PASA and Zoo Keepers: Working Together to Ensure
African Sanctuary Success

D. Cress, Executive Director

Pan African Sanctuary Alliance

PASAapes@aol.com

The Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) was formed in 2000 to promote unity and coordination between the rehabilitation centers in Africa that care for literally thousands of chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, drills and other endangered primates.

But PASA also reached out to accredited zoos in the United States and Europe, and keepers at some of those institutions have been responsible for some of the most innovative – and important – developments in PASA’s 10-year history.

At Chester Zoo in the U.K. , PASA’s veterinary healthcare programs are created and coordinated, from organizing annual training workshops and creating a veterinary manual to accessing medicine and offering expertise. At Apenheul in The Netherlands, PASA was able to stage its first reintroduction workshop in 2006, an important event that will have led to the return of chimpanzees, bonobos, drills and monkeys to wild by the end of this year.

At Lincoln Park Zoo in the U.S. , keepers created studies that produced population modeling and blood-typing for great apes, while keepers at Disney’s Animal Kingdom spear-headed a three-year bushmeat education awareness program. At the Cleveland Metroparks, the Akron Zoo, the Potowatomi Zoo and the Toledo Zoo, keepers helped collect surplus medical supplies and equipment and ship them to PASA sanctuaries, while Utah ’s Hogle Zoo, the Santa Barbara Zoo, the Blank Park Zoo, and Zoo Atlanta helped source second-hand uniforms that could be retro-fitted for PASA staffs across Africa .

Keepers at the Cincinnati Zoo, the Louisville Zoo, the Bronx Zoo and the Pittsburgh Zoo worked to host presentations by PASA managers and staff, and keepers at the Buffalo Zoo, the Detroit Zoo, Zoo Atlanta, Columbus Zoo and many other institutions raised funds on behalf of PASA, all of which went towards PASA’s programs designed to rescue, rehabilitate and reintroduce as many of Africa’s endangered primates as possible.