As a candidacy member of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), the Yerevan Zoo will host EAZA Academy training officers Sally Binding and Mark Kingston Jones for 4 day trainings. The workshops will take place from Dec. 1 to 4, and will focus on animal welfare management and animal enrichment activities. The guests have been invited to Armenia by the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC).

The animal welfare trainings are designed to assist the zoo staff in identifying and applying animal welfare best-practices through theoretical and practical activities. The animal enrichment activities will focus on how to provide animals the opportunities to express their natural behaviors in the zoo, emphasizing social, dietary, physical habitat, cognitive, and sensory features.  These trainings will significantly increase the expertise of the Yerevan Zoo staff, which will in turn benefit the living conditions of the animals at the zoo.

The EAZA academy offers wide range of courses aimed at all sectors of the zoo and aquarium community to enhance the professionalism of its member institutions. The Yerevan Zoo is well in the process of fulfilling its membership requirements with EAZA, the most important of which was the joining of the International Species Information System (ISIS) community in September 2014. On the 20th of November 2014, FPWC hosted regional coordinator of ISIS in Armenia for trainings on the most modern zoological database software used by all European zoos and zoological associations.  Furthermore, the Yerevan Zoo provides free English classes for all staff to ensure that they can utilize and access all necessary software.