Wide close-up of a Kangaroo Island Kangaroo holding a leaf and chewing on it, while facing the camera.

Animal Welfare

GO TO: Workshops | Keynotes | Free resources

Explore the latest research and innovative approaches that are ensuring the wellbeing of animals in human care. Learn about Zoos Victoria’s commitment to animal welfare through a science-based and ethical approach, and the implementation of best practice standards. Private workshops, expert-led keynote presentations and free resources are now available for you and your team.

Workshops

Animal Welfare Principles

Two-day private workshop at Melbourne Zoo or a location of your choice

This private training is for organisations devoted to animal care and conservation. Build your confidence and capacity to assess welfare, improving standards and implementing strategies for continuous improvement.

On Day one, you will learn about:

Animal welfare science
Social license and the rise of ethical wildlife tourism
Ways to use an animal welfare code to empower staff
Animal welfare risk assessment and annual review processes
Real and best-practice examples

On Day two, you will choose one of the following deep-dives:

Proactive welfare assessment – practise using a range of scientific and evidence-based tools that you can use in your specific context
Animal visitor experiences – develop an ethical encounter for visitors by using assessment tools that are based on animal welfare science

Enquire today

Keynotes

These 30-minute keynotes are presented by Zoos Victoria experts. You can come to us or we can come to you (additional charges may apply). Keynotes are offered during weekday business hours, excluding public holidays.

A koala perching on a barky log and staring directly at the camera, the background is full of gum trees

Caring for Animals

$770 incl GST

This keynote is for a general audience and explores animal welfare science. Learn how Zoos Victoria maintains animal welfare standards, and how this can support the welfare-based decisions you make about the animals in your care.

A male lion with a man stares to the right of the camera

Zoo Species Planning

$770 incl GST

This keynote is for zoo and aquarium professionals. Learn about the processes and decision-making tools that are used in Zoos Victoria species planning, which contributes to global population management.

Make an enquiry

Free Resources

Domains of Animal Welfare

This video explores the five domains that guide Zoos Victoria’s approach to animal welfare.

Image Guidelines

Zoos Victoria has also developed Image Guidelines, which are based on the well-supported premise that viewing humans in animal photos can affect public attitudes towards wildlife (Ross, Vreeman & Lonsdorf, 2011) in a way which may lead to unintentionally damaging behaviour, knowledge and attitudes towards wildlife.

This research highlights the importance of understanding the impacts of varying elements of human-animal photography on public attitudes, noting that impacts may vary across different audiences.

Image Guidelines - (PDF)

Code of Animal Welfare & Ethics

This document explains the key principles and commitments that guide Zoos Victoria decision-making.

Code of Animal Welfare & Ethics - (PDF)

Plan for Our Seals

This video provides an overview of how the guiding principles of ‘Justified, Humane, Effective’ are used to plan seal care at Zoos Victoria.

The face of a Kangaroo Island Kangaroo looking directly at the camera.

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