A more robust and refined process for planning and monitoring animal transfers is a focus of Zoos Victoria's effort to improve the care provided to rehabilitated animals returning to the wild.

This follows the death of a seal rehabilitated at Melbourne Zoo during transportation to Queenscliff where it was to be released.

A review of the incident was reported to Zoos Victoria's independent Animal Welfare Peer Review Committee.   The review found that while the seal was deemed fit for release, the transportation processes contributed its death.

Zoos Victoria's CEO Jenny Gray said that lessons had been learned from this unfortunate incident and that due consideration must be given to factors such as weather conditions, particularly extreme heat and impact on temperatures in vehicles when transporting wildlife.

"Zoos Victoria provides a vital community service to injured and orphaned wildlife, with more than 1500 animals coming to us for care every year, including wildlife injured on our roads or by our pets,' said Ms Gray

"We take great pride in the expertise we have to care for these animals, which came to international prominence in the aftermath of the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, where our team at Healesville and Melbourne treated many injured and displaced animals.  

"Zoos Victoria completes hundreds of animal transfers each year, most of these occur without incident. A number of factors went wrong in this case, resulting in the death of a seal. We pride ourselves on high standards of duty of care and this outcome is regrettable.   We are committed to implementing more stringent processes to ensure that this event is not repeated.

"Transportation of any animal, especially wild animals, presents risks.  Being confined to a shipment crate may result in stress, injury, or as in this case, even death.  For our collection animals, training and conditioning occurs to prepare the animals for shipment, including familiarization with transport crates and other associated processes.  But in the case of wild animals where the intent is to return animals to their natural environment once they are deemed to be of suitable health, there are increased risks."

The review of this seal incident has resulted in more comprehensive risk assessments and approval processes for planned animal transportation, including assessment of suitability of vehicles used for animal transport, methods of containment, route planning risk assessment, contingency planning and identification of species-specific transport needs.

The seal was found injured and significantly compromised at the Frankston foreshore, and brought to Melbourne Zoo for rehabilitation.  The seal responded well to treatment and after several days' care was assessed by veterinary staff as being fit for release. On the day of transportation for release, the temperature was in excess of 32 degrees, with extreme temperature deemed a factor in its death.