Tag Archives: Durrell

Conservation, Countryside, experience, Network and Sharing, Perthshire, strategy and plan, Training & Development, Workshop

ZooStephen 2016 – 2026 : 10th anniversary

10 years ago I took the step of becoming self-employed and established ‘ZooStephen.com’. It has been an interesting decade with ups and downs, challenges and wonderful experiences. At the heart of this I have succeeded to some degree and my 10 years of activity has largely been a product of the connections made in the previous 3 decades and taking advantage of ‘lucky’ occurrences and opportunities.

This blog is in part to thank all those who have helped me along the way but also to acknowledge some of the reality and challenges. ZooStephen is not finished yet, however I will continue to be realistic in what is my gradual journey to ‘retirement’.

Throughout my career I especially enjoyed learning from and supporting others and being involved in the zoo education community and more. I was fortunate that my first ‘zoo boss’ Malcolm Whitehead allowed freedom and innovation – something I tried to incorporate in my working life, although at times this challenged other people’s ideas and ways of working – and I certainly wasn’t always in the right.

ZooStephen came about through circumstance of leaving full-time work (not the right fit) and a need to pay bills… I applied for various roles and was ‘2nd choice’ a couple of times and was offered an environmental education job out of the zoo industry but the salary meant I couldn’t afford to move to it. So in the first 12-18 months my focus was ‘survival’ and what next? This actually enabled me to rethink and by moving (back to Scotland) I was able to buy a ‘cheap’ house and give myself the freedom of no mortgage or rent – and that was probably the most significant decision to how these last years have panned out.

Early opportunities to shape my ‘training’ provision and ways of working came through friends Daniel, Maggie, Tim & Darren with respectively work for Sparsholt, Durrell, Folly Farm and Longleat. I also discovered (as suspected) that there isn’t much money in this field and if I wanted to earn a living wage it would be a lot of work. However, these experiences were fun and appreciated and form the backbone of my ‘training’ role still.

Opportunities to support strategy and education plans as well as training came primarily after my experience heading up Discovery & Learning at RZSS (2005-15) and I was able to apply this experience to help Belfast Zoo review and develop their education provision. Later this type of work enabled wonderful opportunities abroad – for Chimelong Group in China, EPAA Sharjah Safari in UAE and remote support for Orangutan Haven, Indonesia.

Visiting China and the Emirates was both enjoyable and stressful but afforded great opportunities and experiences and work with some lovely people. Whilst these were well resourced ‘wealthy’ organisations the reality of being a ‘expert’ sub-contract meant I did a lot of work for the relatively small number of paid days and accepted that my influence was limited but ideas and opinion welcomed.

I did not anticipate that my December 2019 visit to Guangzhou would be my last… we were all caught off guard by the arrival of COVID-19. The impact was devastating for some. For me it was not only the loss of visits to China but suspension of face to face workshops and no income for a year! Thankfully I had savings. (The government support grant for me as a recent self-employed person was only a few hundred pounds. I don’t think many employees who were furloughed understood just how well off they were).

2020 and into 2021 therefore brought another pause and re-think and greater focus on what was important. Time with family, enjoyment of the outdoors and Scotland in particular took centre stage, whilst I took the attitude of take advantage of opportunities if I wanted to. It was a good time to volunteer and become a Trustee of Perth & Kinross Countryside Trust, help them develop a discovery & engagement role, and subsequently to take on being the Trust’s Chair. Latterly this has taken up a lot of my time and focus even though it is all unpaid.

A few zoos and colleges asked for workshops and advice which continued. By chance I was invited to comment upon educational development for Orangutan Haven by SOCP & YEL in Indonesia which led to some remote work. It would of course have been great to go out there. Covid restrictions limited opportunity for some time, however, it was also clear a lot of skills were there already. Whereas helping with the educational development at the brand-new Sharjah Safari was much better achieved with on-site support and working with the team.

I remain connected to the zoo community, albeit more remotely and infrequently than in the past. However, it has been lovely to engage via the International Zoo Educators association (and conference in UAE), ABWAK and the annual symposia – speaking at some; and the EAZA educators meetings at Skansen, Sweden and Chester UK. It has also been an honour to be at the inauguration of the UK Animal Care Technicians conference UKACT as keynote speaker (and workshop) and speak at the innovative 1st (and 2nd) Keeperfest at Jimmy’s Farm & Wildlife Park.

JFWP is certainly one of the zoos to watch over the coming years. It has been great to support them with education strategy, programme and plans as well as staff training, whilst seeing significant expansion in the Park’s operation and profile. The Meadows Wildlife Park in South Wales also provided another opportunity to work with a farm park (with some exotics) and help them with conservation and education requirements.

The last few years have seen more difficult times. The demand for training and development is limited, and budgets tight. I have taken advantage of a few opportunities but my focus and priorities have also been more personal with family deaths. I also have the luxury of learning from covid-year that I can survive on very little. One of the things that has been of great help is my association with Sparsholt College and the UK zookeepers course since it started with them. The small amount of marking I do is enough to pay for council tax and heating every year.

Towards the end of 2025 and as we move into 2026 a new opportunity has arisen, thanks largely to my friend Daniel, with the Life Science Education Trust from India to support the training and development of zoo staff from India, SE Asia and ultimately further afield. So far producing a suite of ‘online’ learning materials in an educators course, keepers course and a free webinar. This year also sees running a workshop at the ABWAK Symposium at Drayton Manor and another in Helsingborg for Swedish zoo staff in April.

So these 10 years have been interesting and largely enjoyable. However, for any thinking this may be what you want to do it will only work if either you have the skills, contacts and energy to work at it and do a lot more or like me can live off savings and use the work to supplement ‘life’,

A big thank you to everyone that has supported and helped me. The ZooStephen story continues….

experience, Network and Sharing, Training & Development, Workshop

DURRELL’S ARMY & JIMMY’S FARM

After a couple of years (due to covid issues) it was a pleasure to return to Jersey and the Durrell Conservation Academy and teach in person on the Spring 2022 DESMAN course.

Spring 2022 DESMAN participants having fun in the ‘Discovery Centre’

I am always inspired and enthused by the wonderful participants on this 12 week diploma course and it is an honour to work with them, and teach for a few days at the Academy that I saw opened by HRH Princess Royal with Gerry & Lee Durrell, as the International Training Centre in 1984. This year the group comprised participants from: Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Indonesia, Madagascar, Monserrat, Nigeria & Scotland and for some of the time joined by a couple of Jersey Zoo education staff too.

“Learning by doing” is largely the approach I take (although lecture is part of the delivery), and the students all engage well – for some they get pushed out of their comfort zone but building confidence in new areas.

The garden at the Academy provides a great place for outdoor learning when the weather is nice 🙂
Acting as a means of communication / meeting a cockroach 🙂

The DESMAN graduates have significant impact in the field in their careers and are part of ‘Durrell’s Army’ enacting conservation and saving endangered species and places. My workshop is designed to help them develop their communication skills and recognise the value of education as a conservation tool with a variety of audiences. A lot of examples are packed into a few days, including looking at public engagement in Jersey Zoo and case studies from around the world. My aim is to inspire, excite and enthuse through active education, enabling them to apply ideas in their own practice in future.

Saddleback pig – created from the few surviving Essex & Wessex saddleback pigs in 1960s

Not long after being in Jersey I headed to Jimmy’s Farm & Wildlife Park near Ipswich. The park is a working farm with rare breeds as well as having a growing wildlife park featuring a diversity of species. Rare Breeds of farm animals represent the ‘traditional’ stock and as the name suggests are ‘rare’ – largely because commercial farming has concentrated upon a few core varieties. Jimmy’s has a wonderful restaurant serving quality ‘home grown’ free range meat and promoting sustainable agriculture and good welfare.

Jim Doherty bought the derelict farm in 2002 and this featured in a BBC TV documentary and he has done various TV programmes since. The wildlife park aspects began in 2016 and now the site is attracting around 200,000 visitors a year!

The excellent staff team at Jimmy’s provide a great visitor experience and I’m pleased to be helping them redevelop their educational activities – talks for the public and a new school’s (formal education) programme.

Being a farm and wildlife park presents great opportunities for engaging a diverse audience – and of course there is a big appeal to young children. However, the expanding wildlife park (includes tapir, macaque, camel, lemur, & zebra) and wonderful woodland area, provide potential with the farm for a meaningful consideration of our relationship to nature both local and global.

I look forward to returning to Jimmy’s Farm & Wildlife Park soon to support staff training and review the strategy and programme I have worked on for them.

Uncategorized, Workshop

Optimism in the face of adversity?

The world has a virus. Normal life is suspended… but nature continues.

These are very difficult times for many people. The efforts to control the spread of covid-19 ‘locking-down’ communities and countries has meant physical isolation and separation, not just from each other but also from nature. In some respects, nature is pleased with this – the levels of air pollution are down, spring breeding is less disturbed etc.

ZooStephen, like most self-employed service providers has almost shut down with huge loss of business and income – hopefully temporary; I have been able to continue some remote/online activity. One of my favourite training events, teaching on the Durrell Endangered Species Management Graduate Certificate (DESMAN) at the Durrell Academy in Jersey at the start of April was not possible. However, I was pleased to create a suite of online material, resources and video to enable the participants to undertake the ‘Education Theory & Practice’ module without my physical presence.

DESMAN 2020 Participants, Jersey

It was lovely to receive some feedback that even in this modified version, it was “amazing” “enjoyed” and a “favourite” part of the 12 week DESMAN course. The participants represent projects and activity from across the world including Madagascar, Indonesia, St Lucia and Brazil. Although I didn’t get to interact with them, I always feel more optimistic for the future of conservation when I work with these amazing people, who will make a real difference for nature, the environment and their communities in the years to come.

Back home, in Scotland, I am missing going out into the wider countryside and walking in the trees, mountains, coasts… at least I live in a semi-rural area and can enjoy the immediate surroundings of my village. It has in some ways been good to see local people also discovering the local environment for their occasional exercise – obviously maintaining social/physical distancing. Perhaps, once this crisis is abated there will be a new ‘normal’ and people will appreciate each other and the environment more.

Hermitage Waterfall, Big Tree Country near Dunkeld, Perthshire

At this time I am also really pleased to have just become a Trustee of the Perth & Kinross Countryside Trust www.pkct.org . I hope to help encourage and promote engagement in the countryside across my home county, from Big Tree Country to the Cateran Trail and more. I am optimistic that in Scotland, we will value our environment more and improve our relationship to nature & recognise its importance for health and well being. I also hope we will be supportive of a more sustainable and ecological lifestyle – that may be a challenge, but this is a great opportunity to try.

At the Birnham Oak, at least 600 years old, the last remnant of the ancient forest featured by Shakespeare in ‘Macbeth’

Workshop

Inspiration & Optimism – DESMAN 2018

There is hope for the future. Conservation is often depicted as a battle and struggle, full of responding to ‘bad news’ and events – which undoubtedly it is. However, we should also be optimistic and celebrate the good news and success stories too. No conservation project, no matter how well conceived, planned and intentioned, will fully succeed unless it has the support of the people. Thankfully there are some amazing, inspiring and dedicated people around the world, working to conserve, protect and develop our understanding of nature. Some of these people are the participants in the Durrell Conservation Academy DESMAN course.

It was an honour and privilege to be invited to speak and lead a few days workshops for the DESMAN in Jersey once again; the third year I have done this. My education and communication ‘course’ was well received and I thoroughly enjoyed engaging with this year’s students who came from: Armenia, Brazil, Canada, China (Hong Kong), India, Nigeria, Samoa, St. Lucia, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Sumatra, & UAE.

Whilst, I was able to inspire and enthuse the participants and demonstrate a diversity of communication and education techniques, I was also inspired and enthused by them too. It’s always good to meet people who are committed to, are doing and will do, great work and to be a small part of their development and conservation activity. Their feedback was also very much appreciated, with some great comments, such as:
“thank you for making it so fun, informative and inspiring”; “I got many new experiences about new techniques of education and awareness programmes – very useful”; and “inspired me to do more in the field of conservation education and community conservation”.

It was of course also great to return to Jersey Zoo, HQ of Durrell and enjoy time in the Zoo – not least the brilliant bat flight enclosure – which in itself has a great community and recycling story in its construction.  We also enjoyed reviewing and critiquing the education for visitors, by observing talks, signs and discussing education programmes. One of the great aspects of the DESMAN is that the diversity of participants may have specific field projects and focus, but they get to understand endangered species management in general and the multi-faceted approach needed for conservation to succeed – including through education and communication.

I am optimistic that this year’s DESMAN participants, along with previous students, WILL go MAD and Make A Difference!

Thanks to Durrell Conservation Academy and to the participants and staff. (Links on social media twitter: @ZooStephen and featured on @Durrell_Academy and on facebook.)

Workshop

Conservation Education & Communication – Training at Durrell

The Durrell Conservation Academy in Jersey has been involved in the training of hundreds of conservationists from around the world and its flagship programme is the Durrell Endangered Species Management Graduate Certificate – DESMAN. It was an honour to be asked to run the Conservation Education training aspect of this year’s course.

The participants this year were from Rwanda, Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles, St. Lucia, Borneo, Indonesia, Brazil, China & UK, and their four month residential course is validated by DICE, University of Kent. So it was great to play a small part in the delivery and development of the participants learning & engagement in conservation.

For the few days I was at Durrell, I created a workshop on Conservation Education Theory & Practice, covering aspects of learning theory and lots of practical activity in communication and presentation skills. The students were great to work with, and it is a privilege to have met them and been involved in their development, and I was delighted to read their feedback, for example:

“It is very interesting session; the funny way you do the education is good. I think that it helps a lot to share examples of education in conservation. Personally I have got many tips from the sessions and many things to apply back home.”

“Great enthusiasm, some great ideas; kept us interested. Gave me new skills. Very relevant to my career. Useful contact to have”.

For conservation to succeed it is essential that the people and communities around conservation projects are fully engaged and informed; and its not always easy, so we covered using different techniques for different audiences and building the students confidence in this area.  I look forward to hearing of their work in the field in years to come.