Chris Vehrs, executive director of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, could have done a condor-like flyover to drop off the National Aviary’s latest five-year accreditation approval.
Instead, she took time Monday to perch and praise its administrators and staff for creating recent “transformational changes” at the West Park facility on the North Side.
“The aviary had ideas in its master plan and was able to execute them in extraordinary fashion,” Ms. Vehrs said after announcing the aviary’s accreditation, which was approved last month in Salt Lake City at the AZA’s annual conference. “What they’ve done is upped the commitment both to what they do within the aviary and outside in the wild.”
In a short speech and accreditation ceremony punctuated by the flight of a snowy owl, two American flamingos and a parade of endangered African penguins, she said AZA inspectors were especially impressed with the aviary’s interactive experiences programs that focus on conservation education; new exhibits, including an outdoor space for endangered Andean condors; its veterinary intern program; and its two conservation scientists on staff.
The aviary has been accredited by the AZA since 1984. But in the past five years, Ms. Vehrs said, the aviary has been able to increase its space, budget, visitation, animal collection and endangered species breeding programs.
Cheryl Tracy, aviary managing director, said that in the past five years, aviary membership has grown by 15 percent, visitation has climbed to 139,965 a year and revenue is up $1 million and has risen from one-third to one-half of operating costs.
Of the 2,800 licensed animal and bird exhibitors in the U.S., only 230 have earned AZA accreditation.
Ms. Vehrs said there’s no change in the status of the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium. which dropped its AZA accreditation in August in a dispute over how to manage its elephants.
The zoo in Highland Park gave up its accreditation rather than agree to follow an AZA safety policy mandating "protected contact" with barriers between keepers and its six elephants.
First Published: October 26, 2015, 10:10 p.m.
Updated: October 27, 2015, 3:29 a.m.
