Cleveland Metroparks

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo will use its grant toward its three-year program, Improving the Future for Wildlife: Fulfilling the Zoo's Conservation Mission. The program will launch a fundamental component of the zoo's growing conservation and science program and help meet one of the zoo's most compelling goals: to be a leader and innovator in wildlife conservation and research. The grant will support salary and programming to expand the conservation and science staff with a local conservation coordinator, establish a cooperative venture between a field biologist in Africa (regional conservation coordinator–Africa) and the zoo's significant African collection, and test methodologies for meaningfully conveying the results and importance of the program and the zoo's conservation work to the zoo's 1.3 million annual visitors. Additional staffing will allow the zoo to strengthen its African and local initiatives to complement efforts already in place in South America and Asia, completing the zoo's vision for conservation action in the world's leading biological hot spots.