Chester Zoo Conservation by Dr Mark Pilgrim

    On 6th December, we were enlightened by a talk from Dr Mark Pilgrim, director of Chester zoo. He began briefly going through his past and what led him to the job he has currently; not knowing what to do with no qualifications to going back into education and getting a job as a bird keeper at Chester zoo. 

   The zoo was established in 1931 and was the first zoo ‘without bars’, and is now described by Forbes (2009) as 1 of the top 15 zoos in the world with 340 staff and 11,392 animals. 

    Pilgrim then went through the 6 strategic objectives of the zoo. These were: 

• To ensure conservation and educational activities both in the zoo and globally, achieve the greatest conservation impact -The zoo is a member of BIAZA AND WAZA and has several long-term insitu and exsitu conservation programmes all over the world. 

The BIAZA logo. 

Taken from http://www.wwct.org.uk/userfiles/pagefiles/images/BIAZA.jpg

The WAZA logo. 

Taken from http://www.sahonagasy.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/waza.jpg

 

• To be a world class ‘must see’ attraction – looks at priorities, provides new experiences and comfortable facilities. 

 

The Ark restaurant at Chester zoo.

The Jaguar house at Chester zoo.

Taken from http://www.mccormick-architecture.co.uk/media/8784/chesterzoo.jpg

• To be a centre of excellence for animal and plant care – Provide 24 hour vet care. professional people involved in pregnancies and only zoo in the uk with a professional nutritionist. 

Vet team at Chester zoo

Taken from http://www.chesterzoo.org/~/media/Images/Must%20sees/Zoo%20News/2012/cheetah-cub-operation/01-juba-operation-PA-520.ashx

• To ensure long term commercial viability – New enclosures (otters, red ape, jaguar, african plains)

Otters at Chester zoo

Taken from http://www.chesterzoo.org/must-sees/zoo-news/new-exhibits-half-term

 

• To ensure staff are recognized as the heart of the organisation – dedicated, passionate and caring, staff work in field too.

Staff at Chester zoo

Taken from http://www.chesterzoo.org/~/media/Images/Must%20sees/Zoo%20News/2012/animal-athletes-495px.ashx

• To ensure an excellent reputation that builds trust – on board with legislation, member of organisations, intenational programmes. 

    Pilgrim also ventured into discussing the zoo’s future, and its looks thrilling. They plan to develop a more interactive ‘journey of exploration’ through the SE Asian islands which will include pathways and boat rides and items can be collected or ticked off. It will be the largest zoo development ever in the UK, and I’m thoroughly looking forward to it! It will also benefit the zoo by increasing educational awareness and conservation funding through attracting more visitors. 

    What interested me most about this talk was Pilgrim’s case study on the Ecuador Amazon parrot. By researching these birds for his thesis, Pilgrim was able to classify another species of these birds which was great news as they could now be recognized in their own right and receive a higher priority for conservation focus as these birds are living among hugely threatened habitats and are not yet on the IUCN Red list. 

  This talk was overall utterly fascinating to get an insight into the in-depth workings of the zoo and to get a first peek at their new plans for the future. I have been to Chester zoo many times myself and cannot fault it. The work they are doing is fantastic and especially if you look at all their breeding success from this year alone, its amazing and has such a positive impact. It was a delight to attend this talk and it has motivated and re-lit the passion in me to ensure animals can maybe one day return to the wild without fear.