Gerry CREIGHTON

Gerry Creighton has spent over 25 years working with elephants and has nearly 40 years of experience in a professional zoo environment. Gerry started work in Dublin Zoo in 1983 as a trainee keeper, before becoming a full time zookeeper in 1986. He subsequently worked as Team Leader responsible for large apes, carnivores and elephants for nearly ten years before becoming Zoo Operations Manager for animals and grounds in 2009. His career has spanned several decades of exciting development, during which time Dublin Zoo has transformed from its Victorian beginnings in 1831 into a modern, vital and progressive European centre for conservation, education and animal husbandry.

Gerry’s autobiography Raised by the Zoo was published by Gill Books in September 2023.

Gerry has given keynote speeches all over the UK, Europe and the US on the topic of elephant wellness in human care and has contributed to and taught in both the Chester Zoo Elephant Resource Management Workshop in the UK and the First European Elephant Management School in Hamburg, Germany. He has received two awards from the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquaria (BIAZA) for presentations on elephant care and wellness at the annual BIAZA conferences. 

Since launching his own consultancy business in 2020, Gerry has worked with Zoos in the U.S.A., China, Israel and all over Europe and the UK. He is currently involved with several of the highest profile elephant projects in the world. He has been consulting for Melbourne Zoo, Australia, for over a year working to create state-of-the-art facilities for both bulls and cows in a 24 hectare site in Werribee. Gerry has extensive media experience – having featured in multiple series of The Zoo television series and has given regular television, radio and podcast interviews. Gerry is currently the Curator of Elephant Care and Conservation in Al Ain Zoo in the UAE.