Conservation is one of the core reasons for the continued existence of zoos in the 21st century. It comes in many forms such as captive insurance populations, funding for foreign national parks, habitat restoration, global/local wildlife education, governmental partnerships and more. Yet while some zoos continually tout their involvement in conservation efforts, they seem to overstate what they do for endangered species. I am really interested to see what different zoos do globally in regards to conservation and if Zoochat members feel that is sufficient? A few questions to think about: What species or ecosystems does your local zoo focus on? How much does the zoo spend on conservation? What % of their budget is that? Are they involved in conservation efforts, outside of captive propagation? If so what do they do? How do they advertise their conservation efforts to the public? Is conservation education a part of a general visitors experience? And lastly, Do you feel your zoo is sufficiently involved in conservation efforts?
I'll go ahead and start. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs is heavily involved in conservation efforts both with local species and in a global sense. The zoo raises awareness for and provides funding for dozens of programs and participates in 2 major breeding and release programs. Let's start with the big ones: Captive breeding and release of black-footed ferrets and Wyoming toads. Ferret kits are currently going through check-ups to see if they are fit for release and recently, hundreds of toad yearlings were released to their natural habitat. These two programs are combined as one for funding reasons including for Quarters for Conservation (I'll talk more about this later). CMZ has developed and released a free palm oil shopping app that has a bar code scanner that can automatically tell you if a product uses sustainable palm oil farming practices. In addition, CMZ is a major force in convincing companies to join the RSPO and commit to using only sustainable palm oil in their products. Most recently with Nestle being suspended from the RSPO, the zoo has launched a social media campain as well as a write in station in their Primate World exhibit so that people can voice their concerns directly to Nestle. The zoo partners with the Tsavo Trust program and sends funds to them yearly. This program funds aerial surveillance in Tsavo National Park in Kenya to monitor wild elephant and black rhino populations and search for poaching activities in the park. The zoo funds this program through Quarters for Conservation and through their daily elephant and rhino feedings where half of all proceeds go to the program. The zoo sends staff yearly to Uganda to move Nubian giraffe to new areas of protected parks so that populations do not become isolated. Vet staff, keepers and managers have all made the trip. The operation includes catching giraffes, checking their health, applying GPS trackers, and physically moving them across barriers such as rivers or human development that is causing issues for the population. The zoo also donates money to cape vulture conservation and Panamanian frog conservation through Quarters for Conservation. Quarters for Conservation is an initiative that the zoo started 10 years ago and has since raised over $2 million for these programs by itself. This money does not include money the zoo donates from its annual budget or through extra purchases such as elephant and rhino feedings. The program works by taking $0.75 from each admission and putting it into a Quarters for Conservation fund. Guests then get 3 tokens that they can use to vote for which of the 6 conservation projects they want to support. Based on the percentages that each program gets, that amount of money is taken from the fund and given to the respective program. In addition, the zoo has a yearly vote for members to choose what programs they wish to support. These programs are different than the Quarters for Conservation programs and change yearly. Based on what program receives the most votes, each program gets a certain amount of money that can reach into the 10s of thousands of dollars. One example is the work the zoo does with the Andean Bear Foundation. For the past 2 years, the zoo has sent staff to Ecuador to capture and fit mountain tapirs with a radio tracking or GPS collar. The information is being used by the Andean Bear Foundation to better understand the species and their habits. CMZ even used their own tapirs as test subjects to make sure the collars fit properly before taking them out to the field. This was 100% funded through the member votes of the past couple years. All together, if going by the 2016-17 annual report, the conservation initiatives are equal to about 5% of the zoo's total operating budget. But coming from one of only 10 AZA institutions that receives zero tax support, that is significant money as the zoo is basically breaking even most years. Sorry if that was long. I think this is a great topic idea for people to boast about conservation accomplishments and to advertise some of the lesser known things that zoos do for global conservation.
Welt der Gifte offers its visitors the option to make donations to different causes (animal protection, humanitarian causes and conservation). which are annually transferred to the individual institutions. As for conservation, the collected amount is sent to the Serra Grande Center in Brazil that focuses on the in-situ conservation of the Atlantic coastal bushmaster Serra Grande Center Furthermore, visitors are informed about other relevant projects, such as "Save the Snakes" Snakes are Important, Let's Save Them Together - Save The Snakes
The EAZA annual report gives an uncomplete overview of conservation projects carried out by its members: https://eaza.net/assets/Uploads/Annual-report/EAZA-Annual-Report-2016.pdf
Brookfield Zoo: Pangolin Breeding and Informal Education Mexican Grey Wolf release program Panamanian Golden Frog Breeding Bali Mynah Breeding Guam Kingfisher Breeding Sarasota Dolphin Research Amur Leopard Breeding Snow Leopard Breeding Those are most of the ones I can list off the top of my head. Brookfield Zoo is also a non profit organization so all the money they make goes straight to research, maintenance, and conservation. Conservation Education is pretty big at Brookfield Zoo there are volunteers all week during summer and on certain days during winter. The zoo makes an effort to bring lesser known animals to the spotlight while maintaining education of the ABCs. So yes, Brookfield Zoo has a fairly large conservation role.
The Milwaukee County Zoo manages conservation and research programs at local, regional, national and international levels, collaborating with other conservation institutions for maximum effectiveness. Our conservation and research programs include: Polar Bears International Piping Plover Humboldt Penguin Whooping Crane Recovery Program Migratory and Resident Avifauna Study/Collision Abatement Ornate Box Turtle Grenada Frog Grenada Bank Treeboa Coral Reef Monitoring in Grenada Rock Iguanas Butler's Garter Snake Great Ape Ultrasound Studies Great Ape Cardiovascular Health Research Starhead Topminnow Research Programs: Conservation | Milwaukee County Zoo Collaborative Support: Conservation | Milwaukee County Zoo
