6 accessible animal attractions

Connecting people with wildlife here on site
is arguably the most impactful thing we can do.
The power of a good zoo, to get
people to empathize with wildlife is incredible.
I became a zookeeper because I had a deep love and a deep passion for
animals. Ever since I can remember. It's something that I feel like I was born with.
We've put animal welfare first and
foremost above everything else - it's the best orangutan habitat in a zoo
anywhere in the world.
That's why we are here, we are here to
look after them and give them the best possible care ever.
So the animals here at Auckland Zoo receive an exceptional level of care
from dedicated keepers as well as our vet team.
So one of the ways we care for our animals here is through behavioural
enrichment which encourages natural behaviors while engaging their minds.
If people were more connected with nature and their environment,
people are going to become more and more passionate about wanting
to conserve the environment that we have. One of
my absolute favorite parts of my job is being able to be part of that connection.
I saw the the incredible potential of this place
and potential for taking zoo skills and save wildlife in the wild - that blew
me away. The skills that we have been practicing,
refining, perfecting for decades in zoos, are now
needed more than ever.
It's really important obviously to be monitoring how many pups are down at
Stewart Island. We want to know if the colony is
growing which would be, you know, great news for such a
threatened species.
So this underpass for elephants is
located here. Based on some of the tracking data that
was funded by the Auckland Zoo.
The only option really is
to learn to live with the elephants without conflict.
If we are successful in that we can coexist with elephants and we
can show the world.
I've learned skills within zoos that can
help wild populations and that's what I want from my career and able to
transfer those skills to a really threatened bird like the kākāpō made me
realize that everything i've done since becoming a
zookeeper has almost led me to this. When I went to vet school I wanted to
make a difference and now that i work at the zoo, that
difference I think is in conservation.
Conservation shouldn't just be for the scientists working in it. It's for
everybody to enjoy. So we're breeding mud fish because they
are an endangered species. They're from wetland areas which most of
our wetlands in New Zealand have been drained for pasture or urban use
so it's important to be able to breed these species in captivity
so that we can boost the numbers in the wild.
There's now less than half the wild animals in the world
that they were when I was born and I feel a
strong responsibility to do whatever I can during my lifetime to start to
reverse that decline and to start to learn how
to live with nature instead of trying to
dominate it.
We try to teach them about the conservation
because this is like a generation you know.
By teaching English and conservation to these children,
many of them can now look at careers as rangers or guides;
a great alternative to a low-income livelihood like working in palm oil.
So we are encouraging kids in schools today to become kaitiaki
of New Zealand's wonderful ecosystem.
We have a very, very important role to
play in inspiring and empowering the youth.
Having hands-on opportunities with Auckland Zoo has been amazing for our students.
They're all passionate about our
environment now and we are now an enviro-school.
The important thing for us is we don't think about us,
but we just think about the other people.
We think for the future.
Auckland Zoo's Conservation Fund supports the Sumatran Rangers
and the work they do in the buffer zone. It's here we get tension and conflict
with both humans and wildlife at risk.
For the last eight years now, we've been
working with the Centre for Conservation Research in Sri Lanka. It's as simple as
in order to save a species, you need to understand them and Pruthu and his team
have dedicated their lives to this.
So Auckland Zoo vet team have been
working with Kelly Tarlton's for the last eight years
helping with sea turtle rescue.
Ark in the Park is a partnership between Forest
and Bird and Auckland Council.
The annual kōkako
census is quite a lot of work. We go out daily
for eight to ten weeks.
It's been really great to have this relationship with the Department of
Conservation Kākāpō Recovery team.
I know our entire veterinary team here find it really really special.
I got into zookeeping thinking that it was all about animals but
in actual fact it's all about people.
The ideal zoo
is at the heart of any community.
We exist
because of the trust and the love of the people that come to our zoo
and we are incredibly grateful for that. Zoos on their own are not going to save
wildlife and save this planet but the people that visit
zoos, the people that connect with good zoos will.
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