Conservation Partners and Projects
At Reid Park Zoo we are actively involved with conservation programs around the world. With help from you, we are able to address a wide range of issues that impact animals in the wild. Here are a few of the in-situ (in the wild) projects we are working on with our colleagues now:
Tanzania Conservation and Science Program
Reid Park Zoo has had a personal relationship with Charles and Lara Foley over the past several years. Their in-situ conservation efforts related to African elephants have been inspirational. Most recently, their work related to creating corridors for elephants to move outside the park has been of interest. They have found new ways to interface with local people and create a community based approach to protect the elephants.
Click here to learn more about how you can help protect wild elephants.
Anteaters and Highways Project
The largest remaining populations of giant anteaters live in the grasslands and forests of Brazil’s Cerrado habitat. This habitat is being disrupted due to rapid agricultural development and the building of roads. Giant anteaters are the animals that are most frequently killed on these roads. The Anteaters and Highways project will work to provide a better understanding as to why this is happening and work to prevent anteater roadway mortality. Follow them on Facebook .
Kids can learn more about how Zoo’s are helping conserve anteaters by listening to the story, “Why Did the Anteater Cross the Road.”
Baird’s Tapir Survival Alliance
The Baird’s Tapir Survival Alliance works to ensure the survival of Baird’s Tapirs for their vital importance to the health of ecosystems – and for the human well-being, those areas provide – through direct, multi-disciplinary, and inclusive actions. The principal threats to the survival of Baird’s Tapirs include unsustainable hunting, retaliatory killings for crop-raiding, habitat destruction, road development, and global climate change. Working in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, the BTSA is working to reduce tapir poaching and develop conservation actions, such as patrols in areas of known tapir poaching, and environmental education in communities that coexist with tapirs. Follow them on Facebook.
Andean Bear Research
Reid Park Zoo is proud to support research through the University of Arizona, in the Chingaza Massif region of Colombia, to learn about Andean bears to protect them and their habitat. As humans move into Andean bear habitat, less space and food are available for the bears, increasing conflicts between bears and humans. This research will help determine what habitat is used by Andean bears and also work to decrease human- bear conflict. Funds from Reid Park Zoo have helped purchased wildlife cameras used for this study.
International Rhino Foundation
In response to the global crisis in rhino conservation, the International Rhino Foundation (IRF) protects particularly threatened rhino populations in the wild, while also supporting management of and research on captive populations to improve the chances for long-term survival of all rhino species. IRF operates in situ (in nature) programs in Asia and Africa targeted to the rhino species most in need of and most appropriate for intensive protection and management. In ex situ (in captivity) programs, IRF facilitates management and sponsors research with the ultimate objective of helping captive populations become truly viable and hence an integral part of conservation strategies for rhinos.
Pantanal Giant Armadillo Project
The giant armadillo is the largest of the armadillo species but very little is known about this endangered animal. Using radio transmitters, camera traps, burrow surveys, resource mapping and interviews, this project is successfully establishing the first long-term ecological study of the giant armadillo in the Pantanal. Recently, the project has started to expand to other armadillos species and giant anteaters that share habitat with giant armadillos in the Pantanal.
Follow them on Facebook.
Local wildlife rehabilitation
Reid Park Zoo supports local wildlife rehabilitators, who care for injured, sick, distressed or orphaned wild animals. Their goal is to rehabilitate animals so that they are able to survive on their own, and then be released back into the wild.
SAFE Program – Saving Animals from Extinction
Reid Park Zoo has joined forces with fellow Association of Zoos and Aquariums facilities to help save animals from extinction. Each SAFE (Saving Animals from Extinction) program highlights a species that is in immediate need of assistance. By focusing the collective expertise within AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums, and empowering our massive audiences, we can achieve the goals of all of the SAFE programs. To learn more, please visit: https://www.aza.org/safe-species. Reid Park Zoo is partners with the following SAFE programs:
