ZIMS at Work: Wellington Zoo uses ZIMS for Care and Welfare data to monitor well-being of individuals
- By Paolo
Tasmanian Devil: Cassia after a loss
We housed two female Tasmanian devils at Wellington Zoo, sisters who had lived together for many years. Previously, if one animal had to be removed from the habitat for veterinary treatment or anything else, indications were that the remaining animal showed extreme signs of discomfort. Accordingly, Keepers felt that if we ever lost a sibling, the remaining animal would likely have their good quality of life compromised.
When we discovered tumours in one female that could not be treated, the decision to euthanise on medical grounds was made. Owing to previous experience, the discussion about the quality of life for the remaining female, Cassia, led us to think that if she showed she was severely impacted by the loss of her sister, we would need to consider euthanasia on welfare grounds.
Behavioural indicators were discussed, and we recorded these in a ZIMS Care and Welfare template that was developed by our Animal Care team. We recorded these indicators for a week before the euthanasia of Cassia’s sibling, and for two weeks afterwards.
After 24 hours, stress indicators such as biting tree guards diminished and positive indicators such as engagement with enrichment, habitat use and appetite were all positive. This was evidence that Cassia had indeed shown she was in a positive welfare state after the loss of her sibling given time.
Wellington Zoo staff use ZIMS for Husbandry and ZIMS for Medical across the keeper and medical teams. Here, the Animal Care team describes how they use ZIMS for Care and Welfare to record, monitor, and better understand and manage the health and behaviour of various individuals of different species.
Dingo pair and contraception: Kiah and Blu
Using the data from ZIMS to make any management and welfare-based decisions was previously challenging, as we had to read through notes, look for indicators and manually plot these on graphs or charts to look for trends. An example of this was trying to ascertain why one of the dingoes would show periodic aggression.
We looked through records to see when this occurred and separately had to overlay information from ZIMS for Medical for when the female was in oestrus. This highlighted that the male showed clear signs of aggression towards keepers when the normal time for oestrus would occur despite him being contracepted.
This showed us that the contraception was working to a degree, but had not stopped all hormonal changes in the dingo. Following this data and having no breeding recommendations, we decided to desex the female after discussion with the veterinary team.
As a result, we saw a need for developing a better way of recording behavioural indicators in ZIMS that would show us trends in a more meaningful way. We began exploring the templates in the Care and Welfare module and building data sets that were relevant to our animals at the Wellington Zoo. Some examples of how this has been instrumental in assisting us to make data driven decisions are recorded below.
Tasmanian Devil: Cassia after a loss
We housed two female Tasmanian devils at Wellington Zoo, sisters who had lived together for many years. Previously, if one animal had to be removed from the habitat for veterinary treatment or anything else, indications were that the remaining animal showed extreme signs of discomfort. Accordingly, Keepers felt that if we ever lost a sibling, the remaining animal would likely have their good quality of life compromised.
When we discovered tumours in one female that could not be treated, the decision to euthanise on medical grounds was made. Owing to previous experience, the discussion about the quality of life for the remaining female, Cassia, led us to think that if she showed she was severely impacted by the loss of her sister, we would need to consider euthanasia on welfare grounds.
Behavioural indicators were discussed, and we recorded these in a ZIMS Care and Welfare template that was developed by our Animal Care team. We recorded these indicators for a week before the euthanasia of Cassia’s sibling, and for two weeks afterwards.
After 24 hours, stress indicators such as biting tree guards diminished and positive indicators such as engagement with enrichment, habitat use and appetite were all positive. This was evidence that Cassia had indeed shown she was in a positive welfare state after the loss of her sibling given time.
Tiger animal visitor interactions: Offering free choice
We want to ensure that all animal visitor interactions (AVIs) at Wellington Zoo are recorded in ZIMS to ensure that animals who are participating are given choice and control and that there is an even spread of time that individuals are partaking in these AVIs.
As we are monitoring all animals that are part of AVIs at the Zoo a number of indicators were chosen. How many people participate, which individual animals are partaking, what food is offered etc.
This data is recorded at every AVI and over time we can monitor an individual’s desire to participate and whether food is the only driver for them to participate or if free choice is the driver. This is also a great way of demonstrating our alignment with the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) and the Zoo & Aquarium Association Australasia (ZAA) guidelines and position statements on Animal Visitor Interactions.
Chimpanzee mobility and habitat use: Jessie
Some Care & Welfare monitoring can become very complex, such as when we had to assess individual elderly chimpanzee, Jessie. Jessie has mobility issues and is on daily medication for this. We had been discussing the efficacy of her long-term medications and decided to plot her mobility on a scale developed based on her as an individual, with set indicators for how she moved and used her space.
When we overlay changes in medications with her Care & Welfare mobility chart data changes could be seen that corresponded with a change to the medications. Other indicators such as habitat use, engagement with keepers, enrichment, training and interactions with the rest of the troop were also recorded and again, these were influenced similarly to changes in her mobility.
The data therefore allowed us to make some changes in how we managed the troop, to parts of the habitat and how we provided enrichment and training that were beneficial to Jessie but also affected the group in a positive way. The graphing tools are useful in this as we can select all or some of the indicators to give us a full picture.
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