one; I remember one of the aquarium keepers at London Zoo telling us about his hatred for touch pools circa the early 2000s! Thankfully they seem to be increasingly scarce now, probably because they're almost impossible to defend from an animal care point of view.

I went into this document with some trepidation (as I imagine many of us do, when the words "government" and "animal welfare" are concerned! :D) but there are actually several reforms here that I would be proud for the UK to lead by example on.
 
Rajang-GOAT said:
The minimum size requirements for elephants are to be met by 2040 as it says in the full document. Regardless that's not a massive amount of time for new elephant exhibits (or major extensions/upgrades) to be planned and completed. The only zoo I'm fairly confident may meet the new indoor/outdoor size requirement already is Noah's Ark, though I'm unsure about Woburn. All others are likely to either need to improve outside and or inside space (especially Howletts) for the animals. Colchester are the only facility I'm aware have definite plans for a brand new exhibit in the future already.
The new elephant enclosure size requirements are as follows:
  • "A8.14 Elephants in all indoor herd facilities must have at least 600 square meters of available space for four, or fewer, animals. This must be increased by at least 100 square metres for each additional animal over two years old. Indoor bull facilities, if separate, must be at least 320 square metres in area for each bull. In exceptional situations where a single cow is being kept, the minimum size must be at least 320 square metres. All collections must meet these minimum requirements by 1 January 2040."
  • "A8.19 Outdoor areas for bulls and cows must provide all animals with a minimum shared space of 20,000 square metres (2 hectares) for five or fewer group-living adults throughout the year. This must be increased by at least 2,500 square metres for each additional animal over 2 years old. All collections must meet these minimum requirements by 1 January 2040."
Click to expand...
I have looked up the figures for the Chester elephant complex from the ZooLex website. The indoor areas are well within the new guidelines as the main area is 1000m² (which can be subdivided) plus 3 separate pens are 165m², 275m² and 407m² - the largest being the bull pen.
However the main outdoor area is about 6500m² in total, including the bull's area on the bridge side (550m²). The 2 off-show yards on the car park side total 270m².
As already suggested, the zoo could build a new paddock in the part of the car park outside the bull pen: but this would need a major reconfiguration of the indoor area to allow the cows to access this new area through the current bull pen or through the site of the hornbill aviary and the off-show pen behind it (which would also reduce the length of the visitor's area).
Alternatively the zoo could expand the existing paddock by extending it to the south and the west. This might involve demolishing the gift shop and most of the entrance plaza and building new ones in the car park, plus rebuilding the bridge over Flag Lane to give the herd access to the paddocks used by the Indian rhinos and brow-antlered deer, which would need to be rehoused or rehomed.
Either solution would be a major project and would involve creating new barriers along the side of the bridle path of Flag Lane, which might raise objections.
Another possiblity to consider is building an entirely new elephant complex on a virgin site, perhaps north of the current lion enclosure, which might be the best option if current elephant house is unlikely to have much future past 2040.
Of course the fouth alternative would be giving up keeping elephants altogether - which would not be popular with zoo visitors (ironical understatement ;)).
I think it will be a difficult choice.
 
gentle lemur said:
I have looked up the figures for the Chester elephant complex from the ZooLex website. The indoor areas are well within the new guidelines as the main area is 1000m² (which can be subdivided) plus 3 separate pens are 165m², 275m² and 407m² - the largest being the bull pen.
However the main outdoor area is about 6500m² in total, including the bull's area on the bridge side (550m²). The 2 off-show yards on the car park side total 270m².
As already suggested, the zoo could build a new paddock in the part of the car park outside the bull pen: but this would need a major reconfiguration of the indoor area to allow the cows to access this new area through the current bull pen or through the site of the hornbill aviary and the off-show pen behind it (which would also reduce the length of the visitor's area).
Alternatively the zoo could expand the existing paddock by extending it to the south and the west. This might involve demolishing the gift shop and most of the entrance plaza and building new ones in the car park, plus rebuilding the bridge over Flag Lane to give the herd access to the paddocks used by the Indian rhinos and brow-antlered deer, which would need to be rehoused or rehomed.
Either solution would be a major project and would involve creating new barriers along the side of the bridle path of Flag Lane, which might raise objections.
Another possiblity to consider is building an entirely new elephant complex on a virgin site, perhaps north of the current lion enclosure, which might be the best option if current elephant house is unlikely to have much future past 2040.
Of course the fouth alternative would be giving up keeping elephants altogether - which would not be popular with zoo visitors (ironical understatement ;)).
I think it will be a difficult choice.
Click to expand...
Could you expand on why this is? (meaning this as a genuine question)
 
gentle lemur said:
I have looked up the figures for the Chester elephant complex from the ZooLex website. The indoor areas are well within the new guidelines as the main area is 1000m² (which can be subdivided) plus 3 separate pens are 165m², 275m² and 407m² - the largest being the bull pen.
However the main outdoor area is about 6500m² in total, including the bull's area on the bridge side (550m²). The 2 off-show yards on the car park side total 270m².
As already suggested, the zoo could build a new paddock in the part of the car park outside the bull pen: but this would need a major reconfiguration of the indoor area to allow the cows to access this new area through the current bull pen or through the site of the hornbill aviary and the off-show pen behind it (which would also reduce the length of the visitor's area).
Alternatively the zoo could expand the existing paddock by extending it to the south and the west. This might involve demolishing the gift shop and most of the entrance plaza and building new ones in the car park, plus rebuilding the bridge over Flag Lane to give the herd access to the paddocks used by the Indian rhinos and brow-antlered deer, which would need to be rehoused or rehomed.
Either solution would be a major project and would involve creating new barriers along the side of the bridle path of Flag Lane, which might raise objections.
Another possiblity to consider is building an entirely new elephant complex on a virgin site, perhaps north of the current lion enclosure, which might be the best option if current elephant house is unlikely to have much future past 2040.
Of course the fouth alternative would be giving up keeping elephants altogether - which would not be popular with zoo visitors (ironical understatement ;)).
I think it will be a difficult choice.
Click to expand...

For what it's worth, there is a brief generic statement in the BBC piece to say Chester already has plans to expand its elephant enclosure, which at least suggests not giving up on them.

(But as this is not an explicit quote it could be old info)
 
Dr. Loxodonta said:
Sorry if I wasn’t clear enough, I meant to query why you believed that the current elephant house is unlikely to have much future past 2040?
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Don't overlook the word 'if'. I don't know what the current building's potential lifespan is - but I am sure that the zoo's management will want to know before they make any decision.
 
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