Using the Academy to ENRICH Your Team

By Lisa Helm, MSW, Guest Services Supervisor, San Diego Zoo

One morning a month, the San Diego Zoo’s Volunteer Services office transforms into something like Santa’s workshop for wildlife. About 25 to 30 enrichment volunteers arrive ready to clean and drill holes into gourds, shred newspaper, create beds and hammocks from donated firehoses, and paint PVC puzzle feeders to disguise them as elements of the native habitats for various wildlife species. This group is just one part of the Zoo’s enrichment team, responsible for creating between 2,000 and 3,000 pieces that are used to create enriched experiences for wildlife each month.

The San Diego Zoo’s Volunteer Services department runs a collaborative enrichment program, working closely alongside wildlife care specialists, veterinary hospital staff, and the Applied Wildlife Welfare team, to ensure that enrichment items support the needs of the wildlife in their care. The sheer volume of this operation requires us to track, share, and coordinate all components. The Zoo’s Volunteer Services department turned to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Academy to manage this data, and other aspects of this program.

Our enrichment volunteers have access to a customized, multi-step learning pathway. Volunteers must first complete a series of Academy courses. Required courses include the Animal Welfare and Hand Tool & Safety course. Future plans include adding the Enrichment and Zoonotic Diseases courses, especially for volunteers working with the Primate department. The Academy provides an accessible platform for our team, and the courses provide volunteers with valuable information, strengthen the connection between volunteers and wildlife care personnel, and standardize education practices across departments.

The Academy and its various resources formulate a comprehensive way to track and document all necessary requirements and documentation. Waivers and additional resources are also housed within the learning pathway. The designated learning pathway keeps all information in one place, which makes tracking documentation and renewal requirements easier for Volunteer Services managers.

Workshops and enrichment opportunities are placed into the calendar feature. Accessible only to those volunteers who have completed all of the requirements, interested parties sign up directly through the calendar, eliminating the need for additional emails.

In addition to the enrichment workshops, volunteers assist wildlife care specialist teams with hay chipping for elephants at the Safari Park and leaf stripping for smaller primates that need extra care, and they assist in creating booties and specialized medical devices for injured wildlife. For one special patient— an aardvark receiving treatment at the hospital, that could not be in dirt—they even created paper mâché termite mounds. All these assignments require a nuanced understanding of basic wildlife care needs—something they get from the Academy courses.

Providing volunteers with the same training courses that our wildlife care specialists and educators receive provides a better foundation of knowledge throughout San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. Our volunteers are integral to our success as an organization. Their knowledge of the wildlife in our care, the importance of health, welfare, and safety for all species, and their passion for our mission makes them invaluable to our success.

For questions about Academy features or to learn more about setting up a private Academy learning site for your organization’s volunteer team, please contact us at SDZWAAcademySales@sdzwa.org.