NextGen at Seneca Park Zoo: Recap

Hello everyone!  I wanted to extend a huge THANK YOU to everyone who came out to our Education Session at the Seneca Park Zoo yesterday.  They were nice enough to spend a lot of time with us after the meeting, giving us an inside look at the zoo and how they are leading the charge in conservation of species and the environment.   If you have any pictures from the event that we can use on our website (coming soon!) as well as Facebook, etc please send them to me!
Please mark your calendars for our next education session: May 13th at  6pm at Gilda’s Club Rochester (255 Alexander St).

For those of you unable to attend, here are some of the takeaways from our meeting:

• The zoo is run by both the county and the Seneca Park Zoo Society.  At very high-level, you can count on the Seneca Park Zoo Society to take care of anything that deals with the people (members, visitors, PR, etc).  The county then provides support for all things dealing with the animals and their care.
• The Seneca Park Zoo has been and continues to be a leader in sustainability, both environmentally and as it relates to the protection of endangered species. A great example of this would be their African Elephants.  In the turn of the last decade, there were almost 1.5 million African Elephants, as opposed to the (less than) 350,000 that exist today.  As noted in the linked article, the zoo is now housing 2 new Elephants (Mochi and Chana) to make room for the Jacksonville Zoo to bring in new breeding Elephants to help sustain the population.  The zoo is also the nationwide leader in Penguin breeding, with some of the most valuable genetic lines originating here in Rochester.
• The zoo’s current objective is to showcase their efforts in education and conservation.  They hope to spend the next several years growing and instituting new programs that inspire wonder, creating a lasting bond between the visitor and nature, and allow people to leave the zoo thinking of ways they can support conservation locally. It is important to the zoo that their members and visitors understand that they are more than a place to showcase animals, but instead a place to learn about local and worldwide conservation efforts to protect endangered species and their environments.
• As you may have heard recently, the main building of the zoo needs to be removed by 2018 to maintain accreditation.  Accreditation for the zoo is extremely important, as (among other things) it allows them to keep endangered species in their care.  For this project, the main building will be removed, but does not necessarily need to be replaced with a new building.  This project has an incredibly large scope and will change the footprint of the zooimmensely, and one of the biggest projects will be creating new communities within the zoo to house the animals currently living there (the Rhino, Orangutans, birds, etc).  That building also houses the commissary that prepares and stores the food given to the animals.  The Seneca Park Zoo Society invited us (and anyone who wants to attend) back to the zoo on May 19th as they unveil the first set of draft plans for the new Seneca Park Zoo improvements.

For Volunteer Opportunities (including those on committees) please contact Volunteer Coordinator, Elizabeth Roach at (585) 295-7354 / eroach@senecazoo.org or visit this page: http://senecaparkzoo.org/page/volunteer

Zoo Online Info:

• Website: http://senecaparkzoo.org/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/senecaparkzoo
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SenecaParkZoo
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/senecaparkzoo
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/SenecaParkZoo
• TripAdvisor: http://bit.ly/1dwUY9n
• Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/seneca-park-zoo-rochester

Thanks!
Amy Button