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ISIS records

Discussion in 'General Zoo Discussion' started by ZooPro, 21 Apr 2007.

  1. ZooPro

    ZooPro Well-Known Member

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    Continued from a previous thread:


    Mate, there are no such things as "ISIS records". The records displayed on the ISIS web site, are those of the member zoos, as submitted by the member zoos. And as a matter of fact, although no doubt, you know this already, the records offcier at Chester Zoo is well respected as one of the best in the world. No doubt he'll be thrilled to know that you think his records are dodgy.
     
  2. ZooPro

    ZooPro Well-Known Member

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    Yes. ISIS is the custodian of individual institutional records, as submitted by each ISIS-member institution. ISIS do not create, not modify any animals records at all.
     
  3. Zoo_Boy

    Zoo_Boy Well-Known Member

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    yea tahts why isis can be dare i say- unreliable sometimes, i find often, and this may be the case with your birds hornybill, that the zoo updates maybe once at year at inventory time, when the zoo does a head count on all animals present, then they usually presnt this with an annual report, and is used as an internal documnet, for planning and for use by particular orgainisations such as ARAZPA, AZA, and BIZA
     
  4. ZooPro

    ZooPro Well-Known Member

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    Correct Zoo_Boy. And I know this is a bit picky, but it would be more correct to say the data on the ISIS web site can be unreliable at times (rather than ISIS being unreliable) - as I said, the ISIS web site only displays what the ISIS member institutions submit to ISIS, and as you said Zoo_Boy, it's only as up to date as the last time each zoo sent their data to ISIS.

    And zoos are not obligated to report every specimen to ISIS either. For a number of reasons, zoos may wish to not list things publicly. Frequently this is done with very valuable birds, to prevent potential theft. There's nothing more useful to potential thieves than an entry on a public website letting them know where incredibly valuable birds are being held.
     
  5. Zoo_Boy

    Zoo_Boy Well-Known Member

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    that is true, i mean all of us here use it, and it is very public, at disgretion

    now for a silly qn, does isis keep documentation, or well easy say a head count on all specimens in a zoo, but its at a zoos disgretuion what is publised, for such, taronga may have 160 macaws lol, and isis records them on internal zoo system they have 160 macaws, yet on the site we view taronga's macaw count is say 3?

    is this right, or is it totally at a zoos disgretion?
     
  6. Writhedhornbill

    Writhedhornbill Well-Known Member

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    Isis is unreliable. I had set my heart on seeing a lesser adjutant stork at Blackbrook, and had checked on ISIS taht morning that it was still there. It wasn't at Blackbrook but still registered on ISIS.
     
  7. Writhedhornbill

    Writhedhornbill Well-Known Member

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    I've met the Chester records officer. He's very nice.
     
  8. ZooPro

    ZooPro Well-Known Member

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    It's absolutely at the zoo's discretion. Using your made up example, Taronga has 160 macaws, and they enter the information about them all into their animal records system. But for whatever reason, Taronga only wants to send information about 3 of them to ISIS, so they mark the other 157 records as private. This means those records don't leave Taronga, and so the ISIS website will only display 3 at Taronga. The remaining records are kept privately at Taronga.
     
  9. ZooPro

    ZooPro Well-Known Member

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    Didn't you read the last few posts hornbill? ISIS is not unreliable (using your examples). The records person at Blackbrook clearly hasn't updated their records and sent them to ISIS. This doesn't make ISIS unreliable, it makes the data that Blackbrook sent to ISIS unreliable.

    Either that, or the bird simply wasn't on display the day you went there....
     
  10. Writhedhornbill

    Writhedhornbill Well-Known Member

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    Ok. I've got it now. Don't trust ISIS unless it's about Chester zoo!!!