Zoos and aquariums in North America had 180 million visitors this year
JIM MADDY, PRESIDENT AND CEO What does your role involve?
My role involves leadership of the pro- fessional staff, the executive leadership function of the association and working with its board of directors to set policy and establish a vision that provides the best possible service to members. There’s an enormous amount of inter- action with our members. I’m often in the zoos and aquariums or talking to the directors of these institutions about their concerns on government affairs, public affairs, scientifi c management of their col- lections plus cooperative management of our zoo and aquarium collections.
What are the concerns?
The top concern is always conservation. There are few places on the globe where the habitat for wildlife is getting better as opposed to getting worse, so zoos are more important than they’ve ever been. There’s a clear threat to the sustainability of so many different wildlife species. That translates into a clear threat for the collec- tions we’re able to display for the public.
What are the main needs of members?
Zoos and aquariums are more popular than ever. They will receive 180 million visi- tors in North America this year. Taking care of them while providing the highest pos- sible standards of animal care and welfare
AM 3 2010 ©cybertrek 2010
we need at a national level to sustain our collections and make an even greater con- tribution to wildlife conservation.
What are AZA’s future plans? JIM MADDY
in the exhibits and behind the scenes is a constant balancing act. It needs ever better data and manage- ment systems so the operators make the right budget decisions between capital investment and operating budget to pro- vide the best possible visitor experience and translate all that into real support for conservation.
What are the current trends and issues in zoos and aquariums?
The elected offi cials, particularly the US senators and representatives of communi- ties, appreciate how important zoos and aquariums are to education, wildlife con- servation and habitat improvement in their communities. But somehow, when those same people come together on the fl oor of the senate, the understanding and value and support that offi cials express, isn’t translating into the kind of support that
Education and conservation is where we’re headed. We know zoos and aquariums will be called on even more in the future to res- cue species, to rescue individual stranded animals, such as marine mammals and to step in in emergencies such as the disas- trous oil spill currently in the Gulf of Mexico. The future of AZA’s member institutions will be increasingly focused on captive breeding, preventing extinction and the reintroduction of captive bred species to re-establish otherwise extinct populations.
What about the BP oil spill?
BP is the fourth largest entity on earth and the US government is probably the single largest organisation, so we’ve got this giant corporation and an incredible federal establishment with so many resources. But it’ll be zoo keepers from Omaha and cura- tors from Chicago and veterinarians from LA who rescue and treat the wildlife that’s been impacted by the oil spill. And they’ll do that at our their expense – BP and the government don’t pay for that work. The animal carers almost always wind up pick- ing up the tab themselves because that’s who they are, that’s what they do and it speaks very highly of their values.
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