NEWS RELEASES

Thousands of butterflies floated and fluttered around the Butterfly Jungle aviary at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park this morning (March 22, 2019), as invited guests were treated to a sneak preview of the Safari Park’s annual springtime event—Butterfly Jungle presented by Wheelhouse Credit Union—which opens Saturday, March 23 and runs through Sunday, May 12. Safari Park guests can enjoy Butterfly Jungle daily.

Best-selling author Chelsea Clinton will present her new children’s book, Don’t Let Them Disappear: Twelve Endangered Species Across the Globe, at a special event and book signing May 23, 2019 at the San Diego Zoo.

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park is inviting the public to a special celebration next Tuesday, March 19, 2019 at the gorilla habitat inside Gorilla Forest, in honor of gorilla Joanne. She is turning 5, marking a major milestone for a youngster once called a “miracle baby” because of the challenges she overcame following complications during her mother’s labor.

Chimpanzees are well known for their extraordinary diversity of behaviors—including using tools for hunting or digging, cracking nuts with stones and using moss as a water-drawing sponge—with some behaviors also exhibiting cultural variation.

San Diegans Ernest and Evelyn Rady have made a record-setting commitment in support of the San Diego Zoo’s Animal Ambassador program. The Radys have pledged $20 million, of which $15 million will be a challenge grant that must be earned with matching donations from other Zoo supporters.

A huge celebration took place at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital earlier today (March 7, 2019), complete with San Diego Zoo Safari Park animals—including a tamandua, a sloth, and a kinkajou—and a 15-foot-long lion puppet, and flamingo and giraffe puppets from the San Diego Zoo!

If you didn’t already have enough reasons to visit the San Diego Zoo this week, three cute new arrivals may motivate you to drop everything and stop by. Over the past few months, Zoo animal care staff have welcomed three female mammal newborns—including a hamadryas baboon; a takin calf, listed as Vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species; and an Endangered siamang.

San Diego Zoo Global researchers have confirmed the presence of rare black leopards living in Laikipia County, Kenya. Sometimes called black panthers, the melanistic leopards were filmed in Lorok, Laikipia County, Kenya on remote cameras that were set up as part of a large-scale study aimed at understanding the population dynamics of leopards in Mpala and Loisaba Conservancies.

San Diego Zoo Global’s horticultural works are in the spotlight this month, with the United States Botanic Garden (USBG) in Washington, D.C. including landscape designs from both the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park in a new exhibit.

Young patients, their families and invited guests were treated to a visit with some amazing animal ambassadors from BREC’s Baton Rouge Zoo—at a gathering at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital earlier today (Feb. 1, 2019)