Field Conservation
The Los Angeles Zoo partners with dedicated conservation organizations worldwide to strengthen efforts to save wildlife, including combatting habitat destruction, over-hunting, and the decline of wildlife populations. Through strategic initiatives, such as sustainable conservation programs and community engagement, these efforts make a tangible impact. Through these partnerships, financial contributions, volunteer efforts, expert husbandry guidance, project planning and implementation support, veterinary services, and other actions, the Zoo bolsters the effectiveness of conservation endeavors across the globe.
Los Angeles Zoo Partners and Supported Programs
American Bird Conservancy/Bird Endowment, Inc.
Since 2019, the L.A. Zoo has partnered with Bird Endowment, Inc., to save the critically endangered blue-throated macaw. Initially threatened by the illegal pet trade, stricter laws have mitigated this danger, but deforestation now poses the primary threat. Bird Endowment’s Nido Adoptivo project erects artificial nest boxes in Laney Rickman Reserve to boost the number of nesting pairs, monitor their success, and ultimately develop a stable wild population.
Bred 4 the Wild – Bearded Vulture Recovery in South Africa
The African subspecies of bearded vultures (Gypaetus barbatus meridionalis) has experienced a 30% population decline in recent years and only 320 are estimated to remain in this isolated population. Utilizing experience gained from the success of the California Condor Recovery Program, L.A. Zoo staff have supported the establishment Bred 4 the Wild breeding and reintroduction program by traveling to South Africa to collect biologically redundant second eggs (which would be abandoned) to be raised in human care and establish a genetically viable founder population that can soon repopulate the wild.
California Condor Recovery Program
Since its inception in the 1980s, the L.A. Zoo has played a crucial role in the California Condor Recovery Program, helping boost the species from a low of 22 birds to more than 500 today. Through on-site breeding and innovative techniques like double brooding, the condor team at the Zoo has been able to increase the number of chicks hatched and reared each year. The team provides essential training to partners, helps ensure post-release success rates, and treats condors for medical issues, releasing them back to the wild after rehabilitation. As of 2024, the L.A. Zoo has contributed 250 condors to this program and each healthy chick hatched at the L.A. Zoo is a potential candidate for release to the wild.
Cikananga Conservation Breeding Center
The Cikananga Conservation Breeding Center (CCBC) is a specialized conservation breeding facility in Indonesia. Two species at the heart of its efforts are the black-winged starling and the Javan warty pig. The Javan warty pig is at risk of extinction due to human activity and destruction of crops. The black-winged starling is now critically endangered due to trapping and trafficking for the illegal pet trade. The L.A. Zoo contributes to facility and husbandry improvement, workforce training, and preparation for reintroduction of both species to the wild.
Drill Rehabilitation and Breeding Center
The drill, an Endangered African primate endemic to Nigeria and Cameroon, is a species closely related to both the mandrill and the baboon. Wild drill populations are on the decline due to habitat loss and fragmentation, hunting, and other human activities. Drill Ranch, The Pandrillus Foundation’s rehabilitation and breeding center in Nigeria, which the L.A. Zoo began supporting in 1991, manages hundreds of drills, chimpanzees, and other primates in their care, supports local community economy, and supports field conservation at two project sites.
Global Conservation Force (Amakhala Equine Project)
The vast majority of the world’s rhinos live in South Africa, where the top threat to their survival is poaching driven by black market demand for rhino horn. Since 2018, the L.A. Zoo has partnered with Global Conservation Force (GCF) to support anti-poaching efforts in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. This partnership helped establish horseback Anti-Poaching Units (APUs) at the Amakhala and Kariega Game Reserves. These mounted units patrol daily in territory that vehicles cannot access, increasing maneuverability and saving thousands of dollars in fuel costs.
Gorilla Rehabilitation & Conservation Education Center (GRACE)
The L.A. Zoo has been a partner with GRACE since 2015. GRACE’s mission is to rescue, rehabilitate, and release Grauer’s gorillas and support gorillas and their habitats by engaging local communities to further conservation efforts in just and equitable ways. Zoo experts work to assist with GRACE staff training and consult on animal management issues. The Zoo supports sanctuary operations, veterinary care, vaccinations, education programs, and more. The L.A. Zoo is also working with GRACE staff on a variety of community-based initiatives designed to engage and educate local community members on initiatives that support their health and the protection of the gorillas and their habitat. In 2022, the L.A. Zoo committed to be a key supporter of the new Usala Conservation Corridor, a 345,000 acre patch of land that will connect two key protected areas and secure the land rights of local communities.
The Kasiisi Project
To protect endangered chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda, the Kasiisi Project works with local communities to reduce respiratory infections in schools and improve hygiene protocols for forest workers. With support from the L.A. Zoo, the Kasiisi Project uses a One Health approach through education campaigns and the construction of simple handwashing stations to improve the health of local communities and reduce the chance of life threatening respiratory disease outbreaks in Kibale chimpanzees.
Komodo Survival Program
The L.A. Zoo is a long-time partner with the Komodo Survival Program, helping to address population declines of the Komodo dragon – the largest living lizard on the planet. L.A. Zoo provides equipment that is used to monitor dragons on islands in Komodo National Park, Indonesia. The equipment gives researchers the ability to monitor and assess changes in population density and their prey species in order to refine long-term conservation strategies.
Madras Crocodile Bank Trust (Gharial Ecology Project)
With only 900 adults estimated to exist in the wild, Indian gharials are a priority species for the conservation efforts of the Los Angeles Zoo. Through the partnership with the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, the movements and survival of gharials hatched and raised in human care (aka head-started) at the National Chambal Sanctuary in northern India are tracked following their release using VHF radios. The data is used to inform conservation actions to better protect wild populations.
Mountain Tapir Project
With fewer than 2,500 remaining in the wild, mountain tapirs are highly endangered and information about their biology is limited. The Los Angeles Zoo is one of only three zoos in the world that care for this rare and enigmatic species. L.A. Zoo veterinarian Dr. Jordan Davis-Powell regularly travels to Ecuador to utilize the skills and knowledge she has developed working with mountain tapirs at the Zoo to perform health assessments and track wild mountain tapirs using GPS collars. Davis-Powell and her teammates use the data gained from work with the species at the Zoo to inform their work with wild tapirs and advance the conservation of the species.
Rewilding Argentina (Giant Otter Breeding/Reintroduction Project)
Giant otters are currently extinct in Argentina, but a giant otter reintroduction effort is underway in Iberá National Park. As part of this effort, the Los Angeles Zoo sent a female giant river otter to Argentina to be paired with a male from a European Zoo as part of a unique breeding program. Offspring produced through the program will be candidates for release into the species historic range with the goal of re-establishing a self-sustaining wild population. The Zoo is a key partner in program planning and the development of a consortium that will better ensure the success of future translocations and introductions.
Painted Dog Research Trust
The Painted Dog Research Trust (PDRT) works to protect and increase the range and numbers of painted dogs in Zimbabwe. Painted dogs are one of the most endangered African mammals, with human encroachment and activity being the primary threats to their survival. Since 2018, the Los Angeles Zoo has partnered with the PDRT to assess the status of wild dog populations through camera trap surveys, and safeguard the remaining individuals through snare removal patrols, educational outreach, road collision mitigation efforts, and more.
Paso Pacifico (Jaguar Conservation)
Since 2012, the Los Angeles Zoo has supported the efforts of Paso Pacifico to conserve one of jaguars in the Paso del Istmo Biological Corridor. This stretch of forest in Nicaragua is a biodiversity hotspot where the Zoo has helped deploy motion-activated camera traps to document the presence of jaguars and other wildlife. Through this partnership, the L.A. Zoo is helping to protect important jaguar habitat and supporting human-wildlife coexistence by reducing jaguar predation on livestock in surrounding communities.
Peninsular Pronghorn Recovery Program
The L.A. Zoo has been involved in the effort to save North America’s fastest land mammal since 2000. In addition to breeding a herd of these charismatic animals with the goal of future participation in a release program, the Zoo provides support to Peninsular Pronghorn Recovery Program (PPRP) in the Vizcaino Desert Biosphere Reserve of Baja California Sur, Mexico. The has long provided critical funding, advisory support, and on-the-ground assistance, paying special attention to forging community partnerships in the region. Zoo staff facilitated the transformation of the Visitor Center at the PPRP, bringing in local design firm Museográfica to bring the PPRP’s vision to life.
Southern Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog Reintroduction
Since 2007, the L.A. Zoo has been a leader in the effort to save the southern mountain yellow-legged frog from extinction. The Zoo currently maintains two breeding groups, and regularly assists the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) with field work. The Zoo’s herpetology staff breeds the frogs and raises tadpoles that are released by USGS into native streams in the San Gabriel Mountains and surrounding ranges. More than 6,000 Los Angeles Zoo-bred frogs have been released into the wild where the species had gone locally extinct.
Wild Earth Allies (Asian Elephant Conservation)
One of the Los Angeles Zoo’s longest-running international conservation partners, Wild Earth Allies (WEA) supports the recovery of at-risk Asian elephant populations in Cambodia in two key areas, the Prey Lang Forest and the Cardamom Mountains. These areas represent 1.7 million acres of critical habitat where elephants are threatened by unsustainable forest practices and human-elephant conflict. The L.A. Zoo is proud to support WEA’s targeted actions to ensure that elephants and other threatened species flourish in healthy forests that also sustain traditional livelihoods.
Wildlife Trust of India (Indian Gharial Conservation)
The Los Angeles Zoo has supported Wildlife Trust of India’s (WTI) field teams efforts to locate, protect, and monitor gharial nest sites along India’s Gandak River since 2019. The Los Angeles Zoo has partnered to expand the efforts of WTI and increase the Indian Gharial Recovery Program’s outcomes. Through this partnership, the Zoo is helping to build an incubation center that will temporarily relocate eggs away from floods and to plan for the development of a community education center. Like all of WTI’s efforts, the gharial program is centered on engagement and inclusion of local communities.
Select Projects Historically Supported by the Los Angeles Zoo
Abronia Lizard Project; Biodiversity & Elephant Conservation Trust; Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program; Fundación Neotropical; Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association; Limbe Wildlife Center (African Gray Parrot Rescue); One Planet (Giant Otter Field Research); Orangutan Conservancy; Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA); The Peregrine Fund (Harpy Eagle Conservation); Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Foundation; Proyecto Tagua (Chacoan Peccary Conservation); Red Uakari Conservation Project; Saola Working Group; Saving African Vultures in Botswana; Turtle Survival Alliance Foundation.