Ep32 Joanne Thomas on the 5 Domains in strategy, animals as teachers guiding care, and punching above your weight for all to flourish

Joanne Thomas is the Animal Care Manager at Wellington Zoo Trust (WZT) in New Zealand. Joanne shares her background, and big passion and love that is animal welfare. 

She started volunteering in a wide variety of places around the world to gain experience, working with a wide variety of species for over 30 years. 

For Joanne, the key is always being open and prepared to learn, and how animals are our teachers too.

Joanne talks about all her experience from agriculture and farming, to sanctuaries and zoos around the world. Despite all the challenging aspects of working in sanctuaries, she highlights that sometimes having a hard job, is a rewarding job.

Joanne shares how she ended up in the position of Animal Care Manager, and how much she loves the WZT values, with their passion and commitment to always ‘Punch above your weight every day. She dives into the philosophy of animal care and welfare at WZT, including looking after everything and everyone in the environment, so animals and people can flourish.

Joanne highlights the importance of strategic and operational plans for animal welfare programs. She explains how they have used the Five Domains model, from day-to-day care to long-term plans and in strategic and operational planning.

She shares different examples of the ‘Happy animals' interpretation activities they have around the zoo for the community and visitors, how to engage them with the animals, and how they share the Five Domains model with the visitors.

Joanne also talks about the conservation projects in collaboration with the Department of Conservation in New Zealand, such as with threatened species including the Wellington green gecko.

To conclude Joanne tells a success story of a tiger and the transformation of his welfare at the WZT. Sabrina and Joanne discuss the importance of the stories of the animals as teachers guiding care, the resilience and flexibility of the animals, and the importance of being prepared to change, learn and never give up on the animals.

Learn more about the conservation projects at Wellington Zoo Trust HERE

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