BOTH staff and animals of the Guyana Zoological Park recently benefited from a working visit by a senior veterinarian from the Calgary Zoo of Canada. Chairman of the National Parks Commission (NPC) and Head of the Zoo, Ms. Youlanda Vasconcellos said that the Calgary staffer was Dr. Douglas Whiteside and the visit had proved to be very useful to the local zoo.

Dr. Whiteside held clinics for many of the animals, trained staffers on data and recording systems, and provided students of the Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA) and others in the animal health community with hands-on training in basic animal husbandry and care.

During a ten-day visit last month, he also examined records at the zoo and gave general advice on data and record-keeping activities, Vasconcellos  said,  which are all part  of an ongoing Guyana/Calgary collaboration  aimed at  improving the quality of life of the animals at the zoo here.

Members of the local animal health community outside the ambit of the zoo, such as GSA students, also participated in the programme. Vasconcellos said that visits by staffers of the Calgary Zoo to assist with institutional development in the Guyana zoo was a once-per-year activity, usually lasting seven to ten days, which had been agreed on in 2002.

“It is a sister zoo collaboration, and we have been benefiting from activities and training which we receive on these annual visits,” she said.

Ms. Vasconcellos said that one of the notable things that Dr. Whiteside did while here late last month was to help to relocate the lioness in the zoo to a new and greener environment.

The operation was spearheaded by Dr. Whiteside with the assistance of resident zoo  veterinarian, Dr. Meghoo, and GSA animal health students, and took over six hours to complete.

The lioness was gradually sedated until she was sound asleep before being given a thorough medical check-up.

“Her heart; her lungs; her eyes; her teeth; her claws all were examined. We couldn’t do that if she was awake. She passed her medicals, Vasconcellos said, adding:

“She was then bodily lifted to her new location, and to the joy of everyone, quickly recovered from the sedation without any noticeable adverse effects, and then ate a hearty meal.”

The relocation of the cat, Vasconcellos said, was a success story, given that the lioness was sixteen years old and may have awakened at the wrong time or never at all, as would have been the case, if her heart had failed.

The visiting Calgary vet also conducted medical checks on many of the other animals, including the harpy eagles and other birds, including a macaw, all the cats, all the primates, and all the snakes.

A beneficial aspect of these medical examinations by Dr. Whiteside, Vasconcellos said, was that he did them in the presence of the keepers, who could observe what he was doing and ask questions and learn from the exposure.

She added too that Dr. Whiteside was a great friend of the Guyana zoo, this being his eight consecutive visit to Guyana since the collaboration between the two zoos was brokered.

“Even  though he has left we keep in contact with him. If there are any questions that we have we can  e-mail him and he responds promptly always within 24 hours.”

She expressed the gratitude to the Calgary  Zoo and to Dr. Whiteside specifically for his continued  and dedicated support for  increasing the capabilities and efficiency of the local zoo  especially  the services of the Veterinarian Department.