The Seneca Park Zoo is commemorating Endangered Species Day Friday to highlight a new national effortby zoos and aquariums to save more animals from extinction.
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums has identified more than 100 species facing the greatest threats.
They include the African penguin, a species that has thrived at our local zoo since the opening of the Rocky Coast exhibit in 1997. African penguin chicks hatched at Seneca Park Zoo have been sent to 25 accredited zoos and aquariums across North America since 1999.
Seneca Park Zoo director Larry Sorel said zoo staff members have helped to shape the penguin population and have assisted this species in other ways.
"We've already sent people to South Africa to help with the oil spill that happened about ten years ago. We continue to financially support penguins. It's an effort to combine everybody's resources to make a difference in the survivability of penguins.
The zoo is asking visitors to round up the amount of their general admission or make donations at the gate to help conservation efforts.
"Anyone who pays any attention to the environment knows the stress that so many animals are under,” Sorel said. “Whether it's African elephants, Bornean orangutans, or African penguins, we're losing animals at a tremendous, tremendous rate. What we want to do is to be able to utilize the animals that we care deeply for at the zoo as ambassadors for their species, because if people can make that connection and support those species in their natural range - independently or through us - that's what we're all about."
With the help of patrons, the Seneca Park Zoo was able to contribute nearly $60,000 last year to the global effort to save species.
