2023 Impact Report - ZDR3

2023

Impact Report Zoological Disaster Response, Rescue, and Recovery (ZDR3)

Contents

Letter From Our President

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Where ZDR3 Has Responded

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Helping Others Helps Us All

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2023 Responses

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ZDR3 is Always on Call

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Strength in Numbers

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Fostering a Culture of Preparedness

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Most of the images in this report were created by ZDR3 staff. Thank you to the following organizations for providing additional photos: Fort Worth Zoo, Lemur Conservation Foundation, Monterey Zoo, City of Merced, KUAM News, The Terrestrial Texan, and ZooWorld Zoological Park.

Letter From Our Director

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2023 Sponsors

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Grants & Cooperative Agreements

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This is our organization’s first Impact Report, a document we plan to provide annually to our supporters.

Please feel free to share it with anyone who may benefit from its contents.

ZDR3 - Impact Report 2023

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Letter from Our President Zoological Disaster Response, Rescue, and Recovery (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 peerto-peer response efforts during that record-setting 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.

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 currently consists of more than 160 member facilities representing a variety of accreditation industry business models, statuses, and membership groups. We could not have achieved this without our staunch supporters.

ZDR3 consists of a small team of dedicated personnel who work year round to monitor hazards; maintain and grow our response network; and support network preparedness and readiness. The ZDR3 staff and board members have each experienced and responded to significant zoological disasters that led to our strong commitment to colleagues in need. One thing we have learned is that preparing for catastrophic events should always be approached from the mentality of hoping for the best but preparing for the worst: there is no such thing as being over-prepared.

There’s nothing quite as rewarding as the response we receive when we coordinate professional teams from different facilities into a unified force to help overwhelmed colleagues weather a disaster. By providing outside support to these impacted facilities, we are able to lessen the adverse impact to the personnel, which is critical for the recovery process of an institution and its individuals —human and animal.

As our network has grown, our staff is being asked by institutions, nonprofits, and government agencies to provide technical information, present at conferences, serve on working groups, and assist with a wider range of disasters across a wider geography—including U.S. territories, such as Guam!

These developments are deeply satisfying because we are having a greater impact than we ever imagined when we launched ZDR3. But they are also draining our resources. We urgently need to raise funds to build up our war chest to ensure we can sustain our nonprofit organization and continue growing the ZDR3 network.

One-time donations are always welcome, but we also need supporters we can depend on to make an annual commitment to ensure our continued success. Please consider how you can help us help others; someday, you might be the one who calls for assistance. We want to be there for you because we are stronger together.

Michael Fouraker President, ZDR3 and Director, Fort Worth Zoo

Where ZDR3 Has Responded

ZDR3 - Impact Report 2023

Although ZDR3 Disaster Responders often deploy from nearby network member facilities, some travel long distances to provide assistance.

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ZDR3 - Impact Report 2023

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Helping Others Helps Us All ZDR3's Impact on Animal Welfare and Conservation Needs assessors take detailed notes that help us determine which teams that have offered to deploy are best suited for a response.

The heart of the ZDR3 Network are the animal professionals concerned about the welfare of all animals in human care, not just those at their own institutions. Although the nuts and bolts of a zoological disaster response begins and ends with coordinating responders and resources, everyone’s shared goal is to ensure the safety and welfare of the staff and animals at an impacted facility.

Response activities can include short-term 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.

When damage is widespread and severe, the first ZDR3 personnel to deploy are needs assessors.

They visit damaged sites that have requested assistance to identify the skills that will be required to most effectively and efficiently allow a site to resume normal operations.

After a significant incident, everything at a site but the most basic husbandry practices are likely to be disrupted. Downed trees and power outages are common, and skilled tradespeople are in high demand.

After the electrical infrastructure at a reptile conservation center was damaged during a hurricane, ZDR3 deployed a response team that included an electrician. The facility houses 2,000 animals, including hatchlings, that would potentially perish without heat.

Supply chain issues following the storm caused shortages of gas required to power generators, so restoring power before a cold snap was the highest priority.

The responders’ charming observer is an Aldabra tortoise.

Many zoological institutions have a conservation mission that can include housing threatened and endangered species, and involvement in breeding conservation management programs. Any loss of life, long-term welfare impact, or escape of a critically Critically endangered mongoose lemurs are among the species involved in a conservation breeding endangered program at a Florida facility. individual can create setbacks that impact the survival of a species.

When a hurricane devastated a forest habitat designed for lemurs in 2022, ZDR3 Responders removed dozens of trees from their fence lines and ensured the grounds were cleared of dangerous dangling branches and debris to allow staff to resume normal operations. By early 2023 the fences were fixed and the lemurs were released back into the forest.

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A Lifeline for Species Conservation Amid the ongoing sixth mass extinction crisis driven by habitat loss, climate change, pollution, and invasive species, ZDR3 actively assists species survival. Swiftly responding to facilities housing threatened and endangered species during disasters, ZDR3 helps ensures their rapid recovery. This lifeline has supported numerous animals representing a wide array of species, helping to maintain critical conservation projects.

ZDR3’s efforts demonstrate the collaborative spirit of the global conservation community when disaster strikes.

IUCN Tracked Species Supported by ZDR3: A Snapshot

This graphic is not an exhaustive representation of species supported by ZDR3, nor does it include any domestic species/breeds that ZDR3 has assisted.

Critical Support for Threatened and endangered species Critically Endangered

Endangered

Threatened

38

46

136

ZDR3 offers direct support, focusing on animal well-being, along with support to the facilities housing them. The objective is to efficiently render assistance that allows them to resume their focus on species conservation.

ZDR3 has supported thousands of animals spanning hundreds of species

Feeding the Teams, Staff, and Animals ZDR3 Network Member facilities don’t have to deploy a team to participate. When normal supply lines are disrupted by a disaster, some members offer food for animals with unique dietary requirements.

During a major response, we work to ensure hardworking staff and responders also eat nutritious food. Some meals are underwritten by network members.

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ZDR3 - Impact Report 2023

2023 Responses ZDR3 Response Activities On Scene Responses Severe Storm - FL (6/23) Typhoon Mawar - Guam (6/23) Animal Placement - FL (5/23)) Winter Storm Mara - TX (2/23) River Flooding - CA (1/23)

Standby 150% Increase from 2022

Pre- and/or Post-Event Communications Tropical Depression - Guam (10/23) Hurricane Ophelia - Mid-Atlantic (9/23) Hurricane Lee - MA (9/23) Tornadoes - IL (6/23) Tornadoes - NJ (4/23) Tornadoes - GA (3/23)

Hurricane Idalia - FL (8/23) Wildfires - OR (8/23) Wildfires - TX (8/23) Animal Relocation - FL (7/23) River Flooding - TX (4/23) Severe Storms - CA (4/23) River Flooding - CA (3/23)

10 support facilities across 7 states

Alerts Wildlife in Distress - NC (11/23) Hurricane Hilary - CA (8/23) River Flooding -TX (5/23) Severe Storms - TX (5/23) Animal Recapture - AL (5/23) Animal Placement - KS (5/23)

Support Calls Facility Contingency Planning Transport Contingency Planning

154 days monitoring and/or activated

Major Responses California Zoo Evacuation

Moving large animals, such as bears, requires heavy equipment and experienced handlers.

One of the flooded zoo’s bears, enjoying its enrichment in its home habitat.

ZDR3 coordinated a response during the intense, back-toback storms in California. A ZDR3 Network zoo evacuated more than a dozen animals when a neighboring zoo was under threat of flooding. The responding zoo housed and cared for the animals for 3 weeks, which allowed their neighbor to recover and perform necessary repairs before the animals were returned home.

In most situations, facilities plan for their animals to shelter in place. Evacuating animals requires appropriate transport crates and vehicles, and skilled manpower—usually including a veterinarian to sedate animals. In this instance, 2 elderly bears, one of which is epileptic, required very close medical management.

Guam Typhoon ZDR3 received a call for assistance after Typhoon Mawar smashed a zoo on Guam, a U.S. territory in the Western Pacific.

Our Executive Director, Julia Wagner, flew to Guam to do a needs assessment. She couldn't deploy a response team to assist the zoo, so she worked alongside the owners to help them prioritize their needs, identify resource requirements, assist with procurement strategy, and coordinate related communications. With remote assistance, ZDR3 provided communications support that allowed the zoo’s owners to make appeals for local volunteer assistance and donations via press releases, website updates, and social media posts.

The zoo’s owners asked Julia to serve as their media spokesperson. The donations that resulted from ZDR3 helping to publicize their plight allowed them to rebuild their zoo.

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Other Significant Responses Throughout the year, ZDR3 assists zoological facilities with support calls, and for resources needed to address an acute issue.

While ZDR3 works to ensure that teams are able and ready to travel over long distance to assist peers, the goal is to have local facilities assist each other whenever possible. This both reduces the challenge and cost of longrange deployments, and helps to strengthen local relationships within the industry.

Texas Ice Storm ZDR3 coordinated a response after icing uprooted trees and dropped limbs throughout a zoo in Texas.

Florida Storms A facility in Florida lost a wolf habitat to a huge downed tree. The wolves weren’t harmed, but the facility needed heavy equipment and additional muscle to remove all the debris so they could rebuild the habitat.

The zoo was closed for 6 days while their staff cleared visitor paths, creating massive brush piles they struggled to clear. An experienced and wellequipped ZDR3 Network response team cleared what the zoo’s director said would have taken her staff weeks to accomplish.

Learn more about ZDR3 responses in our Newsroom, which includes press releases, stories, and podcasts featuring ZDR3.

ZDR3 is Always On Call Emergency management is a profession, a trained skill, and often, a lifestyle. It is not for everyone. It is not a hobby. It is not a shiny toy you can only play with when it's interesting.

When you commit to providing support to people in their darkest hour, you are making a promise to be there. No matter what else you had planned. No matter how hard the mission. What matters is fulfilling the promise that you have made.

Our small staff and volunteer board have made a commitment to our network that we honor every day. Our work is usually invisible. We often put our lives on hold when we identify an event that could potentially harm a zoological facility because we know they can change lives, livelihoods, and landscapes.

Mobilizing the ZDR3 network takes tremendous time and effort, not just by our staff but also by the teams that offer to remain on standby, ready to roll, while we await calls for assistance. These are the moments we work and train for year round.

While responding to others’ disasters is satisfying after we know we have made a difference, it can also be heartbreaking to witness someone’s worst nightmare. We stand beside those we assist before, during, and after terrible events. We are stronger together.

Susan Kleven, Board Secretary

Michael Fouraker, Board President; Cari Wittenborn & Melanie Messer, Project Assistants

Eric Trager, Board Treasurer

Julia Wagner, Executive Director

Mandy Matson, Communications Manager

Cari Wittenborn, Project Assistant

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Strength in Numbers ZDR3 is the largest zoological disaster network in the United States. When our neighboring colleagues need help, our network members don’t look away. We all work together to take care of our own.

The ZDR3 Network currently consists of more than 160 facility members in 32 states and U.S. territories, and all FEMA regions.

ZDR3 Members who join the Network often do so with the goal of helping others: at this time, 90 facilities want to deploy personnel to assist their colleagues! Many are willing to travel long distances to help, including by flying responders commercially or privately. Those facilities that are not able to send responders are often willing to provide support in other ways, such as contributing funds, resources, animal holding capacity, or subject matter expertise.

Where ZDR3 Network Facility Members are Located

Facilities that want to deploy personnel are in red.

Resources are Available Throughout the U.S. Supply lines are often disrupted during widespread disasters, such as hurricanes and floods. The ZDR3 Network model enables us to identify resources outside an impact zone and determine how they can be transported to a facility that has requested assistance.

Response teams arrive with the supplies they will require —including fuel, equipment, food, and water—when they deploy to an area where essentials are difficult to procure.

Facilities that cannot send a team, but want to contribute to a response can donate supplies. Because zoological facilities have very specific needs, especially for ensuring care for their animals, requesting donations from peer facilities is often the most efficient solution.

The ZDR3 Communications Command Post (CCP) serves as the communications hub for all response-related activities before, during, and after a response. Once we alert the network that we are activated for a potential response, we identify who has the right resources to assist and coordinate handoffs from donating facilities to those en route to a response site.

The ability to bring resources from multiple facilities to an impacted site is a crucial response element. For example: an impacted facility’s stockpiled resources may be lost or damaged during an incident, and their transport vehicles may be damaged or otherwise unavailable for use when animals need to be temporarily located having caches of resources spread throughout the the country allows us to quickly identify the teams and specific resources that can be deployed most efficiently more resources or manpower may be needed for repairs than a single facility can provide for extended responses, we cycle teams from different facilities in and out to avoid burnout

100+ Animal Holding Facilities

20+ Long-Range Deployment Teams

90+ Experienced Responders

1000+ Specialized Transport Crates & Trailers

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Fostering a Culture of Preparedness Anticipate the Unexpected

Although ZDR3 is known for disaster response, our goal is to enhance preparedness for individual facilities, our response network, and the entire zoological industry.

With an increase in potential threats from natural and manmade disasters, and the resultant media and public scrutiny, our industry must not just plan and prepare for what has happened in the past. Our future depends on us facing the fact that the unexpected and unthinkable could befall us.

ZDR3 does not identify every incident we respond to; only those at facilities that choose to make their situations public. As we learn how many “never before” situations are occurring we are better able to assist our members in anticipating worst-case scenarios.

To further assist with our members’ preparedness, ZDR3 rolled out a number of new benefits and opportunities for our response network in 2023.

Digital Communications To keep up with the latest ZDR3 news, our social media often contains breaking developments, including updates about a potential threat to zoological facilities, progress on a response, and educational opportunities.

We send a quarterly newsletter via email to our network members, and short updates with notable news.

Website Our website is updated with new information that allows our members, and those considering joining the network, to learn more about what we do and how we do it.

We were especially excited to launch a passwordprotected Members Only site that includes documents that clarify how to coordinate with ZDR3 before, during, and after a disaster; how to build a response team; and packing lists to assist teams preparing for a response.

Presentations ZDR3 representatives serve as content experts, and on committees and working groups for zoological organizations, emergency management groups, and federal agencies.

This commitment to our industry leads to frequent requests to provide presentations on a range of topics. Those our Executive Director presented in 2023 include disaster response at zoological facilities, emergency animal transport, and animal theft from zoological facilities.

Workshops ZDR3 conducted two regional workshops in 2023— at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio in January, and at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens in Florida in August—that included more than 100 participants from 17 states, representing more than 50 zoological facilities. Requests for workshops have increased as word about their usefulness spread. The next workshop will be held at the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi, Texas in April 2024 for up to 120 participants.

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Letter from Our Director When those of us who devote our lives to working with animals learn of a disaster that has befallen another facility, we feel great empathy for their staff and want to do…something! For many, joining ZDR3 has answered the question: “How can we help?”

In my role as a disaster responder I am privileged to work with colleagues across the country who are facing a mountain of new, unfathomable challenges—and to assure them they are part of a huge community eager to assist. Every response offers all of us an opportunity to learn and improve; and to demonstrate that, in the zoological community, we take care of our own.

ZDR3 is an inclusive organization that encompasses zoos, aquariums, sanctuaries, ranches, breeding facilities, and other entities. What I have learned in the years that I have had the pleasure of working with zoological facilities across the U.S. is that we all share a common passion: the welfare of all non-domestic animals in human care.

To everyone who has supported us by joining our network, deploying to do the physically and emotionally difficult work of disaster response, and/or donating to help ensure we can help others: thank you! We could not have accomplished so much without you. We truly are stronger together.

Warmest regards, Julia Wagner ZDR3 Executive Director

2023 Sponsors Thank you!

We are immensely grateful to our 2023 sponsors for your unwavering support. Your contributions play a pivotal role in our success. We look forward to another year of collaboration and growth.

Become a ZDR3 Sponsor today and help us in our mission to support non-domestic animal facilities, and the animals that call them home, on their worst days.

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ZDR3 - Impact Report 2023

Grants and Cooperative Agreements 2023 USDA/AAZV/ZAHP SubCooperative Agreement The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recognized the success and potential of ZDR3 to respond to disasters at exotic facilities and chose to help support these efforts. An existing USDA agreement with the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians (AAZV) to manage the Zoo and Aquarium All Hazards Partnership (ZAHP) was a natural alliance for directing funds to ZDR3. This collaboration allowed all involved entities to better streamline efforts where appropriate.

2022 Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's Outdoor Fund Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's partners with local and national organizations in support of their mission to inspire people to enjoy, love, and conserve the great outdoors. In 2022, they provided ZDR3 a grant that supported our response operations when our network was growing rapidly.

SeaWorld Busch Gardens Conservation Fund Animal Crisis Grant SeaWorld Busch Gardens created the Conservation Fund to raise support for grassroots conservation projects that are truly making a difference. ZDR3 received this grant to support our Hurricane Ian response coordination for zoos, aquariums, and other businesses holding non-domestic animals.

Funded projects are selected by the fund’s Scientific Advisory Panel and Board of Directors.

As an industry-led effort, ZDR3 provides support to zoos, aquariums, sanctuaries, and other non-domestic animal businesses before, during, and after significant incidents.

ZDR3 responds upon request, independent of affiliation.

Joining ZDR3 is free and there is no cost to a facility when we respond to a request for assistance.

ZDR3.org We Are Stronger Together Interested in joining the ZDR3 Network? Let us know at ZDR3.org/Contact ZDR3 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. © 2023 Zoological Disaster Response, Rescue, and Recovery. All Rights Reserved.