By Thomas Mead

Thomas Mead spoke to 20 current and former Orana Wildlife Park staff members for this story.
Thomas.Mead@tvnz.co.nz | @thomasmeadnz

In a statement, Orana’s managers said the post-mortem showed the death would’ve been quick. They said it was important to remove Mabuti’s body without delay, to avoid fluids and excretions posing a risk to other animals, and that it wasn’t appropriate for the general public to see animals in this state if it could be avoided.

They said the Facebook post gave the public enough information.

“The press doesn’t publish the exact details of the state of human victims of car accidents, and nor should they. Animals shouldn’t be treated with any less respect,” they said.

But those who spoke to 1News feel Mabuti’s death was brushed under the carpet - when it was described simply as an "unsurvivable condition".

"They didn't want the public finding out," one former keeper said.

It's not the only death to be kept out of public view. One morning, in August 2021, Dejager was one of many Orana employees to discover the body of a newborn giraffe.

Four sources, including Dejager, say nobody at the Park was aware the calf had been born until it was found dead in the neighbouring rhino enclosure that morning. It had arrived unexpectedly in the middle of the night, the mother going into labour after keepers had finished their shift for the day.

A post-mortem shows the mother had then rejected her calf, as there was no milk in her stomach.

After hours, with no keepers around, the young girl had gone wandering. Inquiries into what caused her death were inconclusive. But as it was a bitterly cold and rainy night, exposure could not be ruled out.

A former keeper said the body was "absolutely freezing".

"Rigor mortis had already set in," they said, speaking anonymously. 

Orana has never revealed what happened publicly. Zoo management only confirmed the death when questioned for this investigation, and then appeared to blame its own keepers.

"[They] did not notice that the giraffe female was so close to parturition, which would have been clearly evident," the zoo said.

Overall, the Park described it as an “extremely rare case of human error resulting in the death of an animal”, saying the keepers had not called their manager for advice.  

A door inside the giraffe house was open that night, allowing access to an outdoor area that was only appropriate for adult giraffes, the zoo added.  

"The entire team were devastated by this tragic incident that could have been prevented through shutting the door,” it said. 

Orana said an internal investigation was carried out and it didn’t share further details publicly to “respect the privacy” of the staff members involved. 

But Dejager said that finding the body the next day was traumatising, and there was no emotional support afterwards.  

The public was never told of the calf’s birth or death. It was never named. 

Deaths revealed

For years Orana has sold itself as a safe haven for endangered species, its social media showing images of happy animals playing with their friends or opening Christmas presents.

One example, in May 2022, was a video of “mischievous” otter Bajak and his “speckly pinkish nose”.

But there was no post when he died seven months later, after becoming trapped in a suction pipe in his pool when the filter cover came off.

Orana has since described that incident as a fatal accident, saying these “sometimes occur”.

A review of internal emails and diary entries kept by zookeepers, which have been leaked to 1News, has uncovered many such deaths and injuries that have never been revealed to the public.

Records show deaths as recently as 30 April 2024, when a springbok named Damesi died during a general anaesthetic procedure. A post-mortem discovered she was suffering from “hardware disease”, which is where an animal eats a foreign body – such as metal – and suffers a traumatic internal puncture, that typically leads to infection.

Asked for comment, Orana said there was no cure for the condition.

The zoo suffered another incident on 8 March 2024, when a nyala buck named Ijefe became so panicked during an attempted location move that he ran into a fence and injured his lip. The following day, a keeper tried to move him again, and he ripped his face down to the jaw.

In response Orana said Ijefe was “very nervous” animal, and it was a unique situation.

Earlier this year, the Park also had to euthanise four cheetah suffering from kidney failure. Two – named Nia and Kanzi – were unusually young, prompting Orana to test their diets as a precaution.

In their statement, Orana say the condition was a “relatively common and unfortunate” cause of death in cheetah.

Exhausted keepers

The connection between zookeeper and zoo animal is supposed to be sacred.

The idea is that no one knows the animals better than the keepers. They’re with them every day, observing their moods and behaviour, and it’s often the keeper who notices when something is wrong.

That means listening to keepers is a critical step in good animal welfare, according to Dr Samantha Ward, an associate professor of zoo animal welfare at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, and member of the Zoological Society of London’s Zoo and Ethics Committee.

“They’re able to notice the tiniest of changes in things,” she said.

Orana says it takes concerns raised about animal health by its keepers “extremely seriously at all times”.

But several keepers interviewed by 1News say the zoo ignored animal welfare concerns when they raised them. Some say they were left working under extreme time pressure, and stretched across more animals than they could reasonably care for.

That exhaustion is no secret to management: in a leaked team update email, chief executive Lynn Anderson herself admits the exotics team at Orana has been struggling with “long-term staffing shortages” in recent years.

Comments made in emails sent by Anderson between December 2022 and December 2023 indicate the team – which cares for dangerous animals like gorillas and cheetah – has not been fully staffed for at least three years.

Two current keepers interviewed by 1News described being unable to care for all of the animals in their section due to time pressure.

“There's nowhere near enough people on any given day,” one of them said, speaking anonymously.

“I do my best with the time that I have, but there's so often where you look at something and say, oh, ‘I wish I had time to do that thing as well’, but I have to get back in my truck and run to the next place.”

Understaffing is a "massive risk” to animal welfare, according to Dr Ward.

“You can’t have the animals at the zoo in a healthy positive welfare state if you’ve not got the staff time to be able to dedicate to that,” she said.

Diary entries kept by zookeepers, and leaked to 1News, show approximately 35 examples of exhibits not being cleaned or containing poo at Orana between March and June this year.

Issues repeatedly appeared in the hooved animal section, with poo left in paddocks used by addax, springbok and zebra. At times keepers wrote they had “run out of time” or could not clean due to “short staffing”.

Cleanliness is a big concern for zoo animals as they are in captivity, and can’t journey from place to place. Removing faecal matter reduces transmission of disease.

Orana has seen deaths related to bacteria including, in 2023, two addax that died after suffering an overgrowth of yersinia. It can be spread through faecal matter, especially when animals eat grass that is contaminated by poo.

However, it can also spread naturally through pests in the soil, and so does not necessarily indicate poor cleaning. Orana says it is relatively common, and the infection of the addax – a type of antelope – happened during a patch of extremely cold weather and at a time of high “worm burden”.

It’s impossible to prevent animals from being exposed to bacteria entirely, as it can spread naturally in the environment. But experts say there are ways to limit its impact.

That makes deaths linked to bacteria unusual in modern zoos, according to Dr Ward.

“It's not something that I've seen a lot of,” she said. “I would think it's not very common, because we now know so much more about preventative measures.”

Orana claimed cleaning was only missed “occasionally”, sometimes to prioritise other tasks like medical procedures, and said some of its paddocks were large and “not cleaning [these] for up to a few days on occasion is not a huge issue”.

In some diary entries, where there were repeated examples of no cleaning in indoor areas used by spider monkeys, that was due to the animals choosing to stay indoors during wet weather, the zoo said. It also said it does preventative monitoring of faeces for signs of parasite infections.

Orana added it was also working to hire more staff and said its most recent audit from MPI, in December 2023, did not raise any staffing concerns.

MPI’s director of investigations and compliance, Gary Orr, did not seem concerned about Orana’s recent staffing struggles when interviewed by 1News.

“My understanding is the exotic animals team is appropriately staffed for the number of animals in the park at the current time,” he said.

Inside the mind of a gorilla

Visit the gorilla exhibit at Orana today and you’ll be able to see what is, according to former keepers, the effects of understaffing.

It’s visible on their arms and legs. The two residents, brothers Fuzu and Fataki, have started plucking their own hair.

Footage taken by 1News in June 2024 shows bald patches on their arms, a sign of abnormal behaviour or – as it’s somewhat counter-intuitively referred to in the industry – “stereotypical” behaviour.

In human terms, it means “bored”. And for animals in captivity, it’s a serious problem: if they don’t have enough to do during the day, they can start to show signs of mental distress. At its worst, animals can even start to injure themselves.

Five keepers say they have seen the gorillas plucking, as well as eating their faeces and holding their heads, at various times between 2015 and 2024. Due to understaffing, they said, they were often unable to organise sufficient stimulation for the gorillas, a practice known as “enrichment”.

“We would try to do extra for them but just, the time factor, it was just impossible,” said former keeper Justine Woosnam, who claims she saw the gorillas deteriorating in 2018.

“People are scraping by,” said another keeper in 2024, speaking under condition of anonymity. “Enrichment gets forgotten because they’re trying to clean, and they’re trying to provide the basics.”

Orana argued its care of gorillas was reviewed by the Zoo and Aquarium Association every three years, who carry out animal welfare accreditation.

It said it closely monitored the behaviours, including plucking, and argued none of them were excessive, suggesting the footage did not tell the full story. Faeces eating can be a natural behaviour to get the most out of diet, it said.

“We are not aware of any prior complaints in relation to the care and welfare of our gorillas,” the zoo added.

But three experts – including two who have worked as primatologists – have viewed the footage and agree the plucking itself is evidence something needs to change.

Gorillas are one of the most intelligent animals housed in zoos anywhere in the world, according to Dr Ward.

“Enrichment becomes a vital part of everyday keeping,” she said. “If you're not keeping those animals massively engaged mentally, they're going to have problems.”

Orana rejected the claim that it fails to provide adequate enrichment, listing examples like ice blocks, smells being spread around, musical instruments being played, other animals including chickens being introduced to the enclosure, changing play equipment, and a TV screen set up to play movies such as Ratatouille.

Orana also refuted claims it was understaffed, saying “staff levels are appropriate to ensure quality care at all times”. It said one primary keeper was stationed in its Great Ape Centre, which holds two gorilla and three siamangs, for the full day.

That person, who was supported by others at various times, was responsible for everything from food preparation to enrichment and cleaning.

But former keepers feel that enrichment is too little for a species like gorilla.

“There was a basic - a very basic - enrichment programme in place, but in my opinion not enough was being done,” one said.

Mahali’s final days

Fuzu and Fataki used to have a half-brother, named Mahali.

His case provides one of the clearest examples of what has been consistently alleged in various parts of Orana for years: that keepers’ concerns are being raised with the zoo's management, and then ignored or brushed off.

When signs of the gorilla’s sickness first appeared, on April 29 2021, keepers reported them immediately.

“Not interested in den or group feed,” read medical notes written that day.

“Lying on shelf of D6, holding head.”

The notes – leaked to 1News – show keepers kept updating their logs, describing a “runny nose” on April 30.

That same day the manager of the exotic species team, Rachael Mason, emailed the zoo’s externally contracted vet Ben Davidson saying Mahali was not eating much.

Orana doesn’t have a vet on staff but brings one in a day a week, with callouts at other times where necessary.  

“Very unlike him, he is wanting to stay in his bed,” she wrote.

"Hopefully it’s a short-lived thing.”

By May 1, keepers had seen a small amount of blood in his nostril and by May 3 he was coughing.

All three sources, speaking anonymously, claim keepers asked Mason at least twice to bring the vet for a physical assessment. Orana claims veterinary advice and on-site care was provided, but didn’t provide specific details of what that was.

The notes show Mahali, who continued to refuse food, was given Panadol and Nurofen. He had a brief improvement for two days, but it didn’t last. By May 9, Mahali’s poo had begun showing signs of mucous and he was seen breathing shallowly.

Orana has since confirmed it was assumed Mahali was suffering from a viral infection, a sickness that does not commonly require antibiotics.

But the keepers felt something more was happening. As the days stretched on, all three sources claim the primates team kept lobbying Mason to bring in a vet to assess him further.

“He was suffering, we could tell he was in a lot of pain,” one said.

Photos show an ultrasound didn’t take place until May 13, 2021, two weeks after signs of illness were first seen.

The following day, Mahali died. The post-mortem happened a few hours later, the keepers still grieving.

The results were horrifying, one keeper describing an abdomen full of pus.

“He must have been in absolute agony,” they said.

“His gut region was just liquefied pretty much,” another echoed.

Tests would later discover he had suffered from an extremely rare strain of a bacterial infection “that had never been diagnosed in the world before”, Orana has said. An email sent by the vet that day, and provided to 1News by Orana, shows Mahali had a massively swollen liver – three to four times the normal size – filled with pus.

“I have carried out hundreds of post-mortems of various species over the last 20 years and have never seen such a severe hepatitis,” the vet wrote to other medical professionals.

In comments to 1News, Davidson said Mahali’s sickness initially – from the descriptions given – appeared to be viral and Orana had kept in regular contact with him. Mahali was “given medications and supportive treatment to minimise his discomfort during the illness”, he said.

Antibiotics can cure bacterial infections, in some cases, but these were not given as they weren’t aware of what he was suffering.

“It would not be common to give antibiotics for a suspected viral infection,” Davidson said. “Mahali initially appeared to rally after a few days, eating and active. This would not be typical of a bacterial infection which would continue to get worse if no antibiotics were given.”

The findings had been shared with veterinarians globally, due the rareness of the bacteria.

Given what was learned, Davidson said he would now give a specific antibiotic – ciprofloxacin – to any gorilla showing prolonged signs of lethargy and inappetence.

Only minimal detail about Mahali’s suffering has ever been released publicly, until now.

When Orana announced the death on Facebook on May 14, 2021, they revealed Mahali had been sick, but claimed a treatment plan was “immediately implemented”.

A former keeper felt the treatment plan – primarily paracetamol and ibuprofen – was a “joke”.

“I just do not agree that everything was done, that we could have possibly done to save him,” they said.

Cries for help

In 2015, Brittany Hides started locking herself in the siamang enclosure at Orana Wildlife Park to let the tears pour out.

At the time, the 24-year-old keeper had spent her entire adult life pursuing a job at Orana, initially volunteering on weekends, and eventually earning a place on staff. But she became desperate to leave.

“I would just sit there crying on the floor,” she told 1News in July this year.

The now former keeper claimed she was left feeling isolated due to bullying from a manager. Eventually many of her colleagues stopped talking to her, she said, and worse, she was excluded from veterinary procedures. It also appeared some animal exhibits were being left dirty, giving her more work.

Eventually, she decided to quit.

“The only way I saw out was leaving,” she said. But at no point did she feel safe to raise her concerns with managers and leaders.

“I didn't feel like we were allowed to do that,” she said.

Asked for comment, Orana said Hides' experience was upsetting to read about. The zoo pointed out that she didn't raise concerns formally or informally with managers at the time, and invited her to reach out to them.

But Hides is not alone. Over the past decade many former employees have not felt safe enough to approach Orana’s managers with issues about their own wellbeing, as well as that of the animals, and have instead sent anonymous complaints to regulators, calling for help.

A particularly concerning incident was seen between 2013 and 2018 when a troop of spider monkeys began self-harming while held in an off-display exhibit “out the back” of Orana.

The males – Bonito, Olmec, Conchita, Cuzco and Sanchez – were moved off display while Hides was there in 2013, the former keeper said.

Hides claimed they were injuring themselves and continued to deteriorate while out of public view. She saw them picking at each other’s wounds and eating the flesh, with Bonito biting his own tail down to the bone, she said.

Eventually, one had to be given a kind of anti-depressant medication to prevent it from hurting itself.

But it was Sanchez that suffered the most.

“He had a wound so big that they could insert their hand into it, or their whole finger, and pull like stands of sinew,” the former zookeeper said.

By 2016, Hides had gone to Australia, but the monkeys were still off display. Photos confirm wounds were still visible on their backs, with one video showing a monkey pushing his finger inside an injury, all the way up to the knuckle.

By 2018, the monkeys were still out the back, after five years off-display. The next crop of zookeepers was just as concerned, with one – speaking anonymously – claiming they lobbied for the animals to be humanely euthanised.

The footage was disturbing to three experts spoken to for this story, especially primatologist Dr Filippo Aureli, who has spent 25 years studying spider monkey behaviour in the field in Mexico, and in zoos.

“In the wild settings, sometimes there is an injury, and the animal is licking it or touching it and so on, and sometimes it gets a little bigger,” he said.

“But I never, never saw such big injuries, and such deep injuries that an animal puts its finger so deep inside.”

Orana’s externally contracted vet Ben Davidson says the park “continually explored options” to help the monkeys, and any wounds received proper treatment.

He said their “moderate self-harming" with no other changes in behaviour did not justify euthanasia, adding he was alarmed by the “young” keepers making that suggestion.

The animals were transferred to a partner zoo in 2019 and recovered from their wounds, making this a “success story”, he said.

MPI also investigated at the time and found no offences had been committed.

No intervention

Over the years many pleas for help from Orana employees have been sent to official agencies, without significant change.

Anonymous letters have repeatedly been sent to external parties, potentially showing the zoo's staff members felt unable to speak up in a safe way to Orana management.

Leaked internal zoo documents show an anonymous letter was even sent to an Orana sponsor in March 2017.

The zoo made a formal complaint about that leak to police, but the campaign continued, with letters sent to MPI and animal rights group SAFE in May 2017.

One of the allegations surrounded a giraffe, named Tunu, that died in 2016 when it got its neck caught in a loose rope and was left hanging, a hazard Orana says it has since removed.

By December of that year, an unknown keeper had approached someone from Auckland Zoo to air “extreme welfare concerns”, documents show.

Six months later, in May 2018, an anonymous letter was sent to WorkSafe. MPI received a second letter, this time with 12 issues.

Neither complaint led to enforcement action. Orana says WorkSafe chose not to investigate.

The next month, the crisis reached boiling point. Eight zookeepers quit their jobs in the space of two weeks. One of those to leave was Ellyn Berry, a keeper in her first job in the industry, who says the team had repeatedly raised animal welfare issues.

“We were telling management and our senior keeper or our lead keeper, and we didn't feel like we were being listened to,” she says.

“We at times felt like, yelling into the void.”

The mass exodus threw the park into chaos. Minutes taken at a meeting of the Orana Wildlife Trust Board of Trustees on July 11, 2018, and leaked to 1News, show the keepers had made a range of allegations, including bullying and inappropriate behaviour from a male member of staff.

Internally, the minutes had a few choice words for each of those keepers.

Three were branded as “ringleaders”. Two were “dedicated foot soldiers displaying constant bad behaviour”.

The rest were “disappointing”.

Internal documents show the sudden loss of staff posed significant risks to the Park’s continued operation. But despite that the zoo felt it had the support of the Government department that regulates animal welfare, the Ministry for Primary Industries.

“It is very fair to say that all three MPI representatives are batting for us,” Orana's board minutes read.

However, when it came time for the zoo’s next verification audit, in November 2018, MPI found Orana was “not compliant” with the standards due to a lack of “competent exotic animal zookeepers”.

In short, it didn’t have enough staff. The zoo had deployed untrained maintenance workers, volunteers and students to help with the workload. But MPI found there was an adequate process to hire more staff and allowed Orana to keep operating.

In an interview this week, Gary Orr said MPI would “absolutely refute” the claim it was batting for Orana.

“Had we known about it at the time, we would have asked them to adjust the records of their board meeting because it simply does not reflect the truth,” he said.

Orana said the meeting was a “workshop” and not a formal meeting of the board, and the minutes were not reviewed.

It said the minutes reflected the personal views of a particular manager, and not necessarily that of the wider board, chief executive or wider management team.

It invited “informants” to come forward and contact its board directly, and said that their concerns would be “taken seriously and further investigated”.

Echoes of the past

The lights were off in the television studio, the zookeeper’s face hidden in the dark.

It was June 2024. The month before, someone – the keeper had no idea who – had written an anonymous letter to the Christchurch City Council, calling for help at Orana Wildlife Park.

Now they were preparing to tell their story too. It was nerve-wracking stuff. Even being at the TVNZ newsroom in Christchurch felt like a risk, and the interview was to be anonymous, their voice changed to protect their identity.

As the camera started rolling, it came pouring out.

“I feel dismissed every time I raise a concern,” they said. “I've seen too many of my colleagues break down in tears at work because we're just so exhausted.”

There wasn’t enough time in the day to look after all of the animals in their care, they claimed. They had raised animal welfare concerns but felt that their manager, Rachael Mason, wasn’t listening.

“It’s so heartbreaking,” they said.

Later, a second keeper agreed to an interview.

“We are understaffed every day,” they said.

And a third. “I think it’s the worst it’s ever been.”

They were worried, too, that they might die in the vehicles on site.

Leaked photos and footage taken by 1News in June shows the vehicles keepers are expected to drive are in shocking condition.

Keepers claim the trucks have issues like faulty foot brakes and no handbrakes.

“It can be very scary sometimes,” a keeper said.

“There have been situations where I'm not sure that I would have been able to stop in time if a child had run out in front of me.”

The vehicles are also supposed to provide safety if a dangerous animal escapes, and ferry members of the public to safe locations.

The problem is that some – according to keepers – don’t have windows that wind up.

“That's not going to stop a lion,” they said.

Concerns about lack of warrants and registration, and faulty indicators, gear sticks and brakes were raised in the anonymous letter sent to the council in May. At the time, the chief executive Lynn Anderson was emphatic.

“We strongly refute the contents of the letter in its entirety,” she said.

In June, WorkSafe found Orana’s systems to ensure its vehicles were fit for purpose and maintained were lacking. The Park claims to have immediately started making changes and engaging with all staff on those issues.

It must address them by July 29. Anonymous whistleblowers were welcome to contact WorkSafe by phone or online, or under the Protected Disclosures Act, the agency said.

‘We have to stop and listen’

Three years after that harrowing day Mahali died, crawled up into his nest in the gorilla dens, the memory is still raw for his keepers.

Part of zookeeping is observing the animals, understanding how they feel. Few people know what that’s like, but primatologist Dr Rebecca Hendershott is one. She spent years studying primates in the wild, and in captive environments, and came away with a fervent belief.

They have a voice. It might not be audible. But it’s there, she says. It’s in the way they move, the little things that communicate whether they’re hungry, or happy, or hurting.

“We just have to stop and listen.”

In 2021, Mahali’s keepers were listening. But for two weeks, they say they had to watch as he wasted away.

“That experience was very traumatic for me,” one keeper said last month.

“I've never cried over an animal's death until Mahali passed away, and it changed me on a very deep level.”

In 2024, the current generation are feeling that weight too.

“It just keeps getting worse,” one said. “When you're constantly fighting this battle, and the animals are losing it, it's so heartbreaking.”

They had hoped the Trust would do something to improve things, but the people at the top didn’t seem willing to understand. It felt like leaving was the only option left, they said.

In June Orana decided to sedate Ijefe – the nervous nyala buck who injured his face, by bolting into a fence – in yet another attempt to move him.

He woke up in a new paddock. Two days later, he was found dead.