Records management

Keeping records of animals is a key role of a modern zoo.

It is a condition of our zoo licence and our membership of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA).

Belfast Zoo is also a member of the International Species Inventory System (ISIS), a worldwide network of zoos and aquaria which keeps computerised animal records.

A total of 650 zoos, located in more than 70 countries across the world, are registered with ISIS.

The system contains details of around 10,000 species and two million individual animals.

ARKS and SPARKS

We use two ISIS systems to manage our records - ARKS (Animal Record Keeping System) and SPARKS (Single Population Analysis and Records Keeping System).

They help us keep data about animal numbers up to date and make sure it is available to share with other zoos and keepers.

ARKS gives all our animals an individual record which contains their species, sex, parents, birth date, birth location, current location, house name and transponder chip number (which helps identify them).

Our records are then submitted into a global database, allowing ISIS to produce a list of animals housed in ISIS-registered zoos around the world.

SPARKS allows us to analyse the population information contained in ARKS and produce demographic and genetic data.

This helps species co-ordinators, responsible for animals contained in European Endangered Species Programmes (EEP), to make informed decisions such as which animals should breed, how many should breed and where animals should be moved within EAZA-registered zoos.