Conservation at Reid Park Zoo
It’s Our Mission!
Conservation is the protection and restoration of wildlife, habitats, and ecosystems to ensure that plants and animals continue to thrive for generations to come.
Modern zoos play an important role in conservation. Accredited zoos serve as conservation breeding centers, research institutions, educational organizations, and advocates for wildlife. As an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), Reid Park Zoo participates in Species Survival Plans® (SSPs). These collaborative programs carefully manage populations of animals in professional care to maintain genetic diversity and healthy populations that can serve as an important safety net for species facing threats in the wild.
Providing exceptional animal care is also conservation in action. The knowledge gained through caring for animals helps advance veterinary medicine, animal welfare, husbandry practices, and conservation science that benefit wildlife around the world.
Just as importantly, zoos connect people with animals. Research shows that meaningful experiences with wildlife can inspire people to care about conservation and take action to protect wild animals and wild places.
Reid Park Zoo is home to animals from some of the world’s most remarkable ecosystems. Yet we never forget that we are also located within the Sonoran Desert—one of the most biodiverse deserts on Earth. Through native habitat enhancements, pollinator gardens, community science initiatives, and other local conservation efforts, we work to protect wildlife both within and beyond our gates.
Explore the stories below to learn how conservation happens every day at Reid Park Zoo.
To learn how Reid Park Zoo supports wildlife conservation around the world, visit
Conservation
Species Survival Plans
Although zoo babies are popular with our guests, the Zoo does not breed animals without thinking about the long-term responsibility. We work closely with other accredited zoos and aquariums around the country to make responsible breeding and animal placement decisions. It’s not just about having great animals in Tucson for you to learn from – it’s about working together to make sure that these species are protected for generations to come.
Some of the Zoo’s animals are part of a program called the Species Survival Plan®, or SSP®. The SSP® was developed by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to help zoos and aquariums work together to do what’s best for an entire species. The SSP® determines which animals are good breeding matches, even if those animals are at different zoos. It can also restrict breeding if the captive population gets too large, or encourage breeding if the population gets too small. Even if a species in our collection is not officially part of an SSP®, we still consult our colleagues at other zoos to determine whether it’s responsible to breed a certain type of animal.
Conservation
Monarchs
As a program partner with SAFE North American Monarch, Reid Park Zoo promotes monarch conservation by monitoring our on-site pollinator garden for presence of adult monarchs and monarch caterpillars through the U.S. National Phenology Network’s Nature’s Notebook program and by applying sticker tags to adult monarchs as part of Southwest Monarch Study. These efforts help us understand land use and migration patterns for local monarchs so conservationists can best address the largest threats to this declining species: habitat loss and pesticide use. Join one of our Bioblitzes, monarch presentations, or plant give-aways to learn how you can also provide safe spaces for monarchs to find food and shelter on their migrations!
SAFE North American Monarch is administered by Monarch Joint Venture.
Interested in creating a monarch friendly garden? Attend one of our monarch presentations at Reid Park Zoo or request us to come to your community/neighborhood association. Check our event page for upcoming presentations.
Conservation
Protecting Bees
Reid Park Zoo is committed to protecting wild animals and wild places, down to some of the smallest wild “residents” that make a huge impact on our planet – bees! Bees are one of the world’s most important plant pollinators, contributing largely to plant biodiversity. They alone are responsible for 1/3 of the world’s agricultural production too! Bees need our help because as the human global population grows, our need for more land to produce food increases. Additionally, mono-agriculture (planting only one type of crop) often takes away native plant land that bees rely on for food and shelter, and spraying areas with pesticides kills bees and other insects.
Reid Park Zoo is helping bees by partnering with local beekeepers to humanely trap the bees that start to create a hive on Zoo grounds. Relocation is necessary because once bees establish a hive, they will protect it vigorously (the same as we would protect our home and family from danger). This could pose a threat to animals and guests. Through this partnership, 12 bee boxes have been placed around Zoo grounds (mostly behind the scenes, away from guests). These boxes have been placed in specially chosen locations and have been built to match the bees’ specific hive requirements – research has proven that bees are very picky when establishing a new home so relying on this science will ensure that this project is successful. Once the bees have started to establish their new colony inside one of the bee boxes, the relocation service will remove the box, with the live bees inside, and relocate it to their farm – where the bees can live happily and continue to assist in pollinating our native plants and our food crops.
Additionally, Reid Park Zoo’s pollinator garden provides our native bees with shelter and food.
You can help bees by:
- Planting a native flower garden
- Going pesticide/insecticide-free
- Choosing relocation over extermination!
- Learning more about bees
- Along with honeybees (which are not native to the US), there are 4,000 native bee species in the US (1,300 are found in Arizona)
- Supporting your local beekeeping organization
Conservation
Native Pollinator Garden
In Reid Park Zoo’s pollinator garden, you will find drought-tolerant plants that are native to the desert southwest. Because we don’t use pesticides or herbicides, these native plants provide natural food and shelter sources for native wildlife, such as monarch butterflies and songbirds. This habitat is a certified wildlife garden through the National Wildlife Federation and is watered using reclaimed water. Reid Park Zoo’s garden was funded by Freeport-McMoRan and volunteers from Strategic Habitat Enhancements help our facilities team to maintain it.
Conservation
SAFE North American Songbird
North America’s songbirds have experienced a decline of 3 billion birds since 1970. This decline means that roughly 1 in 4 birds have disappeared in the past 50 years. Their primary threats are habitat loss, outdoor roaming cats, and collisions with windows. Reid Park Zoo is working to protect native songbirds by planting native plants that provide food and shelter for native birds, providing nest boxes, installing window collision mitigation on problem windows, and humanely trapping and rehoming roaming cats found on-site. Visit 3 Billion Bird and join one of our bird walks at the Zoo to learn what you can do to protect our native birds.
Learn more about how Reid Park Zoo is protecting wild animals and wild places around the world.
