Kyabram Fauna Park will join the likes of Halls Gap, Melbourne and Werribee open range zoos, Healesville Sanctuary, the Melbourne Museum and the Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Conservation Park as the newest Zoo and Aquaria Association accredited animal facility.
“Becoming a ZAA accredited facility will open up multiple opportunities to acquire animals the park has never been able to have before,” park general manager Lachlan Gordon said.
“ZAA accreditation is only awarded to those facilities across Australasia that have proven to fulfil ZAA’s criteria, which includes the highest animal welfare standards of nutrition, environment, health, behaviour and mental state.
“Improving our animal welfare has been our top priority at the park over my tenure of the past three years and we have been working tirelessly to get the park to the appropriate standards of animal welfare to be considered for the accreditation.
“Through interactive enrichment programs, training programs, introducing new practices and proper wild diets for the range of species living in the park, we were able to demonstrate our commitment to positive animal welfare.
“This past four months has been crunch time for the park’s management team, who have been preparing policies, procedures and other documentation along with contributions from the animal care team to bring about the changes and ensure the park is well prepared to achieve the accreditation.”
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