Council reveals scope of Hamilton Zoo review

Hamilton City Council unveiled the scope of the review on Hamilton Zoo's operations, which will be carried out by independent commissioners.

Council's general manager community Lance Vervoort said the review was always planned as part of an organisational restructure within Council but the timing was brought forward after zoo curator Samantha Kudeweh was killed by a tiger in September.

Mr Vervoort said the key aim was to ensure the zoo operated in the best possible way in future, with a specific focus on identifying optimum staffing levels and structure and identifying what may be needed in terms of staff training.

The review would also focus on animal enclosures and animal management procedure to ensure animal welfare, animal containment and the visitor experience, and health and safety procedures to ensure the safety of staff and the public.

"We have already added in some extra staff positions around going to a two-keeper system, which means we have a larger complement of staff. We have had some vacancies in our structure but we also have one of our key people not with us anymore unfortunately and we need to look at replacing that."

He said no staff had left the zoo as a result of the death.

The two-keeer system was required by WorkSafe New Zealand and implemented a day after the incident. Mr Vervoort said the system would cost roughly $65,000 till the end of the financial year.

He said 110 people had applied for the three new keeper positions and that in the coming days a management position would be advertised to oversee the additional zoo keepers.

What would not be involved in the review included a review of the zoo's strategic direction, which Mr Vervoort said was outlined in the Zoo Master Plan which would be presented to council after the final review, or the types of animal which the zoo housed.

He said visitor feedback showed support for the continued housing of larger, more exotic animals.

The zoo's participation in international breeding programmes was also outside the review's scope.

"We have a major involvement in a number of species conservation programmes."

Mr Vervoort said Mrs Kudeweh's death had left a hole in the programme, as she had been one of the Southern Hemisphere's leading experts in rhinos and other species conservation programmes.

"We also want to review the zoo from a community good perspective looking at the visitor experience and to ensure it's an efficient operation giving value to ratepayers' money that's being spent there," he said.

The independent consultants have yet to be confirmed, and Mr Vervoort said council was looking nationally and internationally for the right person or company.

"We are working through that process at the moment and we are expecting it to take a few weeks."

He said council expected to appoint a consultant before Christmas, with work to start around Christmas or mid-January.

"We would like the review to be concluded by the end of April 2016 or sooner if possible."

Mr Vervoort said any consultant would need experience in human resource management, zoo operations and health and safety.

The independent review is expected to cost $80,000.

In addition to the independent review there are also ongoing reviews being undertaken by WorkSafe New Zealand, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and the Police.

Mr Vervoort was not able to give an exact date when any of these would be concluded, but said WorkSafe was expected in the new year, and that MPI was mainly concerned with animal containment and were waiting for WorkSafe to finish their report.

He said a number of recommendations had come from the health and safety review and that many had already been implemented, but would not comment be drawn on what these were.

Mr Vervoort confirmed that the future of the zoo was secure and that face-to-face encounters with the tigers were likely to recommence after the holiday period.