Oakland Zoo Raises $330,182 for Wildlife Conservation in 2019

Uganda Carnivore Program, a participant of the Lion Recovery Fund, monitors wild lions with tracking collars for research. Lion Recovery Fund is a conservation partner of Oakland Zoo and a 2019 recipient of the Zoo’s Quarters for Conservation program. Photo Credit: Oakland Zoo

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Oakland, CA – January 1, 2020… From lions in Uganda to toads in Puerto Rico, Oakland Zoo — Conservation Society of California (CSC), has raised $330,182 in the name of saving wildlife this year mostly due to its Quarters for Conservation (Q4C) program. Q4C designates 50¢ of every ticket and $2 from every membership to the Zoo's 25 wildlife conservation partners. Additional funds were raised through various efforts including the Zoo’s IMPACT Speaker Series events.

Fifty percent of this year's funds will go directly to three 2019 featured out-in-the-field programs – jaguars (Kaminando, Panama), California condors (Pinnacles, Pinnacles National Park), and African lions (Lion Recovery Fund).

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Adrienne Mrsny, Conservation Specialist at Oakland Zoo, working with one of Oakland Zoo’s conservation partners and Quarters for Conservation recipients in 2019, Pinnacles. Photo Credit: Oakland Zoo

Twenty percent of the funds raised will go towards Oakland Zoo's onsite conservation programs. Such programs include veterinary care for lead-poisoned California condors, the repopulation of Western Pond turtles through a head-start program and breeding of Puerto Rican Crested toads– a species once thought to be extinct.

The remaining thirty percent helps support the Zoo's conservation field partners around the world, including the Budongo Snare Removal Project, Amboseli Trust for Elephants, California wolf protection through Working Circle, Cotton-top tamarin conservation with Proyecto Titi, and promotion of research, conservation, and community development in Madagascar through Centre Val Bio.

Wild jaguar footage from one of Kaminando’s camera traps in Panama. Kaminando is one of the recipients of the Oakland Zoo’s Quarters for Conservation program and conservation partner. Photo Credit: Kaminando

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Oakland Zoo's new featured conservation partners for 2020 focuses on the conservation of cougars (Bay Area Puma Project), rainforests (ARCAS), and chimpanzees (The New Nature Foundation). See below descriptions for additional information about the 2020 partners:

Through a unique camera trap research program, the Bay Area Puma Project engages and empowers communities to collect critical data, becoming citizen scientists and stewards for cougar survival and human coexistence.

ARCAS’s new world-class Biodiversity Education Center provides citizens, tourists, and officials the inspiration, knowledge, and tools to protect the Mayan jungle and all of the wildlife that lives there.

The New Nature Foundation empowers communities to live sustainably through education, tree planting, biomass briquettes, and eco-stove use, ensuring a connected society that celebrates and protects the chimpanzees that live in the Kibale Forest.

Contact:

Isabella Linares

Oakland Zoo

ilinares@oaklandzoo.org

Office: 510-632-9525 ext. 239

Cell: 650 – 776 -9589

Erin Harrison

Oakland Zoo

eharrison@oaklandzoo.org

Office: 510-746-7120

Cell: 415-601-1619

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ABOUT OAKLAND ZOO AND THE CONSERVATION SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA:

Oakland Zoo, home to more than 850+ native and exotic animals, is managed by the Conservation Society of California (CSC); a non-profit organization leading an informed and inspired community to take action for wildlife locally and globally. With over 25 conservation partners and projects worldwide, the CSC is committed to conservation-based education and saving species and their habitats in the wild. Oakland Zoo is dedicated to the humane treatment of animals and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), the national organization that sets the highest standards for animal welfare for zoos and aquariums.