using zims to help prepare for your aza accreditation (2020)

1

Using ZIMS to help prepare for your

AZA Accreditation (2020)

2

The ZIMS application can help make your accreditation process easier by helping you gather

information for your application and provide answers to questions during your site visit. Some of

the accreditation questions can be answered directly by downloading/printing information from

ZIMS in the form of reports or exports. ZIMS helps you easily gather information you will need

to answer questions in the requested format (narrative, provided form, etc).

To use this document:

• The various sections follow the flow in the AZA Application. Specific questions are

identified.

EXAMPLE: AC-7a How many animals at your institution are in on loan from other

institutions?

• Breadcrumbs show you how to get to the ZIMS screens

EXAMPLE: Start > Reports > Loan Report > Loan In

• Screen shots of the ZIMS Application show you what to look for.

EXAMPLE:

• The text boxes provide additional details

EXAMPLE:

Topics Covered

General Information

Animal Welfare, Care, Welfare & Management

Veterinary Care

Conservation

Scientific Advancement

Staff

Physical Facilities

Safety/Security

The On-Site Visit

This report will display what animals you physically hold at

your facility but do not also have legal ownership of.

3

General Information GI-8 Provide your institution’s USDA Exhibitor License #

• Institution > My Institution > Permit grid

Back to Topics Covered

Animal Welfare, Care, Welfare & Management AC-3 Submit a copy of your Institutional Collection Plan (ICP)

• Enclosure icon > Enclosure Search > Details tab > Planned Taxa > Actions > Add New

All your permits and licenses can be recorded in ZIMS in the Institution module. Here we

quickly find the number for our USDA license. When you record a permit/license you have

the option to mark it Local or Global. If you mark it Global, other institutions can find it

using a Global Permit Report. This is very helpful when other institution’s permits need to be

referenced such as for your annual Captive Bred Wildlife report.

The Planned Taxa grids can help capture your collection plans for each exhibit. Within the

Enclosure module, every enclosure has a grid for recording species planned for it. For this

enclosure we are planning to add black swans in 2021, parma wallabies in 2022 and red-

necked wallabies in 2022.

4

• Enclosure > Search > Planned Taxa

We had also planned to include red

kangaroos but found the area to be

inappropriate, so we marked it

Inactive with a note as to why we

changed our minds. This will help

later if someone wants to add red

kangaroos, we can reference an

earlier decision.

Or, you can use the Notes area to

capture why you wish to add a

species like this Note on the Parma

wallaby.

To search for your Planned Taxa go to the Enclosure module

and Planned Taxa Search. You can filter by specific

Taxonomy, Target Year and Active Plans.

5

AC-7 Submit your institution’s most recent animal inventory in taxonomic order, including

scientific name and sex

• Start > Reports > Inventory Detail Report

The results grid will display the enclosure (hyperlink to Enclosure record), species

(hyperlinked to taxonomy record), sex ratios, year and if Active or not.

6

AC-7a How many animals at your institution are in on loan from other institutions?

AC-7b How many animals at your institution are out on loan to other institutions?

• Start > Reports > Inventory Report > Check desired boxes

The Inventory Report is one of the most used reports in ZIMS. To answer this

question, you need to select Inventory Detail Report as it will include all animals

you physically hold and own, hold but do not own, and own but do not hold. You

can also export the report to different formats. This report can be submitted

directly as produced from ZIMS.

Having animals in-on-loan or out-on-loan often indicates a willingness of the

institution to cooperate with other facilities. It is very easy to obtain that

information by running an inventory report for only those animals.

7

• Start > Reports > Loan Report

The totals are presented at the

bottom of the report with further

breakdown by Class.

You can also find this information

by running a Loan Report. The

disadvantage of this report is that

you will have to run two reports

(one for in on loan and one for out

on loan) but the advantage is that it

includes additional filters that can

be applied.

8

AC-8 Which zoological records system does your institution use?

• ZIMS!

AC-8a What percentage of your institution’s animals are registered with that system?

• If not 100% explain why they are not recorded in ZIMS. Common examples include

feeder animals, invertebrates and corals.

AC-8c In which system are your institution’s holdings of CITES I, SSP and studbook species

registered (and include a list).

• Start > Reports > Inventory Detail Report > select CITES

You can run an Inventory report

for only those species listed by

CITES to help answer this

question. See question C-6 for how

to find your SSP species.

9

• Start > Reports > Inventory Summary Report > Physical > Export for Raw Excel

AC-8d Is your institution currently participating in ZIMS/Other

• Check ZIMS!

AC-9 Submit details on your institution’s animal marking system utilized to correspond with

animal records.

• Animals > Animal Record > Details > Images or Identifiers grid

To find the studbook species you can export an Inventory Summary Report to Raw Excel

and compare it to the studbook species list on the AZA website. Remove any species that

do not have studbooks and adjust your columns to create the list.

In addition, in the Basic Info in

an animal record you can view

any studbooks associated with it.

ZIMS allows you to identify your

animals using many types of

identifiers. One popular feature

is the ability to add images to

the animal record. This is very

helpful for species that are

difficult to add tags or bands to

such as these poison dart frogs.

You can easily see which frog’s

record you are in. Images are

especially useful if keepers are

entering their own data as a

double check that they

are in the correct record.

10

AC-10 Does the zoological records management system being used by your institution (see AC-

8 above) duplicate animal records?

• Select “No”

AC-11 If “no” to AC-10 above (or for animals not registered with your institution’s zoological

records management system), are animal records duplicated?

• Select “No” if all your animals are recorded in ZIMS

• Explanation for animals in ZIMS – The ZIMS database is hosted at a secure, offsite

facility. ZIMS data is backed-up at multiple physical locations and stored on a fault

tolerant, expandable storage area network, featuring RAID 5 disk array with hot

swappable spare drives. It is backed up on a daily basis with maximum care given to

protect the data in case of an emergency. Duplication is not required. For Technical,

Application and Collection security read ZIMS Security under the Start menu in ZIMS.

• Explanation for animals not in ZIMS – your call!

AC-14 Has a paid staff member been designated as being responsible for your institution’s

animal record-keeping system?

Images are also useful for larger

animals. This zebra has a

distinctive stripe pattern on its

rump.

There is also an Identifiers Grid to

track logical (intangible) identifiers

such as House Name and Studbook

Number and Physical identifiers

such as artificial tags, bands and

transponders or natural color

patterns or abnormalities.

11

• Institution > My Institution > Staff > Search Form

AC-15 Are records current with up to date information?

.

• Start > Security Tools > Data Entry Monitor

• Institution > My Institution > Staff Statistics

ZIMS deploys with several template Roles that are kept updated as new

functionality becomes available. The Local Admin Role has access to

manage every aspect of ZIMS and is usually the person designated as being

responsible for your institution’s animal records. Using the search form in

your Staff grid, it is easy to search for anyone assigned this Role.

An advantage to ZIMS is that as soon as the record is Saved it is instantly

viewable by others both at your facility and at other institutions who have been

given access to that information. There is no waiting for data submission.

Using Data Entry Monitoring you can easily see what Staff have been in ZIMS and

if transactions (any bit of data) have been recorded

12

AC-21 Submit a copy of your institution’s process for assessing animal welfare and wellness,

including a schedule of how often assessments are done.

• Start > Animals > Care and Welfare

Looking at Staff Transaction Statistics you have a quick view of ZIMS usage for the

last 30 days.

The Care and Welfare module makes answering this easy. You configure the Indicators you

want to use from five different categories – Behavior, Environment, Physical Health, Mental

Domain and Nutrition.

13

You then assign what Value Type you want that Indicator to have – Numeric Value, Percentage,

Numeric Scale or Binary. You define your Values. In this example we have a scale of 1 – 3.

Then indicate your desired observation by checking the Expected Value.

Then create a Template using the desired Indicators. This is a Template for our penguins.

14

AC-28 If your institution maintains elephants, submit a copy of your elephant behavior profiles

for the past 24-months

• Animal record > Note & Observation to record

• Start > Reports > Note Retrieval Report to retrieve

A printable and

downloadable Chart

is created for each

animal. There is also

a List View

available. For both

the Chart and the

List View you can

filter by specified

Indicators. If the

Global Indicators do

not have what you

need you can create

Local Indicators.

15

AC-32 Submit a description of how cetaceans that participate (in a guest interaction program)

are trained

• Animal Search > Animal Training Definitions Search> Add New

• Animal Record > More Details > Training Information > Actions > Add New

Tracking behaviors can be easily

done using Notes and

Observations. You can then search

by all Individual Behaviors, or

even very specific ones, and create

a report on what has been noted for

each animal. This makes retrieving

behavior profiles over a time

period very easy. Above is the

recording screen. To the left is the

search screen with the various

filters. The Care and Welfare

module will also help you capture

this information.

The ZIMS Training grid allows

you to capture all the training

sessions and the animal’s response.

You first create a definition for the

behavior you are teaching.

16

• Training Information > Sessions > Add New

AC-37a Do any animals in your institution spend time in a “touch pool” or “petting”

environment? If Yes, list all areas in which this occurs.

• Enclosure module>Tree View or Add New

You then assign the behavior to the

animal, including the purpose, the

status and the start date.

You will then add sessions for

training the behavior. The desired

behavior and the sessions can be

exported to Excel or pdf for a

complete picture of their training.

By setting up your Enclosure Tree to indicate these types of enclosure environments you can

easily identify them and track animals that may spend time in them. Here we have added

(public access) to the Enclosure name. By using the wild card search (*???*) you will get a

results grid that identifies the enclosures.

17

AC-41 Provide a detailed description of how your institution maintains ambassador animals. If

they are housed separately from the rest of the animals describe their housing.

• Animals module > Animal Simple Search

Within each enclosure, selecting the Occupants tab will display what animals are currently

being held in the enclosure. If you want to search for animals previously occupying the

enclosure you can use the search form and select to Show Historical Records. You can

search by a parent enclosure and check the Include Sub Enclosure checkbox to include

occupants of all the child enclosures.

ZIMS allows you to put your animals into

various Collections. Collections identify the

main reason for having the animal at your

facility. We have created a Collection for our

Program Animals and placed the appropriate

animals into this Collection. We can search for

what animals have been assigned to a specific

Collection. If you include an Enclosure column

in the results grid you can easily see which

Enclosures hold animals used in programs.

Opening the Enclosure Details will provide a

description if you have completed the grids

available.

18

AC-59 Submit a copy of your institution’s animal enrichment program

• Animal record > More Details tab > Enrichment

AC-61 Submit a copy of your institution’s animal training program

• Animal Search > Training Definitions Search

Although ZIMS does not provide an area to record your overall enrichment program, it does

help you track how you are following this program within the animal record. This may be

something to show the Inspection Team.

19

AC-62 If your institution’s animal inventory includes marine mammals, aquatic or semi-aquatic

species, submit a detailed description of the water quality monitoring program that outlines

parameters tested, allowable tolerances, frequency of testing, methods of testing, and data

interpretation protocol for each major aquatic system

• Start > Tools > Measurement Range Template

Although ZIMS does not have a place to record your overall training program, you can track

how you are following the program. You can search for the various Trainings being given

using Animal Training Definition Search. Here we searched for who is getting the Auditory

Variables training. We find four animals receiving this training. The numbers are hyperlinked

to display a grid of the actual animals involved so you can go directly into their record from

the Animal ID hyperlink. This may also be something to show the Inspectors.

Simply taking water quality measurements is not enough to keep your aquatic animals

healthy. These measurements need to be within certain minimum and maximum ranges.

You can create a Measurement Range Template where you record the desired measurement

ranges for specific enclosures/tanks. We want our aluminum measurements to be no lower

than 0.07 and no higher than .32. We have assigned this range to both Tank Three and Tank

Four. These templates can help you answer most of this question.

20

• Enclosure record > Details tab > Water Quality Measurements

• Start > Tools > Environmental Quality Graph

If a measurement is recorded that is outside this desired range, you are given a message that

notes the minimum and maximum measurement you desire. You can accept this if it is

correct or go back and correct it if you made a mistake.

In the enclosure record the out of range measurement is displayed in red. In addition,

you can select to have an Email message sent to the desired staff member if a

measurement is out of the desired range.

21

AC-65 In the last five years, have any animals being shipped to or from your institution died or

been seriously injured in transport? If yes, submit a detailed explanation of each event, actions

taken during/after each event, changes made in procedure and/or policy as a result of each event.

• Start > Reports > Transaction Report > Advanced Filter

From within the Enclosure record you can graph single Measurement Types and print or

download the graphs. The graph lets you know if any measurements are outside your

desired range. Using the Environmental Quality Graph, you can compare multiple

measurements on multiple enclosures.

In the ZIMS Transaction report, using Advanced

Filters, you can select the appropriate date range

and Death in Transit. A Death in Transit means the

animal left your facility, but for some reason, not

caused by you, it died before reaching its

destination. These deaths are not counted as a death

against your institution. In reports the transaction

will display as it was originally intended (such as

Donation To or Loan Out To as shown below)

followed by (Death in Transit).

22


Veterinary Care VC-5 Are the specific controlled narcotic drugs Carfentanil, M99 or M50-50 utilized by your

institution?

VC-7 Are other controlled substances utilized by your institution?

VC-8 Is there a program for regular disposal (or removal and separate storage) of outdated

drugs?

• Medical module > Pharmacy Inventory

For all animals that Died in Transit you should record details in Notes, using keywords of

“Death in Transit”. You can quickly retrieve this information using a Note Retrieval

report, selecting the appropriate date range and Keyword of “Death in Transit”. This will

help you answer this question.

23

• Medical module > Pharmacy Inventory > Search

VC-9 Does your institution maintain complete medical records on all animals in the institution?

VC-14 Is a post-mortem (necropsy) performed on every individual animal mortality?

The Pharmacy Inventory can help answer

these questions. This Inventory allows

institutions to record their drugs and track

their usage and expiration dates. Whenever a

drug is recorded as being used in an animal

record, that amount is automatically deducted

from the remaining amount. If the drug is

regulated there is a checkbox to

indicate that it is a controlled substance.

You can search for your drugs using many different filters. Of special importance is the

ability to search for drugs that may be approaching their expiration date. The search results

grid will provide important information at a glance such as the Expiration Date, the

remaining amount and the drug Status.

24

• Medical Module


Conservation C-6 List your institution’s involvement in all SSPs, TAGs, SAGs, Conservation Action

Partnerships (CAPs), Field Conservation Committees (FCCs), and other cooperative programs

with similar institutions

Animal record > More Details tab > Management Plan

The ZIMS Medical module allows you to capture all the medical care that your

animals receive. It is easy to search by animal or by specific record types such as

Clinical Notes, Samples, Test Results and Necropsies.

25

• Animal module > Animal Advanced Search


Scientific Advancement

SA-1 Briefly describe how your institution participates in scientific study

Within each animal record there is a grid to record appropriate Management

Plans and the status of the specific animal within the Plan.

Using the Animal Advanced Search, we are searching for all the animals we have in our

collection that are listed as “red” SSPs.

26

SA-8 Are the results of scientific studies published or otherwise disseminated to the professional

and scientific community?


Staff

S-2 Submit a list of all paid staff members and their titles. State full or part-time and include the

annual salary for full-time staff.

• Institution > My Institution > Staff

Just by contributing your data to Species360 you are participating in scientific advancement.

For example, the Demographic Species Knowledge Index is using global member data to

provide critical data missing for 98 percent of known terrestrial vertebrates. The Songbirds

Knowledge Index is helping to pinpoint songbird species most at risk.

27


Physical Facilities PF-6 Submit a description of your institution’s maintenance program for exhibits, buildings,

grounds, and equipment.

• Enclosure Record > Details > Maintenance

You can record and track your staff from the Staff grid in My Institution. Adding

someone as a Staff member does not automatically give them access to ZIMS. It does

mean that they can be assigned to a Team or Department, used as a Responsible Party

or entered as an Observer. If they are marked as a Public Contact, their information

will be visible to other institutions.

You can export this Staff grid to Excel where it can be manipulated as desired, printed or

emailed. You can delete unnecessary columns and add ones for full/part time and annual

salary.

28

PF-20 If your institution’s animal inventory includes aquatic or semi-aquatic species, submit a

detailed description of the operation of the water circulation system, life support systems and

water supply.

• Life Support module >Add New or Search

Every Enclosure record has a

maintenance grid where routine

and non-routine Maintenance can

be tracked. Here we are recording

some pest control that has been

performed on an exhibit. The

checkbox “Apply to All

Occupants” means that this

information will go into the record

of any animals that were

occupying the exhibit at that time.

Especially for pest control, this is

important to have in an animal

record should any medical issues

occur after treatment.

You can search for Maintenance performed

using many filters. In the grid below we

have searched for all our pest management

and see that the Children’s Zoo was treated

twice, and Exhibit 1 has had one treatment.

The list can be exported and manipulated

as desired. You can use the hyperlinks to

the Enclosure record to view additional

details recorded there.

29

The Life Support module allows for recording your components, attaching them to a

Life Support and then attaching the Life Support to one or more Enclosures. Above

we have a Life Support that is attached to two tanks. The Life Support is comprised

of a filter, an air pump and a heater. You can search for your Life Supports by many

filters as shown on the right.

When adding a new aquatic

enclosure there is a field for Water

Type (ie source of the water). This

is a searchable field, so you can

find all enclosures with a specific

water supply. The results grid can

be exported for printing or

emailing.

30


Safety/Security SS-24 Are all animal exhibits and holding areas sufficiently secured to prevent unintentional

animal egress?

• Enclosure module > More Details tab > Barriers or Dimensions grid

Another part of the Enclosure record is the ability to record information about the

enclosures such as the barriers and their dimensions. The top is the Barrier grid and

we can see that the front viewing is a solid glass barrier, the back wall is weldmesh,

and there is also a dry moat in the viewing area. The bottom grid displays the

Dimensions. The front viewing glass is 10 feet high by 20 feet long. The moat is 25

feet wide.

31

SS-25a Have there been any major animal escapes in the last five years?

• Start > Reports > Transaction Report > Advanced > Disposition > Missing > Escaped


The On-Site Visit The AZA Inspector’s Handbook helps to guide the Visiting Team through their inspection by

You can also record details on

the barriers such as the strength

of the weldmesh or glass. This

can help when there are specific

enclosure requirements for

housing the species as it makes it

easy to check that you are meeting

these requirements.

Using the Transaction Report, you

can get a list of all animals that

Escaped during the desired time

frame. The results can be exported,

and any minor escapes deleted.

32

noting things to look for and additional information that may not be answered in the application.

ZIMS has many features that can help you during the inspection process. The Visiting

Committee Report will document their findings. The following topics are often of top concern

for the inspectors.

Is Conservation a key element to the institution’s mission?

The Animal Charts available in ZIMS (Start > Animals > Charts) provide a graphical display of

your commitment to managing species at risk. In particular, the Taxonomy/IUCN Risk %, IUCN

Red List Status and CITES charts are valuable.

Is the institution actively participating in AZA animal programs?

It is easy to show them the number of Studbooks supported by your institution by going to Start >

Studbooks > Studbook Keeper List > search by your institution. If you are using the

Management Plan grid in your animal records you can also easily find any animals in managed

programs.

Does the water quality methods and controls program appear to be adequate for the aquatic

exhibits? Do they have an adequate water quality monitoring program that outlines parameters

tested, allowable tolerances and frequency of testing?

Show them your Measurement Range Templates and email notifications for any water quality

measurements that are outside of your desired ranges. Pull up some Aquarist Daily Logs to show

enclosures and measurements taken.

Is Animal Welfare a top priority at the institution? Does the institution have a process for

assessing animal welfare and wellness?

If you are using the Care and Welfare module this is easy to show. Pull up a few animal charts to

show them how you are tracking and assessing your collection’s welfare.

Are the animal records duplicated and safely stored?

One commonly found area of major concern noted by the inspectors was lack of duplication and

safe storage of records. Institutions using ZIMS are not required to duplicate their animal data

and it is safely stored. This greatly reduces the number of documents that do need to be

duplicated.

Is enrichment being provided on a regular basis? Is the provided enrichment documented and

regularly assessed?

Pull up some records on a few animals and show them the Enrichment grid entries.

Are the medical records adequate and up to date?

Make sure they see how you are using the Medical module in ZIMS.

Does the institution utilize controlled drugs and are they managed appropriately?

Pull up the pharmacy inventory and do a search for Regulated Drugs.

using zims to help prepare for your aza accreditation (2020)

Documents