The agreement, signed by Professor Frazer Allan, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Engagement) of Victoria and Craig Ellison, Chair of the Wellington Zoo Trust Board, formalises the ongoing collaboration between the two organisations and proposes the development of additional opportunities for student placements and internships, as well as sharing equipment, data and facilities to extend research related to animal welfare and behaviour.
Professor Allan says the partnership will support important future collaborations.
“We've worked closely with Wellington Zoo on a number of projects over the years, but there's so much more we can do with them in future. This agreement sets the fou ndation for these collaborations and we're looking forward to working together.”
Wellington Zoo Chief Executive Officer, Karen Fifield MNZM, says Wellington Zoo and Victoria University have enjoyed a close research relationship for many years, spanning a broad range of research projects, from visitor experience to animal behaviour and cognition.
“Our future collaborations can identify and shape new opportunities for wildlife research and other research opportunities. We can gain a lot of knowledge from sharing our resources and data with Victoria University and vice versa.”
Professor Wayne Linklater from Victoria’s School of Biological Sciences says the relationship with the Zoo has been an important part of teaching and research for many of the School’s students.
“We’ve been lucky to have this relationship in place for a number of years, and there has been a lot of interesting and important research done because of it. We’re now looking ahead to a range of new research opportunities. One of these is understanding how kea and kaka learn, and through that how we might be able to stop them eating lead, which is incredibly harmful to them, and a source of conflict when they live in urban areas.
“When we teach Animal Diversity in the second year, the students are able to reinforce what is being taught in labs and class—by seeing the animals feeding and moving around,” he says.