Tag Archives: Sharjah Safari

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, Training & Development, Uncategorized

On Safari in Sharjah, UAE

Sharjah Safari is the world’s largest safari park outside of Africa and it has been an honour to play a small part in the educational development of this amazing Park which has just celebrated a year of operation.

eland in one of the reserves

Initial plans for the safari park were put into action around 8 years ago. I first heard about it a couple of years later and after putting forward thoughts on education and staff training in 2018-19, I became directly involved in 2021 and have just been out to Sharjah again for a couple of weeks to help review education work so far and encourage continued development.

this baobab is an amazing lifelike ‘model’; there are over 100 live baobabs on site

The park is part of the vision of HH Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, ruler of Sharjah, who wants to protect the different environments of the Emirate, raise awareness and engage people in their local environment, culture and history of links with Africa. The design and construction was a huge undertaking overseen via the ruler’s office, the Environment and Protected and Areas Authority [EPAA], a team of ex pat staff, many of whom had been working with EPAA already and the expertise of zoo design consultancy company Maguari-One .

I have visited safari style zoos in Europe, USA, Asia and Australia and been to Africa (many countries) and led a safari in East Africa so my expectations for this development were flavoured by this. Sharjah Safari is the closest to a ‘real safari’ that I have seen and is truly a great achievement for all involved. Covering 8 sq km it is truly massive and divided into different habitat/geographic zones. The 100,000+ trees (many acacia) and landscape make it a realistic representation. The high standards of animal care and presentation of animals is also very natural and only in a few areas do you see fencing etc.

African boma

In 2021 I helped create the Sharjah Safari education strategy and was involved in supporting development of the education team and initial training of the team of Emirati guides and staff, but the park was still being completed and animals not yet settled in. Now this month it was great to see everything, animals out on the ‘plains’ and in the reserves and to be taken on safari. It is to the credit of the organisation that the safari park is not a “commercial theme park” and whilst visitors are catered for well, the safari experience is akin to the real thing, as you go on a driven tour in dedicated vehicles with a guide.

some of the Emirati education team at one of my training workshops

This visit I was pleased to see the education team have done lots of activities in year one, despite many challenges, and the guides are beginning to develop their abilities. A schools programme has also got underway very successfully and will expand. With the team we reviewed the strategy and areas of responsibility and discussed exciting plans for continued development. I was also pleased to work with some of the Emirati staff, including a few from other EPAA visitor centres.

SICFAB conference hosted in Sharjah Safari

At the same time on this visit I was delighted to be an invited guest at the annual Sharjah International Conservation Forum for Arabia’s Biodiversity joining guests who work across Arabia, and with the topic of ‘Genetics & Conservation’ the forum was led by former colleagues from RZSS in Scotland 🙂

Into Africa – Birds of Africa aviary (one small part of this huge aviary)

Sharjah Safari includes representation of key African ‘zones’ – Sahel, Savannah, Serengeti, Kalahari, Ngorongoro and others that include giraffe (Moremi) and elephant (Niger Valley). The “Into Africa” first zone of the park includes a huge aviary, a representation of Madagascar and Aldabra, the Zanzibar village and a traditional African boma (farm), a view over part of the Sahel and an amphitheatre animal demonstration, and all this is accessible on foot with a basic ‘Bronze’ ticket (£9 ad/£3.40 ch). Silver or Gold tickets are required for the main safari drive around and special areas (and give access to Into Africa). The Silver ticket is safari by truck and a stop at the Safari Camp half way through. Gold is by a smaller ‘typical’ real safari luxury vehicle and includes a stop in the Serengeti zone as well (Silver: £27 ad/£11 ch; Gold £62.50 ad / £27 ch). Overall the experience can be 4 hours.

Serengeti area – spot the lion

This February the weather included some rain before I arrived and an average temperature in week one of 24-26 C and in week two 29-33C. So it was nice to be hot but comfortable. The hottest months June, July and August can see temperatures of 45C+ at this time the park is closed. The irrigation systems and natural gravel bed mean the environment copes and animals have shade, water and appropriate care. The elephants that are here, for example, come from an arid area and are used to hot dry conditions but also have showers, shade and food supply through the summer. A calf was born recently.

A great herd of elephants – their area is huge, shown here is one tiny part as viewed from safari vehicle

Sharjah Safari shows that a really good visitor experience and good animal ‘exhibit’ and welfare can be created in the Middle East, given a large budget but careful consideration of the environment and design. The exciting challenge ahead is embedding the educational opportunities into the staff training, visitor experience, raising awareness, supporting conservation and behaviour change. I will be watching to see how this amazing place matures over the years to come.

waterbuck…. this picture could so easily have been taken in the wild

Thanks to the Sharjah Safari team, EPAA and all those involved.

Training & Development

ON TOP OF THE WORLD – UAE 2021

  • View from Burj Khalifa, Dubai, Nov 2021

As the world met in Glasgow for COP26, and largely failed to make a big impact on the global climate crisis, I was in the heat of the United Arab Emirates. It was impressive, but likewise shocking from an environmental point of view, to see the modern city of Dubai from the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. The city pretty much didn’t exist 40 years ago and is still rapidly growing.

However, it was great to also go out into the mountains by Wadi Shawka in Sharjah Emirate, and enjoy an early morning hike (before it got too hot). Some wonderful plants here adapted to the arid conditions.

In the mountains by Wadi Shawka, Sharjah, UAE

This was not a holiday trip. It was my second visit this year to Sharjah Emirate and work with the Sharjah Environment and Protected Areas Authority (EPAA) www.epaashj.ae on their very exciting new project, Sharjah Safari. This new innovative safari park has been 6 years in the creation and is nearing being ready to open. It will be the largest safari park out of Africa and in large part ‘mimic’ the African safari experience with guests guided in vehicles around on ‘game drives’.

Sharjah Safari will be a high quality experience with excellent animal welfare. Full details will be available once the Park is open, but for now it is largely ‘under wraps’. My role, which we first discussed back in 2019, was to advise and support the development of education at the Park and play a role in the training of staff. It was challenging to some extent with the heat, language and cultural differences, but exciting to work with an international team, and a large number of Sharjah Emirate ladies who will be the face of the visitor experience and education delivery.

Such great feedback on ZooStephen workshop, (1=not much to 3 = very much)

I look forward to being able to see the Park once it is operational and see the staff at work after their detailed training programme, and I’m sure Sharjah Safari will be on many people’s ‘wish list’ for visiting once you hear about it in more detail and see images. However, due to the heat it will be closed in high summer, so best time to visit is likely to be October to March/April.