Zoo Scientists Plan Work in 2006

In 2004 the Saint Louis Zoo's WildCare Institute was launched in 12 conservation hotspots around the globe. The WildCare Institute is dedicated to creating a sustainable future for wildlife and for people. Rather than try to do too much in too many places, we have pleged ourselves to a much deeper involvement in a few critical initiatives around the world. We are working in places where animals are threatened by shrinking habitats, poaching and disease.

Timeline for 2006 conservation work

Guatemala (February 22-March 1, 2006)
St. Louis Zoo Curator of Birds Michael Macek, traveling with Staff Nutritionist Ellen Dierenfeld, will collect native foods eaten by horned guans in El Triumpho Biosphere to begin assessment of the habitat of the endangered horned guan.

Kenya (early April, 2006)
St. Louis Zoo Curator of Ungulates Martha Fischer will travel to northern Kenya to check on our collaborative Northern Rangelands Trust projects for the Grevy’s zebra, camp in Kalama and see the progress of construction of a girls' dorm in Archer's Post, funded by a local TV affiliate. She returns in August to visit the Teacher Training project and again touch base with our partners.

Sahelo-Saharan region (May 2006)
Conservationists interested in the dire straits of species native to the Sahelo-Saharan region - including St. Louis Zoo, Smithsonian Institution, The Living Desert Museum and London Zoological Society – formed the Sahelo-Saharan Interest Group in 1998. The Sahel, which crosses the borders of 14 countries from Senegal to Egypt, varies from sand to grassland, from mountain ridges to acacia forests. Continuing expansion of the Sahara and desertification of the Sahel make this a high conservation priority. Some environmentalists consider the Sahel a predictive gauge for global ecosystem stability.

St. Louis Zoo Assistant Curator Bill Houston travels to Tunisia in May, and again in November, for a visit to two protected parks in Tunisia where captive-born addax and scimitar-horned oryx may be introduced next year. (Bill coordinates the AZA Addax Species Survival Plan.) Only 200 addax, a large desert antelope, exist in Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad. The scimitar-horned oryx has gone extinct in the wild.

South Africa (May, 2006)
St. Louis Zoo staff nutritionist Dr. Ellen Dierenfeld will research at a private cheetah reserve & research centre.

Galapagos Islands (July, 2006)
St. Louis Zoo scientific team will conduct biomedical surveys of avian populations. Staff nutritionist will analyze foods eaten by Galapagos hawks.

Madagascar (on-going)
Dr. Karen Freeman is full-time program manager at Park Ivoloina and Betampona Reserve. St. Louis Zoo President Jeffrey Bonner and Curator of Primates Ingrid Porton head up the Madagascar Fauna Group. Zoo’s nutritionist will be researching tannins in native foods eaten by lemurs.

BOSAWAS Biosphere Reserve, Nicaragua (on-going)
St. Louis Zoo’s project coordinator, Dr. John Polisar, works full-time with post doc and trained indigenous para-biologists to help indigenous people to co-manage their natural resources in the largest tract of tropical moist forest north of the Amazon.

Ethiopia and Eritrea (late summer, 2006, TBD)
St. Louis Zoo’s Curator of Ungulates Martha Fischer will visit our mountain nyala project we have there.

Punta San Juan, Peru (fall 2006)
Due to uncontrolled commercial fishing and guano harvesting for use as fertilizer, the Humboldt penguin population has declined significantly in the past 20 years. St. Louis Zoo, Brookfield and Philadelphia zoos support a Punta San Juan as a Humboldt reserve. Our Zoo Bird Department staff will travel there to conduct a census when the birds are molting.

Media contact:

For more information on these projects, please contact Director of Public Relations, Janet Powell, (314) 646-4633 or powell@stlzoo.org.