In the middle of November Ruth wrote a blog about 2023 in review with all the exciting developments on the animal side of the park for the previous year and it had lots of exciting events covered. But I wanted to make an addition to this. This is because while I also work on the animal section, my work covers most of the less sexy aspects of what we do which means that a lot of exciting developments for the park often get missed!
Contrary to popular belief I’m not some kind of fungus that sits in a dark cold office all day getting very little done – although I don’t always have the lights on and even though I’m still in shorts my heater is still firmly turned off. Who needs heating when tropical Scott works next door with an optimal working temperature of 35c.
So let me tell you about some of our achievements and activities for 2023 that you might have missed or that don’t sound all that exciting but are actually things we’re very proud of and which show the direction, we as a park, are heading in.
WAZA
To demonstrate this last point I’m actually going to make our latest achievement the first one. We are very proud to have been accepted as a member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) which we joined alongside our British (BIAZA) and European (EAZA) memberships. Between these 3 associations as well as membership of Species360 including use of their ZIMS animal information system we are doing everything we can to reach for the highest levels when it comes to things like education, conservation, husbandry and welfare. We have no illusions about still growing all the time and still having a lot to learn. However, this latest achievement shows that we are working hard in the right direction.
We are currently one of just 18 zoos in the UK who are members of all of those associations combined.
Conservation
Our biggest achievements however came in our conservation work and even though we were able to publish our annual conservation report which you can find here, that report applies just to last year, so let me give you a sneak peek in to the conservation successes of 2023.
Vietnam
The year of course started very pleasantly for myself, Scott and Luke who got the opportunity to travel to Vietnam. Taking in the best the country has to offer from North to South while we spent our time learning more about that amazing country and the work we were just the starting with our Vietnamese partners at Viet Nature.
Don’t forget when you’re bored of Christmas Tv, we documented the whole trip on video which is available on YouTube.
The end of that trip however signified the commencement of our work in the country. This includes camera trap surveillance, alternative income opportunities for locals and ranger wages to create a safe place for the crested argus to thrive in the wild. However, some unexpected friendships were also forged during that trip and we have been in touch since then to help the people running the Khe Nuoc Truong forest with things like social media.
I think this is going to be a long and fruitful relationship between us and our Vietnamese friends.
White-clawed Crayfish
For me, an absolute passion project is of course our crayfish work which has also been very successful this year. With the most exciting thing being personally involved the release of 105 crayfish near Bristol earlier in 2023. These crayfish had been reared here in our hatchery and it was amazing to see them enter the water and disappear to live their lives. There’s always such a big focus on releasing large charismatic animals and sending them back to a different country. We love those sorts of projects too and hope to get more involved in that in the future too. However, we hope that people don’t lose sight of the nature which we are losing due to human intervention right on our doorsteps.
This really hit home when I joined a colleague near Dover surveying for crayfish. The threat of invasive signal crayfish is very real and they cause a huge problem both due to disease risk and their huge size outcompeting our crayfish for food.
While working with our crayfish release this year we even trialled a new crayfish transportation system. We designed and 3d printed this using recycled and recyclable plastic. This was something which we were even able to present a presentation poster about at a native species conference for BIAZA. Plus, we had an article published in a zoo keeping magazine. 3d printing gets a bad name as it gives people easy access to plastic manufacturing but if you choose the right materials they can actually be used for good. We have even seen 3d printing filaments produced from discarded fishing line and nets.
Wingham Wildlife Park’s App
With our use of modern technology that actually brings us neatly round to the last thing which we have achieved this year with the help of n-gage, which is our brand new app. We now don’t need paper maps any more. This is great for the environment but also we can now be so much more interactive. If you haven’t got it yet, you can download it free from the app store. It gives you a virtual map, times for all of our talks & special events, information about all our species and we are constantly adding more information about individual animals, and even quizzes to test how well you’ve been paying attention around the park!
We’ve moved forward a lot in the past year, embracing new technologies, connecting with nature and joining yet another amazing community of zoos and their staff… Imagine where we will be this time next year!
