AAZK Chapters Support Their Peers Impacted by Disasters
Mandy Matson, Communications Director Zoological Disaster Response, Rescue, and Recovery
As natural disasters and abnormal weather events continue to intensify and increase in frequency, zoological facilities are often under threat. Zookeepers are among the staff most impacted when a zoological facility faces a natural disaster. Preparing for known threats such as hurricanes, floods, and wildfires can be exhausting and stressful; as can riding out a storm or fire with the animals in their care. No matter how much they practice their contingency plan, disasters often bring unexpected challenges that can quickly overwhelm personnel who are sometimes simultaneously dealing with issues related to a large-scale disaster at home.
This is when peers from other zoological facilities can become valuable volunteers. They bring new energy, have
already been trained on how to safely work around exotic and native wildlife, and understand what a keeper’s job entails.
Zoological Disaster Response, Rescue, and Recovery (ZDR3) was created to quickly deploy specialized zoological disaster response teams to zoos, aquariums, sanctuaries, wildlife rehabilitation centers, and other facilities housing non-domestic animals. With more than 200 member facilities in 38 states and U.S. territories, we have resource caches and response teams throughout the country we can deploy to assist staff at impacted facilities.
AN INSPIRING SHOW OF SUPPORT FROM AAZK CHAPTERS
Throughout 2024, ZDR3 Network teams responded to hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural and man-made disasters. It was a challenging year for our small staff, who were activated for responses for months at a time. AAZK reached out to us and asked what they could do to help. We suggested they encourage Chapters to support facilities across the zoological industry that were impacted by disasters; and to support ZDR3.
Disaster response is costly, and donors help support our work. Last fall, when our staff was managing multiple responses, we were uplifted when we suddenly received donations from AAZK Chapters throughout the country! AAZK President Nicole Pepo told us that after an e-mail was sent to Chapter Leaders that explained how to donate to ZDR3, “The response from our Chapters was immediate and full of such compassion.”
The AAZK Chapters that donated to ZDR3 are Baton Rouge, Battle Creek, Cape May County Zoo, Dallas Zoo, Detroit, Indianapolis, Little Turtle, Memphis, Mesker Park Zoo, and Puget Sound. This show of support was so inspiring we reached out to learn more
A zoo that could not deploy responders sent critical food supplies to a conservation facility in Florida damaged by Hurricane Ian in 2022. Damage was so widespread that it would have been difficult to find fresh fruits and vegetables for their reptiles, much less specialty food such as live crickets (they were in coolers while they were being transported; then removed for documentation purposes before being unloaded).
Learn More About ZDR3 at the AAZK Conference
ZDR3 Operations Manager Cari Wittenborn will be attending the 2025 AAZK National Conference, where she will be leading a workshop titled, “Safeguarding Species and Self: A Zoo Keeper’s Guide to Disaster Preparedness and Response.” The focus will be on maintaining animal welfare during disasters, and strategies to mitigate the potential decline in animal welfare during crises. The core of the workshop is an interactive tabletop exercise simulating a compounding disaster. Participants will work through worst-case scenarios, learning to identify vulnerabilities, adapt plans, and make quick, effective decisions to prioritize animal welfare and safety.
In addition to Cari’s role as a responder, she has relevant firsthand experience with animals in her care. She previously worked at a ZDR3 Network facility member zoo that flooded, and was grateful for ZDR3’s assistance in protecting the animals and mitigating flood damage. She has since worked responses including a hurricane, ice storm damage, and a wildfire evacuation.
Cari is looking forward to the conference. “I’m excited for my first AAZK conference and the chance to connect with new people, share how ZDR3 supports keepers during disasters, and explore more ways to help those in the field.”
about what moved these Chapters to support ZDR3. Here’s what some of them told us:
“We decided to donate because we wanted to help animal facilities that were affected by storms,” said Bryan Sincavage, President of the Cape May County Zoo AAZK Chapter. “We believe in helping any facility that is in need because we all share the common goal, which is to help protect wildlife and educate the public.”
The Battle Creek AAZK Chapter donated from the proceeds of a garage sale, their biggest fundraiser of the year. “We decided to donate to ZDR3 because of the recent hurricanes that caused damage to multiple zoological and aquarium facilities,” said Chapter Vice President Laura Van Beek. Members of the Little Turtle AAZK Chapter supported the Battle Creek AAZK Chapter by attending their garage sale. Little Turtle also donated 10% of all funds raised for their Bowling for Rhinos event to ZDR3 to support our hurricane response missions.
“We’re glad to have been able to help out and are very inspired by the work that [ZDR3 is] doing, especially after Hurricane Helene,” said Dallas Zoo AAZK
Chapter President Ainsley Myers. They hosted a bake sale called “Dough-nate for Disaster Relief” for which Chapter members brought in baked goods and sold them for three days.
Mesker Park Zoo AAZK Chapter Treasurer Amy Augustine discovered ZDR3 after seeing Facebook posts about the hurricane responses last year. “I loved that there was an organization like this out there,” Amy commented. Mesker Park Zoo has a coin racer game for visitors that ends in a “wishing well.”
The AAZK Chapter and the zoo each own half of the proceeds and they split the wishing well donations to different conservation groups. Amy said that last year the AAZK Chapter members chose ZDR3 because they all liked being able to help other zoos when disasters happen.
The Indianapolis AAZK Chapter hosts an annual “Share the Love Valentine’s Bake Sale” for which they donate homemade baked goods and Valentine’s themed items, like candygrams, which they sell to fellow staff members. Since 2023, they have donated their Share the Love proceeds to ZDR3, said Stephanie M. Baker, Plains and Carnivore Zookeeper at Indianapolis Zoo. “We feel like it is very important to support our
colleagues in this field right here at home just as much as other causes in far-off countries. We are stronger together, and what better way to ‘share the love’ than selling yummy baked goods to our coworkers to raise money for our neighbors in need?”
Stephanie understands what ZDR3 Network response teams accomplish for the facilities they assist because she was a member of the Indianapolis Zoo team that traveled to Louisiana after a hurricane damaged a zoo there in 2020. Here’s what she had to say about it: “Deploying with ZDR3 to help with hurricane relief was a gratifying experience. The zoo needed a lot of help to clean up and make repairs after the storm. I was on the Indy Zoo’s horticulture team at the time. Myself and two coworkers were deployed with a variety of saws and equipment to help remove tree debris safely. Since we were used to being in a zoo setting, we were able to identify a few specific projects that we were able to tackle for them. We were able to navigate the compromised zoo safely and get our projects done without the need for extra supervision. These are some of the reasons that it is beneficial to have zoo staff help the facilities in need. I would deploy again anytime.”
WHY THE ZOOLOGICAL INDUSTRY NEEDS A SPECIALIZED DISASTER RESPONSE ORGANIZATION
The zoological industry has a tradition of peer-to-peer support because our peers at other facilities are often willing and eager to help. This assistance used to be coordinated informally and without specialized prior planning.
After Hurricane Harvey in 2017, it was recognized that industry response activities needed to be formalized and managed through a dedicated and specialized entity. Informal response operations that assisted Houstonarea facilities after the storm had struggled due to a lack of centralized communication or coordination. Meetings between industry leaders who wanted to improve upon those outcomes began within months of the incident. Ultimately, this resulted in the founding of ZDR3.
ZDR3 was formalized in Texas in 2019 with the initial goal of creating an industry-led network to assist regional facilities damaged by major Atlantic storms. The success of our peer-to-peer response efforts during that recordsetting Atlantic hurricane season led to increased interest from zoos and aquariums across the country, so ZDR3 expanded beyond its original region to include all who want to participate.
ZDR3 responders brought chainsaws and heavy equipment to assist a zoological facility remove trees from fences and their animals’ habitats damaged by Hurricane Milton in 2024.
Today, ZDR3 is the largest zoological disaster response organization in the U.S., with a staff and network ready to assist impacted facilities before, during, and after significant incidents—including those that are not weather-related. Our growing network represents a variety of accreditation industry business models, statuses, and membership groups.
How Responders Assist Keepers
Response activities can include shortterm assistance with animal husbandry; removing downed vegetation; repairing life support systems, buildings, and fences; feeding and supporting facility staff; and locating and obtaining necessary resources.
Although many of ZDR3’s responders are husbandry staff at their own facilities, their work as responders is focused on assisting the impacted facility’s keepers to maintain routines that are as normal as possible. Animals are often stressed after a disaster, and are generally best soothed when their caretakers are the ones working directly with them.
Our responders only assist with direct animal care if it is within their specific skill set, and when it is requested by staff at the impacted facility. So what does “husbandry assistance” mean? Essentially, anything that takes timeconsuming work off keepers who are often working under less-than-ideal conditions. Here are some examples: Assisting with food preparation and cleanup. Moving downed limbs to create safer routes to get to each animal and/ or to make it safer for animals in their habitat. Moving crates after the keepers have contained the animals to be moved to a different location. Helping to rebuild a damaged habitat.
We are always mindful that husbandry staff at an impacted facility have often directly experienced the disaster at work, in their own homes, or both. Our goal is to lighten their load in any way that makes sense so they can focus on what matters most: caring for the animals.
HOW YOU CAN ASSIST ZDR3 AND YOUR PEERS
Keepers often contact us, asking to volunteer as a responder. The ZDR3 Network is solely composed of zoological facilities that have signed a memorandum of understanding and choose to deploy their staff. Because there are safety considerations related to disaster response, the facility must also have liability insurance that covers their deployed staff. If you work at a ZDR3 Network member facility and want to train for the response team, talk to your manager about your interest in participating.
If your facility is not a member of the network, ask your manager about it. Some organizations do not yet know about ZDR3, and some choose not to join. It will help if you familiarize yourself with how ZDR3 works by going to our website, ZDR3.org, then sharing what you know with your manager. You can find answers to frequently asked questions at ZDR3.org/faq. If you have
further questions after reviewing the FAQs, please contact me at communications@zdr3.org.
Being a member of a response team does not mean you will definitely deploy. Facilities that join ZDR3 are not obligated to respond. Some cannot spare the manpower at all; some can’t field a team when we put out a call for assistance; some prefer to send resources instead of personnel.
KEEPERS ARE AMONG OUR GREATEST ADVOCATES! HERE ARE SOME OTHER WAYS YOU CAN HELP:
Sharing our social media and blog posts. Keepers have increased awareness of our services in the zoological community, which sometimes leads to new facilities joining the network.
Alerting local news media when ZDR3 Network response teams are assisting a nearby facility. Supporting facilities we are assisting with uplifting messages on their social media, sharing their requests for donations to recover from a disaster, and sending notes or care baskets to keepers at impacted facilities (Note: we offer
A keeper (facing camera) at a facility in California that was evacuated due to threat of flooding by atmospheric rivers watches as ZDR3 responders unload one of the zoo’s bears that was returning home. The responding zoo provided the transport trailers and provided temporary homes for the impacted zoo’s animals for three weeks while their habitats were restored.
anonymity to facilities dealing with a disaster who ask not to be identified, so not all of our response efforts are publicly known.)
Thank you to the AAZK Chapters who have donated to help us help others, and to the keepers who support us in so many ways. We are stronger together.
