Escaped animal drills

The safety of our visitors and the welfare of our animals is of paramount importance. That’s why, throughout the park, we have a number of procedures and checks in place to help keep everyone safe. These include:

• Daily enclosure checks
• Immediate fault reports
• Maintenance schedule updates
• Staff safety training
• Implementing safe working practices and operational systems

One of the most important safety practices we implement is a regular animal escape drill. This gives our staff the opportunity to rehearse what to do in the event of an animal escape. Although we have a vast range of control methods in place to avoid such an escape, it’s important that everyone at the park is prepared and knows the required recovery drill for each of our species.

It’s a requirement of our zoo licence that we conduct animal escape drills at least four times a year when the park is open and visitors are on site. These drills are not intended to cause panic but to reassure our visitors that the park is well rehearsed in all necessary safety practices and operating to the very highest safety standards.

All incidents at the park are fully recorded. We document everything from a bump on the head to a near miss or dangerous encounter. Importantly, we then implement additional measures and learning points from every incident in order to avoid any repeat occurrences. We operate to ISO 45001 occupational health and safety standards and our drills are an integral part of this. If you have been affected by an animal escape drill whilst visiting the park, we hope you can now understand our actions and be sympathetic to our aims.

The Blair Drummond Team