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The following is from the Facility Design Workshop at the 2005 Rhino Keeper Workshop

The Rhino Keepers Workshop Facility Design Workshop was held at “The Wilds” on Saturday May 7, 2005. The idea of this workshop was to allow rhino keepers and managers to draw from their experience and design their dream rhino facility being as specific and detailed as possible so that these ideas could be available for anyone building a future rhino facility. Participants divided up into 3 main groups, black rhino breeding and holding, white rhino breeding, and Indian rhino breeding. The groups were given instructions to come up with specifics regarding size of enclosure, exhibit design, off exhibit holding areas, barriers, pools, floor substrates, mud wallows, chutes, animal transfer design (e.g. air doors, manual gates, etc), and anything else that the group felt should be included. A moderator who worked with paper flip charts, whiteboards, and blackboards led each group. Each group was led by a moderator and worked with paper flip charts, white and black boards, and in the Indian rhino group, a computer drawling program. Even though the participants were only given an approximately 3 hour time period all the groups came up with a list of design attributes along with a sketch drawing of their particular species facility.

 

Black Rhino

The black rhino group were given two areas to focus on, breeding and non breeding holding. This first diagram shows the groups breeding facility.

Black Rhino Breeding:

Black Rhino Holding:

The second diagram shows the black rhino groups holding facility.

 

 

White Rhino

Here shows the white rhino groups inside holding sketch.

The main concerns for the inside holding facility are:
- Proper substrate for both keeper maintenance and rhino health
- Ease of keeper access/safety
- Room size and proximity
- Shifting rhinos from room to room or to outside holding safely
- Introduction area
- Calving room with adjacent sunroom
- Loading chute/crush
- Displayed here is the white rhino groups outside yard:

The main concerns for the outside holding facility are:
- Minimum size-1/2 acre for holding a single rhino, ¾ for holding 1.2 rhinos
- Ease in shifting rhinos to and from outside holding yard
- Ease in keeper access, including the ability to drive in with a vehicle safely

 

Indian Rhino

Indian Rhino Breeding:

This group was fortunate to have worked with a computer drafting program and a draftsmen, Scott Krajenta as well as flip charts. Although with the time restraints only a ruff layout was accomplished. However, this group did come up with a fairly comprehensive wish list of features. Some of the highlighted points for the Indain rhino facility are listed below.

General:

• Facility is intended for an average of 4-5 months of tempered climate.
• Facility should hold a minimum of 1.1 rhinos with calf capacity.
• Facility should have a building or structure for indoor holding with interconnecting outdoor yards, multiple public viewing locations both indoor and outdoor, and an easily accessible loading / unloading area.

Inside:

• Building should have 3 stalls plus 1 shift stall totaling 4 stalls. Stalls should be a minimum of 20’ x 20’. One of the stalls should be designated for cow / calf holding or isolation and be 20’ x 30’.
• Inside stalls should have cushioned floors (rubber mats, bedding, etc.).
• Facility should have indoor graduated pool(s) with traction on slopes and a separate area for an indoor mud wallow.
• Inside animal areas should be floor heated with cool zones, have automatic self water, vertical pipe for barriers and gates, visual barriers between stalls, natural lighting, and a ceiling height of 12’ (strong enough to connect a winch and chain to lift a down animal).
• Facility should have a restraint chute 4.5’ – 5.0’ wide with duel side access and weight scale incorporated.
• Facility should incorporate various enrichment techniques and devices.

Outside:

• Outside yards should have a minimum space requirement of 10,000 square feet per animal for non breeding situations and 30,000 square feet for breeding situations.
• There should be 3 separate outside areas (2 viewable to public / 1 off exhibit). All outside areas should be interconnected with gates or chutes.
• The outside yards should have visual barriers / round abouts, no dead ends, no corners, and contain different elevations (small hills and valleys).
• Each yard should have pools with varying water depths as well as mud wallows.
• Outside yards should be accessible by tractors, trucks or heavy equipment.

Indian Rhino Sketch

The following sketch layout was accomplished with the help of Scott Krajenta.

In addition to all the groups creating their ideal facility at the design workshop many of the participants brought with them drawings and plans of there home facility. This gave everyone a chance to compare notes and discuss what works and does not work for them. Most of the participants expressed that the design workshop as a whole turned out to be beneficial and a good interactive exercise. Later in the day all the Rhino Keeper Workshop participants toured through the Wilds pastures on open air buses and took a behind scenes look at the Wilds Animal Management Hoofstock, Giraffe, and Rhinoceros Centers.