Registrar

I've always felt that the average layperson would be shocked at how much work goes into the management of a modern zoo.  Specifically, they'd be shocked at how much paperwork goes into it.

The registrar is the employee responsible for maintaining the animal records of the zoo or aquarium.  Those records, which at some zoos may date back over a century, and which continue to grow every day with new data input, contain all sorts of information vital to the wellbeing and management of the collection.  They can include medical histories, behavioral notes and observations, feed logs and other dietary information, husbandry notes, and training and enrichment data.  They can also include reproductive information, especially the recording of parentage, very necessary for managing the future genetic health and sustainability of the population, as well as transaction information, necessary for establishing legal ownership of the animals.  

Historically, recordkeeping was done on paper, either through journals and diaries or through individual sheets of paper representing daily reports, which gradually migrated onto computers.  Today, the vast majority of zoos and aquariums use web-based databases to record their animal information.  The most commonly used programs are ZIMS (Zoological Information Management Software), Tracks, and Animal Care Software.  At some zoos the registrar is responsible for entering all of the information online, receiving reports from the individual keepers.  At an increasing number of facilities, however, keepers are now engaged in direct entry of their own data and have responsibility for input of information into the records.  At these facilities, the registrar is responsible for training staff on recordkeeping (not only on how to use the software programs, but on how to determine what information goes in and what makes a good record), as well as overseeing the data entry for accurateness and completeness.  Another recordkeeping duty is the management of the animal inventory, which can include not just the animals that the zoo owns on-site, but those that are in on loan from other facilities, or out on loan to other facilities.

The registrar is also responsible for the permitting of the animal department.  Zoos and aquariums are highly regulated entities, whether at the local, state, national, or, in some cases, such as those involving CITES permits, international level.  There are permits needed for the acquisition or transfer of various species (especially native wildlife or those species that are considered potentially invasive).  In some cases, such as bald eagles, even individual parts of the animals are governed by permit regulations, which is why a keeper can't give an eagle feather to a visitor, no matter how much they beg (and believe me - I've seen some begging).  Recordkeeping and permitting come together during animal transports between zoos.  Registrars share the animal records between zoos to help curators, keepers, and vets to provide as much information about the individual animal and its care as possible in order to facilitate the transition between the two institutions.  They also clarify and coordinate any regulatory requirements that might exist to move the animal between jurisdictions.  Some states, for example, may require certain medical tests to be completed to bring an animal into their borders.

Advances in animal care over the past several decades have been contingent upon building upon and expanding upon past successes, as well as learning from past failures.  Learning from our past is only possible if we have that past information available to us.  Without recordkeeping, we lose our link to our institutions' pasts and all of the knowledge there, and deprive ourselves of the ability to make use of the knowledge we currently have in the future.