Elephants Elephants - Wildpro - Twycross Zoo

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• Once an animal has attacked a keeper it MUST be put into protected
contact until a full review of the situation surrounding the attack has
been carried out. After this review, if the decision is to put the animal
back to a free contact situation this MUST be fully justified in
combination with renewed risk assessments.
RISK ASSESSMENTS
In the UK help and guidance can be obtained through the Health and Safety
Executive [Health & Saftey Executive 1998 #2470] and (www.hse.gov.uk).
The five recommended steps in carrying out a risk assessment is:
• Look for the hazards
• Decide who might be harmed and how
• Evaluate the risks and decide whether the existing precautions are
adequate or whether more should be done
• Record your findings
• Review your assessment and revise if necessary
Risk assessments MUST be carried out regarding elephant staff safety, and
staff/elephant/public safety. These assessments should include all aspects of
enclosure design. These assessments should result in the development of
better protocols and improved and safer design of elephant facilities for staff
and animals. Risk assessments are necessary for all management situations
and MUST include the following; radio contact MUST be maintained at all
times when working with elephants and when in free contact keepers MUST
carry an ankus.
An example is given in Appendix 3, Section 6.3. This should be completed for
each individual keeper for each elephant and reviewed regularly.
ELEPHANT PROFILE 1 S
There are a number of reasons for creating an elephant profile
1. to facilitate the training of new staff
2. to help tailor management to individual elephants
3. to assist in the risk assessment process
In essence the document should be used to guide and tailor the management
of elephants whereby individual welfare can be optimised in a manner that
maintains keeper safety. Whilst the document is a guide, changes to
management should be made at any time according to new information or
1 This section has been updated.