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Oregon Zoo Oregon Zoo News 2012

Discussion in 'United States' started by snowleopard, 10 Jan 2012.

  1. snowleopard

    snowleopard Well-Known Member 15+ year member Premium Member

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  2. snowleopard

    snowleopard Well-Known Member 15+ year member Premium Member

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  3. snowleopard

    snowleopard Well-Known Member 15+ year member Premium Member

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  4. DeydraOZ

    DeydraOZ Well-Known Member

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    The Oregon Zoo is down to one black rhino.
    Pete was a beloved member of the zoo family and was euthanized a few months ago due to kidney failure.
    The zoo is seeking a new rhino to pair with their female rhino Zuri.

    Endangered black rhino Pete euthanized following kidney failure | Oregon Zoo

    Also if no body has heard yet, Packy the elephant is turning 50 years old this year.
     
  5. BeardsleyZooFan

    BeardsleyZooFan Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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  6. BeardsleyZooFan

    BeardsleyZooFan Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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  7. BeardsleyZooFan

    BeardsleyZooFan Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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  8. snowleopard

    snowleopard Well-Known Member 15+ year member Premium Member

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  9. Arizona Docent

    Arizona Docent Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    17 resignations and 16 firings in a couple years signals a huge problem. Seems like the heart of the problem is Metro (the city) running the zoo and putting in a director to weed out people for budget sake. The only real solution IMO is to privatize the zoo and hire a director who is actually on the side of the staff, not the city accountants.

    (I am basing my opinion solely on the article, so if the article misrepresents the situation, then my apologies for any unintentional misrepresentations on my part.)
     
  10. Kifaru Bwana

    Kifaru Bwana Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    I tend to agree. More so, since well respected zoo staff are being layed off for minor infringements. It takes a bureacrat with no conscience or concept of the industry / environment she comes to work in to be able to do so.

    PR/Marketing may be well a good with a smile in front of an elephant ... (ever so picturesque and touching), yet if you let your senior primate man of 38 years experience off ..., it is like no respect (and to me no glory).
     
  11. gerenuk

    gerenuk Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Actually this is all rather typical of the American zoo employment climate. Zoos commonly have high turnover rates amongst employees. Particularly when administration changes hands.

    And how is stepping into a shared space with chimpanzees a minor infringement? Many of you on this forum stress the need for safety in zoos, so why is this an exception?

    How do you know that the zoo's director is merely a bureaucrat, she previously worked for the Brookfield Zoo?

    You all seemed to have jumped the gun on an article about a practice that is fairly common, but usually not publicized. No manager/administrator is ever perfect. Their goal is commonly to run the place as efficient and safely as possible.
     
  12. snowleopard

    snowleopard Well-Known Member 15+ year member Premium Member

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    I posted a link to the article and I called it fascinating but up to now I have not put forth an opinion on the news from Oregon Zoo. I've never worked in a zoo but from my experience of talking to countless employees at innumerable zoos over the years I've consistently gotten the message that there is very little turnover at major zoos. I can recall the Calgary Zoo putting out a statement on their website about 3-4 years ago stating how some people had to spend 15 years at the zoo before they were guaranteed full-time, 40-hour work weeks as no one ever left.

    A quick Google search provided me links to zoos in Columbus and Pittsburgh that explicitly state on their employment pages that there is little turnover in the zoo business. Even in the couple of hundred zoo history books that I own I would have to say that my general impression is that once a keeper latches on to a full-time job in a zoo then they occasionally transfer to another zoo but they remain in the business until they retire in their twilight years. That is why traditionally keepers are paid such poor wages and struggle to earn a living, as they do it for the love of their job and there are many others waiting in the wings if there is any kind of change. A Woodland Park employee told me that usually volunteers spend a few summers at the zoo before perhaps getting menial jobs with few hours, and even individuals with university degrees (excepted practice at the big American zoos) have to literally wait for someone to retire or die to have any opportunity of obtaining a job.

    The turnover rate at Oregon Zoo is surely not the norm, with 41 out of 157 people leaving within 2.5 years, and 16 of those folks being fired. Yikes, what a public-relations disaster to reveal that morale is low at such an enormously popular zoo. (Although I doubt that the 1.6 million annual visitors will truly care in the long run). I fully agree that stepping into a shared space with chimpanzees is a massive safety breach and the man with 38 years on the job can have no complaints about being let go. I wonder if there were other glaring errors from keepers? One thing that I do agree with is that at all the top zoos there seems to always be a period of turmoil at some point in time and perhaps this is just that era for Oregon. A new leader has their own expectations and I see it all the time in the public school system in Canada as new Principals arrive at schools with a different mindset than the previous leader. All of the teachers have to get on board with what is being planned, and those that do not like it usually retire or transfer elsewhere.
     
  13. Arizona Docent

    Arizona Docent Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Well I only have experience at one zoo, Reid Park Zoo, where I have been a docent for ten years. While a few newly hired keepers have not lasted long, they all left for personal reasons (elderly parents that needed caring for, etc). Many of the keepers have spent their entire career here and the majority were there long before I was. Although I would not necessarily know about, I am personally not aware of any keepers being fired during my time here. The keeper apprentice who was responsible for the giraffe incident (accidental feeding of poisonous oleander) voluntarily resigned and we were told that no one on staff asked him to resign.

    Of course this is just my zoo and I do not know what the industry as a whole is like. What I do know is it is a very competitive field and every time we advertise an opening we get scores of applications.
     
  14. team tapir

    team tapir Well-Known Member

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    At our local zoo in Cleveland the keepers are part of the Teamsters Union Local 507.So this provides some of the most competitive wages and benefits in the country as well as job stability.Therefore not much turnover at all.We think that the only other zoo that we believe to be in a union is San Diego.There certainly could be some more but we are'nt sure.

    Team Tapir
     
  15. DeydraOZ

    DeydraOZ Well-Known Member

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    The Oregon Zoo's three wolves, Cheyenne, Yazhi and Kenai will be moving out in August. This conflicts with the ZooTracks news letter that mentioned they would be moving out in September. I haven't heard why the sudden date change.

    They will be moving to the Lee G. Simmons Conservation Park and Wildlife Safari part of the Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo. The move is because of the elephant expansion, which will be constructed in parts, will transforming the former elk/wolf meadow area into part of the elephant exhibit.

    If any ZooChatters are in the Omaha area of Nebraska, or plan to visit there after the wolves have moved, I'd LOVE an update on them. They've become some of my favorite animals at the zoo and I've enjoyed watching their crazy antics ever since they arrived.
    I'm curious how introductions are going to go about. Cheyenne is 12 years old and because of her age is more submissive than she was 4 years ago. Yazhi is very dominant and I have no idea how well she'll do with other females (considering her re-introduction with Cheyenne) and I don't know what to think of Kenai since he's only been around females and gets along pretty well with them.

    Hopefully construction will begin soon. Though with Rose-tu being pregnant I'd think they'd hold off until she had the baby.

    (I'll be more ranty when Steller Cove is turned into a South America exhibit)

    Oregon Zoo's elephants elbow out wolves | OregonLive.com
     
  16. Ituri

    Ituri Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Honestly, the only parts of the master plan I'm terribly fond of are the Primate Forest and Polar Bear enhancement.
     
  17. DeydraOZ

    DeydraOZ Well-Known Member

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    It'll be nice to see a new polar bear exhibit. No idea when they'll begin construction on it since they still have bears in the habitat...oh and penguins. (They've been there a WHILE now)
    And a new primate exhibit would look awesome considering that so many primate exhibit are very old and out dated.
     
  18. BeardsleyZooFan

    BeardsleyZooFan Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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  19. BeardsleyZooFan

    BeardsleyZooFan Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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  20. DeydraOZ

    DeydraOZ Well-Known Member

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    Rose-tu to give birth any day now

    Progesterone levels have taken a nosedive. Previous data collected has shown that when this happens, the baby can be born within the week.