The goal for the Africa Savanna team in 2025 was to provide all of the animals in our care access to their outdoor habitats overnight.

This welfare win involved many discussions, evaluating potential risks, and learning from experience when doing this with other species.

For the Masai giraffe and Olive baboon species, we went through all of the possible weather scenarios in which giraffes and baboons could be outside safely - evaluating which paddock was safest, and even had Guardians stay overnight to monitor behaviour.

They were allowed access to their outdoor yard first, and then were put in the paddock for the night.

The well-being of both species was improved as they were given fresh air nearly 24hrs a day. This also gave them significantly more space, allowing them to be on more natural substrates and provided a more natural light cycle. During overnight monitoring, the giraffes were very calm, and spent most of the time eating, or laying down. The baboon holding was found to be cleaner in the morning, which indicated that they chose to spend a good portion of their nights outside, rather than inside.