What will your ZIMS do? With shared data on 2 million animals from around the globe, ZIMS will provide access to comprehensive population oversight information and pooled community best-practices. Scroll down through the various job categories to see...     Executive directors -- What will your ZIMS do? • Your ZIMS will allow you to quickly check on the animal management side of your institution by giving you an executive summary of recent animal activities. • Your ZIMS will provide your staff current husbandry and veterinary information from a unique, global information pool so that you can state with confidence that your staff is using identified best practices in animal care. • Your ZIMS will give you access to a “compliance report” to assure animal management procedures that should be maintained are being carried out. • Your ZIMS will offer time-saving and streamlining benefits to all your staff, including the vets, curators, registrars, keepers and aquarists. What should you do to prepare for ZIMS? Encourage your staff to review and update your data on the current ISIS systems Ask your IT staff to review your current hardware and make sure that you meet the ZIMS hardware specifications – and be sure to budget for any upgrades in this year’s budget cycle "ISIS, armed with the new ZIMS software, is uniquely positioned to provide a single, unified, global zoological information resource; it will equip zoo directors, curators, zookeepers, researchers and others working to conserve biological diversity with a hugely powerful tool in the urgent fight against the dramatic loss of species that faces us in the very near future, resulting directly from unsustainable human activity." - Dr. Jo Gipps, Director, Bristol Clifton West of England Zoological Society       Curators -- What will your ZIMS do? Your Siamese crocodile just laid eggs. What will you do? ZIMS solution: • You check in ZIMS to see if Siamese crocs are a studbook species. (Answer: yes) • Next, you check in ZIMS to see if there is a masterplan for Siamese crocs. If there is, ZIMS will tell you whom to contact. • In addition, you consult ZIMS pooled knowledgebase to assess whether all or some of the eggs should be incubated. With ZIMS, you have a pooled knowledgebase of information about all the animals in your collection. When you log into ZIMS, you get a notice saying, "Last year, the macaws were transferred to their outside enclosure for the summer two weeks from now.” What do you do next? ZIMS solution: • Start checking weather conditions for this year's move. • Set a reminder in ZIMS to repeat this operation in the fall. You know that moving animals in and out is stressful. If you do it too early and a cold snap comes, you have to catch them up again. If you do it too late and animals are not on exhibit when visitation increases, you have empty exhibits and grumpy visitors. ZIMS can help you set reminders for these tasks. Your female tiger has just died. What will you do next? ZIMS solution: • Using ZIMS, you can find out if there are any research requests for tiger body parts either within the zoo or from an outside researcher. If there is a request, ZIMS will contain information on whom to contact to set up the transfer. • Next, you can use ZIMS to find out if the animal is a studbook species or a loaner and whom to notify about the death. • When marketing calls to find out how old the tiger was, you will have that information at the tips of your fingers. You can also immediately tell them that this was the oldest tiger you ever had, it died at an old age for tigers and how its lifespan compares to that of humans. ZIMS can help you get through the unexpected events with less disruption to your daily routine. "ZIMS offers a great potential for a more standardized record system for managing zoological data now, and for larger, free-ranging populations of reserve-managed animal populations in the future. “The system, including the development process, provides a common ground from which differences in perception and need can be consolidated. We must all be involved in the process of building ZIMS.”     -Carmi G. Penny    Curator of Mammals                        Zoological Society of San Diego     Aquarium staff -- What will your ZIMS do? Your vet has just cleared a group of cardinal tetras from quarantine. What happens next? ZIMS solution: • When your vet recorded that the animals cleared quarantine in ZIMS, the system automatically notified your aquarist that the tetras are ready to be put on exhibit. • Your aquarist has noted in ZIMS that these fish will be placed into Gallery A with another group of tetra when they are ready. • In addition, because these new tetra are less tolerant to changes within the physical environment, the aquarist has entered new acceptable ranges for this enclosure. ZIMS has automatically passed this information on to the water quality lab. • When the aquarist has physically moved the new group into this enclosure, she records this action in ZIMS by simply clicking and moving the group identifier from quarantine to Gallery A. Your assistant curator and registrar are automatically notified of this change. • In two weeks, a water quality technician enters the results of testing on this enclosure. The pH parameter is out of the acceptable range entered for that enclosure. ZIMS immediately sends an e-mail message and page to your aquarist,water quality technician and curator letting them know of this out-of-range parameter so that action can be taken immediately. • When the appropriate actions have been taken, these actions are recorded in ZIMS. Your new display is the highlight of your exhibit. Your aquarist has called in sick today. How do you know what she was scheduled to do and who can cover for her? ZIMS solution: • You check in ZIMS and see that she was scheduled to do a water change in Enclosure A. In addition, you note that an additive needs to be put into this enclosure because of an open medical case. • You re-assign these responsibilities to the appropriate staff through ZIMS. • Once your staff has completed these tasks, they record this information in ZIMS so that your aquarist can see that these tasks have been completed when she returns to work the next day. With ZIMS, the guesswork is eliminated and the work is done. “A primary function of ZIMS is designed for the storage and utilization of data. Currently, we spend countless hours searching for data from our archives…often when time is a critical factor in providing the proper care needed by an animal. ZIMS is designed to carryout these queries and comparisons of quality data within seconds. This them allows the husbandry and veterinary staff more time to implement a proper course of care.”   -Brent R. Whitaker, MS, DVM Director of Animal Health, National Aquarium in Baltimore      Keepers -- What will your ZIMS do? One of your lemurs is having an annual physical exam tomorrow. The vet needs the animal to remain in the night quarters until after the exam, and to have the evening food withheld. However, you will be away from the zoo for the next three days. How can ZIMS help? ZIMS solution: • You log onto ZIMS and see that the vet has scheduled the lemur’s exam for 11:00 am tomorrow. He has noted his directions to keep the animal indoors and not fed until after the exam. • You bring the lemur in for the night and note this in ZIMS. You also note that the animal last ate at 4:00 pm. • The next day, your relief keeper logs into ZIMS. She notes that the lemur is not to go out on exhibit this morning or be fed until after the exam. • When the vet has completed the exam, he enters his exam notes into ZIMS and marks the exam as complete. • The relief keeper checks ZIMS at noon to assure the exam has taken place. She sees the vet’s notes, feeds the lemur, restores its access to the exhibit and leaves her notes in ZIMS. • Because you are particularly interested in finding out how things went with the lemur’s exam, you access the Internet and log on to ZIMS. Your access allows you to see the notes from the vet and the relief keeper. You see that everything has gone well. ZIMS will help you stay on top of things even when you are called away. With ZIMS, you can always rest assured that your animals are in good care and that you will not return to any big surprises. If you can access the Internet, you will be able to access your ZIMS.     Registrars -- What will your ZIMS do? Your male golden lion tamarin dies of old age and you need to get another to breed with your female tamarin. What do you do? ZIMS solution: • You use ZIMS to find the species coordinator for golden lion tamarins in your region to assure that further reproduction is warranted and to discuss the latest genetic results for recommended matches. • You check the availability of male golden lion tamarins at other facilities through ZIMS, and select the top options for mating based on genetic and availability information. • You share this information with your management staff. • The other institution that has the compatible male is contacted to make a plan to transfer the male to your facility. • ZIMS easily identifies information relevant for permitting and even reminds you that the government of Brazil has legal ownership of golden lion tamarins and automatically records this continued ownership. • ZIMS sends you an alert the day the animal is shipped to you. • Two days later, the animal arrives. You click on the alert to confirm this arrival. • Months later, your tamarins have offspring. You record the births in ZIMS and the facility from which you received the male sends you a congratulations note. • In 18-20 months, ZIMS reminds you that it is important to remove the offspring from mom’s cage during the troubled teenage years. “[Currently,] there is no accurate, easily-accessible and timely record of our aquarium collection…With the ZIMS inventory module in place, I will be able to provide collection information that has been used in publications, grant proposals and education documents. In addition, the increased ‘user-friendliness’ of ZIMS will allow us to expand the number of users of the system to all husbandry staff members, allowing them easy access to their own animal inventory information instead of having to funnel request for information through me as the registrar. This greatly improves efficiency both in terms of access to and timeliness of information about collection size and composition.”  --Michele L. Martin, PhD, Medical Assistant and Animal Registrar, National Aquarium in Baltimore       Studbook keepers -- What will your ZIMS do? Keeping your studbook up-to-date can be an intensive, frustrating process when you do not have ready access to the information you need. ZIMS can help. Here’s how: • As staff at 630 ISIS-member zoos and aquariums enter information about your species into ZIMS, the system will automatically send appropriate updates to your studbook. You will then have the ability to review and confirm acceptance of this information into your studbook records. • If you disagree with the data in ZIMS, or if it conflicts with data you already have, ZIMS will aid you in contacting and working with the submitting institution to resolve any data issues. • ZIMS will notify you of major events (births, transfers, deaths, etc.), and you will have access to other data, such as transponders and notes. • In addition, you will be able to enter any other data you need to manage your studbook, including data about animals held by institutions that do not participate in ISIS. Now you can concentrate on using your studbook data to ask management questions, instead of spending the majority of your time just trying to gather and type in the data. ZIMS can also help you solve problems. A juvenile died unexpectedly this week. There have been several juvenile losses over the last few years and the necropsy results have been inconsistent or equivocal. You would like to review similar losses in search of potential causes that may not be immediately clear. ZIMS solution: • Using ZIMS, you can look at pathology, breeding, diet, social settings and substrate(s) used in all ISIS member facilities to see if there is a common thread. You know that there are a number of species related to your studbook. ZIMS solution: • ZIMS can help you find out about their life history parameters, life span, range and mean, age at first reproduction, age at last reproduction, etc. so that you can be more fully informed.  Access to uniform and consistent data on 2 million animals will allow studbook keepers to substantially reduce data collecting. Through ZIMS, 85% of your data collecting will be done for you, so you can focus on data quality and analysis.     Veterinary staff -- What will your ZIMS do? You receive a frantic call from a member of your staff saying your female tiger does not look good! The animal was wobbly and has collapsed. What do you do next? ZIMS solution: • Of course, you grab your bag and run out the door! But, quickly, on your way out, you start a search in ZIMS for large cats with similar conditions. • On assessing the animal, you note that the tiger appears to have a fever. • After assuring that the animal is as comfortable as you can make her, you access ZIMS and pull up the query you started earlier. • You refine your query by adding fever as a symptom. ZIMS returns a pooled database of information on similar cases in tigers and other large cats worldwide, including the lifetime medical history of each animal, treatments and results. • Through analyzing this data, you are able to determine what is ailing your tiger and perform the appropriate course of treatment. With ZIMS, you are not alone. You no longer need to make frantic phone calls to your colleagues who may not have the information you need on hand. However, if you need to contact your colleagues, this information is readily available to you through your ZIMS. You get a report that an animal is eating an unusual amount of dirt. Enrichment, exercise and socialization have not helped this problem. ZIMS solution: • Using ZIMS, you can research whether other facilities have pica in any of their animals and how they manage it. • You can then communicate this information and any solutions to your staff. • With ZIMS, you can then track the treatments tried and the results for future reference. ZIMS will give you access to a pooled veterinary knowledgebase and a reliable way to keep accurate, up-to-date records on the animals in your collection. "I like the idea that with ZIMS we will be able not only to exchange core data of an animal, but also exchange all kinds of information about husbandry, veterinary care, behaviour in a way that is very easy and less time consuming than now. This will make life so much easier. Instead of writing e-mails and phoning colleagues we can search for these kinds of information in ZIMS. With ZIMS, you will also be able to get all kinds of more flexible and customized reports.”   - Dr. Ulrike Rademacher, Wilhelma Zoological and Botanical Gardens Stuttgart, Germany      Educators will be able to: ·         Share educational program ideas among almost 700 institutions worldwide ·         Utilize interactive capabilities for teaching ·         Immediately access conservation information on more than 10,000 species ·         See real-time data on 2 million animals from any authorized computer Development staff will be able to:   ·         View animal stories from all over the world ·         Share news about your institution ·         Publish grant results and share ideas Marketing staff will be able to:   ·         Network with your peers worldwide ·         Gather current information on 10,000 species in zoos, aquariums and other conservation-focused organizations ·         Create interactive services for your guests Technical staff “ZIMS will deliver much needed technology and promote IT best practices for zoos and aquariums around the globe.”   -- Robert Erhardt Chief Technology Officer Zoological Society of San Diego