Northumberland Zoo accredited Leading Zoo in Europe

National World - LocalTV

Northumberland Zoo has officially been accredited by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, or EAZA. This prestigious recognition places the family-run zoo among the leading zoos and aquariums across Europe and beyond.

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00:00Achieving the Yaza accreditation for us is a huge moment for us really it's

00:04something that we're super proud of because it's a it's a membership

00:08association that is basically looking for the best possible standards of zoo

00:12operations so the way that we look after our animals the way that we do

00:15conservation education and research it's it's a lot of work to be basically

00:22meeting those standards it's something we've been working towards for years so

00:25for us to actually get the accreditation now and become full members is basically

00:29telling us that it it's all paid off and it demonstrates our commitment to those

00:34Yaza standards Northumberland Zoo has officially been accredited by the

00:38European Association of Zoos in Aquaria or Yaza this prestigious recognition

00:44places the family-run zoo among the leading zoos and aquariums across Europe

00:48and beyond so this year Northumberland Zoo does turn 10 we've been a zoo for 10

00:52years we became by Yaza members in 2021 which is the British version basically of

00:57the zoo membership which was a real great achievement so now becoming part of

01:01the Yaza membership is just that kind of next stepping stone for us and it's a

01:06milestone that we are really proud of the accreditation confirms that Northumberland

01:10Zoo meets and exceeds some of the structured standards in animal welfare

01:14conservation and education the process included a thorough site inspection by

01:20experts from the UK and mainland Europe assessing everything from habitat design in

01:25veterinary care to conservation programs and species management the Yaza screening to

01:32become accredited members was a three-day process and they looked at every single

01:36little thing that we did everything was scrutinized everything was taken apart we

01:40had to show evidence for everything that we do and some of the things that we got

01:44the most praise for was our native species conservation work so we have our

01:48harvest mouse breeding and reintroduction program we reintroduce them

01:51locally at Druridge Bay in Hawksley we also have a white claw crayfish conservation program so they're a

01:56critically endangered native species and we actually rear offspring here at the zoo to

02:02increase the survival rates of the youngsters the little tiny hatchlings and

02:06that's something that we've been doing for a few years now and we're really

02:09starting to have a lot of success with that so native species was was highly

02:13praised by the Yaza screening team it's something that is it's very important

02:16obviously we have an animal collection here and it's really well looked after and

02:20the point of it is to kind of show our visitors that come and also wide our

02:24audiences through our social media platforms what these animals are there's

02:28many animal species that people have never even heard of where they're from what

02:31they do and why they're threatened and what we can do to help them as well so we

02:36have the animals here but another part of that is the funds that we raise goes

02:40towards our conservation work and our research too so there is a huge part to it

02:44isn't just the animal collection here it's all the animals in the wild that

02:47we're supporting to this local zoo in rural Northumberland is not only becoming a

02:52well-loved establishment for families but also a safe and protected environment

02:56where wildlife and species can thrive

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