Blog: ABWAK’s 50th Anniversary Symposium

ABWAK at 50: Celebrating half a century of keeper collaboration, and why CPD is more important than ever by Adam Douglass, ABWAK Council Member and Head of Carnivores and Primates at Chessington World of Adventures Resort:

For the last 50 years, the Association of British and Irish Wild Animal Keepers (ABWAK) has provided a platform for both professional and aspiring wild animal keepers to develop both their knowledge and practical skills through collaboration. To mark those 50 years, I was delighted to play a role in organising a very special symposium at ZSL London Zoo this month.

Before we celebrate where we are today, we must first look back to the beginning. In 1974, Marwell Zoological Park’s Jonathan Barzdo and Graham Lucas of Whipsnade Wild Animal Park, agreed on the idea that a recognised zoo keeper association could be a valuable resource for professionals across the UK and Ireland. With the support of influential zoo directors John Knowles of Marwell Zoological Park and Colin Rawlins of the Zoological Society of London, support was rallied to establish the UK’s first zoo keeper association, ABWAK. From these humble beginnings, ABWAK has evolved to become an internationally recognised and respected zoo association with over 1,300 members.

In 2003, ABWAK became a founding member of the International Congress of Zookeepers (ICZ), a global zoo keeper network of which all professional ABWAK members are automatically enrolled. As a founding member, we sit proudly amongst the ICZ steering committee alongside other zoo keeping associations from Argentina, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the Netherlands. Today, ABWAK also holds a key partnership with BIAZA, as both organisations strive to take forward the zoo sector.

ABWAK is run by a council of sixteen volunteers and is co-chaired by Darren Beasley of Longleat Safari Park and Sam Whitbread of Chessington World of Adventures. Alongside our quarterly zoo keeping journal Ratel and comprehensive range of workshops, our annual two-day symposium is perhaps the event for which ABWAK is best known. The aim of the ABWAK Symposium, as opposed to a workshop on a more specific topic, is to provide something for everyone, no matter your job role or experience level.

The 2024 ABWAK Symposium featured a special anniversary itinerary reflecting on where we have been, where we are currently and how we can continue to work together to evolve even further in the future. Alongside presentations from ABWAK Honorary Vice President Stephen Woollard, Vice President Laura Gardiner and President David Field, we were also delighted to have in attendance ABWAK founder Jonathan Barzdo himself, to offer the opening presentation. Representatives from ICZ, BIAZA, EAZA and WAZA were also amongst the speakers, as were zoo professionals from eighteen zoological collections.

Another hallmark of the ABWAK symposium includes our esteemed workshops, expertly hosted by the ZSL team. This year we offered a choice of thirteen workshops including managing live food, animal handling and restraint, ZSL library tour, enclosure design, listed buildings tour, welfare assessment, visitor engagement, managing walkthrough exhibits and a selection of behind-the-scenes tours.

Naturally, we couldn’t let 50 years pass without a party and ZSL were once again exceptional hosts providing an evening of twilight tours, delicious food and drink and the compulsory DJ and dancefloor.

True to form; delegate, speaker and sponsor feedback for our 50th anniversary symposium has been overwhelmingly positive. We are delighted to hear that once again our delegates returned to their respective collections inspired, having enjoyed two days of that vital and underrated resource identified by ABWAK’s founders fifty years ago – collaboration.

I recall with great fondness how much I enjoyed my first ABWAK event (the 2014 symposium at Chester Zoo). It was great to see that this year’s 250 attendees felt the same. 

For half a century, continued professional development has been at the heart of what ABWAK has strived to offer its membership. Now more than ever, our collections are being directed not only to include regular CPD into their staff development policies, but also to provide evidence that this is being done adequately, as part of the new Standards of Modern Zoo Practice for Great Britain. Participation in collaborative learning is now not only a professional obligation, but a legal one too.  

With ten more workshops scheduled for the remainder of 2024, we invite all zoo and aquarium professionals to consider what you might gain from joining the UK and Irelands only keeper-specific zoo association.

- Adam Douglass, ABWAK

To find out more about ABWAK click here.

All blogs reflect the views of their author and are not necessarily a reflection of BIAZA's positions.