Elephants Elephants - Wildpro - Twycross Zoo

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� Shackling
� Voice control
� Use of the ankus or hook
� Use of the electric goad or hotshot
� Use of elephants in demonstrations
• Staff training
• Health and safety and risk assessments
BIAZA, through its membership of responsible zoos and the executive
management, will follow through the implementation of this policy and
guidelines and ensure that it is reviewed and revised annually.
Zoos must continually assess their performance against BIAZA’s Elephant
Management Policy and the Secretary of State’s Standards of Modern Zoo
Practice (SSSMZP), with their defined standards and procedures, in order to
demonstrate legal compliance and address legitimate public concerns.
ELEPHANT MANAGEMENT POLICY STATEMENT
Elephants must only be kept in zoos as part of an overriding conservation
mission so that they are in actively managed breeding programmes. These
follow the same guidelines as for other EEP programmes, i.e. the captive
population is managed to maintain an agreed level of genetic diversity and
size commensurate with that required to sustain a captive population for a
minimum period of 100 years. This may mean that non-breeding elephants
are kept at some zoos to ensure maximization of the capacity for elephant
breeding zoos and control of the breeding population 1 .
Their presence must enable progressive educational activities and
demonstrate links with field conservation projects and benign scientific
research, leading to continuous improvements in breeding and welfare
standards.
Zoos must exercise a duty of care so that standards of husbandry practices,
housing, health and welfare management are humane and appropriate to the
intelligence, social behaviour, longevity and size of elephants. All zoos
should aim to continuously improve welfare standards.
Zoos must meet their moral and legal responsibility to ensure the safety of
visitors and staff.
1 This paragraph has been expanded to provide a clearer meaning for managed population.