Northumberland Zoo achieves EAZA accreditation!
- lsaxon16
- Jun 14
- 2 min read
We are now fully Accredited Members of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA)
Being an Accredited Member of EAZA demonstrates that the Zoo is a professionally managed progressive centre of excellence for animal welfare, conservation, research and education.
Years in the making, our evaluation consisted of a thorough inspection of the site by experts from the zoo community in the UK and mainland Europe, covering all areas of modern zoo management from quality of animal habitats and husbandry practices, to education and research initiatives as well as involvement in wildlife conservation, among other elements.
The team at Northumberland Zoo are committed to nature conservation and we’re so proud of our achievements including housing the UK’s only captive breeding population of the critically endangered Livingstone’s Fruit Bats.
During the inspection, the zoo was also commended for its native species conservation projects including the breeding and releasing of harvest mice in association with the Northumberland Wildlife Trust as well as the captive rearing of the critically endangered white-clawed crayfish for release to ark sites in Northumberland in association with the Northeast Crayfish Partnership.
So what does the EAZA accreditation mean for us? With the addition of the EAZA accreditation, the wider networking opportunities and access to more European Ex-situ Programmes (EEP’s), we hope to acquire more endangered species for breeding to contribute to these vital conservation breeding programmes. EEP’s are population management breeding programmes, and currently there are over 500 endangered species managed through EAZA. We currently have our Livingstone’s Fruit Bats and Goeldi’s Monkeys on breeding recommendations but we hope to contribute to more breeding programmes in the near future.
Our family-run, not-for-profit Zoo has gone from strength to strength in recent years, and we hope you continue to follow us on this journey!
