Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and the Cleveland Zoological Society support many important conservation projects around the world, from North America and Latin America to Africa and Asia.
This year, guests can take a direct role in those efforts by helping the Zoo decide where its conservation funds should go with �Quarters for Conservation.�
For each admission sold visitors will receive a token representing a �Quarter for Conservation.� Guests then use their token at a kiosk display to �vote� for one of three ongoing Zoo field projects including:
��Black Rhino Conservation: Saving an Endangered Species� in the Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana, Africa. Funding for this project with the International Rhino Foundation will help relocate rhinos from South Africa to protected areas in Botswana, monitor rhinos after their release using radio-telemetry and help employ local community members as rhino monitors and scouts.
��Gorilla Conservation: Supporting People - Protecting Wildlife� in the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, Republic of Congo, Africa. In conjunction with the Wildlife Conservation Society, this project helps train Congolese researchers and wildlife officers working on gorilla field research and habitat protection in northern Congo and funds conservation education in local schools around the national park.
��Conserving Species and Habitats in Our Own Back Yard� in Cleveland Metroparks around Northeast Ohio. Funding for this project, with the park district, supports surveys of Big Creek and surrounding tributaries to locate populations of Bigmouth shiner, a threatened native fish species, monitors local bat populations and allows for the continuation of regional conservation projects enhance and restore important habitats in the area.
As Northeast Ohio's most-visited year-round attraction, the Zoo has the potential to collect a lot of �quarters�! These funds will help the Zoo save endangered animals and their habitats around the world and right here in Northeast Ohio, and continue the Zoo's primary mission of connecting people with wildlife.