Wild Welfare

The Zoo is committed to the highest standards of animal welfare at our own facility, and by developing partnerships and working closely with zoos in developing countries, we are able to improve welfare for animals at other institutions as well. In partnership with Wild Welfare, a captive wild animal welfare program conceived at the North Carolina Zoo which focuses on improving welfare standards in substandard wild animal facilities, we have most recently been working with the Zoo Parks Organization of Thailand (ZPO). In this new collaboration, the Zoo provides training to help Thailand ZPO zoos build staff capacity and meet the highest possible standards for animal welfare. Our Zoo staff are now regularly visiting ZPO zoos to review welfare assessment reports, identify critical performance gaps, and design staff training to build knowledge and skills capacity of the ZPO zoo staff. Training is currently focused on ZPO zoos - Chiang Mai Zoo and Khao Kheow Zoo - with these zoos being developed into centers of excellence that can train staff from other zoos in Thailand.