New Vision, New Future

BY SDZWA Staff

Since 1916, our organization has created lifelong connections between people and wildlife. People of all ages and from all corners of the globe have visited the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park to experience powerful moments with wildlife, making memories and enhancing their appreciation for these extraordinary animals and plants. Along the way, we’ve also tackled conservation programs, fueling scientific initiatives and discoveries that have changed the world for endangered wildlife. Two paths—each essential, each a rich part of our history.

Now, we are at a pivotal time in that history. Our organization is evolving to address the needs of our changing world, and we have a new name: San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. This new identity unites the guest experiences at the Zoo and Safari Park with our conservation efforts around the globe. As San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, we will create allies for wildlife with every guest who visits, member who joins us, or donor who supports us. And we will work with allies around the world to protect Earth’s most endangered wildlife. We must work together and collaborate as never before to achieve our most far-reaching goals.

We hope the excitement of sighting a rhino at the Safari Park will remind you of our work using living cell lines from our biobank to save the northern white rhino. When you visit the polar bears at the Zoo, we hope you’ll come away knowing about the work we’ve done for polar bears in the Arctic. We hope the energetic antics of one of our young elephants will inspire you to learn more about how we helped formulate milk for orphaned elephant calves at the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in Kenya. In fact, we are in the business of hope—and we hope you’ll continue to be our allies in this mission.

At San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, our expertise in caring for wildlife is our strength in the field of conservation. Our deep and extensive knowledge from more than a century of experience makes us invaluable in global efforts to save species. Our science-based approach leverages the diverse skills of our teams and partners, showcasing the limitless potential of how we can change outcomes for wildlife. And it all starts with the wildlife we support right here at home. This new chapter we are embarking on will transform the future of collaborative conservation, both here and around the world. It will provide hope for wildlife, for the world, and for all of us. We are building an alliance, and our alliance starts with you.
—Paul A. Baribault, President and Chief Executive Officer

Maximizing Impact for Wildlife Conservation

Securing a future for threatened and endangered wildlife will require extraordinary conservation problem-solving and restoration efforts. To meet this challenge, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance will now focus its efforts on the species, regions, and conservation issues for which we can make the greatest difference. We will apply innovative, science-based expertise to ensure that all wildlife in our care thrives, and we will use our reach to promote empathy and inspire people in ways that will cultivate a shared stewardship for nature.

We know we cannot do this alone. It is only by growing an alliance of passionate partners that we will have lasting influence. Working together, we will harness our strengths to focus where we can have maximum impact. In doing so, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance will contribute to the larger, collective movement to restore biodiversity for a healthy, thriving planet.

Our organization has a long history of collaborating with zoos, aquariums, conservation organizations, governments, and communities. We have worked for decades with other zoos throughout North America and around the world to develop the best wildlife care and breeding programs, and we have expanded our reach into international communities working to save local wildlife. Our early work with the Northern Rangelands Trust in Kenya is one example, as is our work in China, Southeast Asia, and Australia.

As we move forward, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance will continue to grow our collaboration with aligned organizations. In order to be the best for wildlife, we are committed to building a strong and diverse alliance of partners to multiply our collective impact.

In addition, unifying our internal talents will allow us to mobilize skilled teams to address complex challenges. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance has expert teams specializing in genetics, reproduction, disease investigations, population sustainability, recovery ecology, and community engagement for both animals and plants. Our most successful initiatives are those in which our scientists work closely with our wildlife care, nutrition, and veterinary teams, showing what can be achieved when diverse disciplines work together.

For each of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s priority regions and species going forward, our goal will be to implement a full-spectrum approach that ensures wild populations are healthy and thriving, critical habitats are protected, threats to species survival are reduced, conservation capacity in local communities is enhanced, and the public is engaged and inspired to help. Our approach will be to first identify the most significant problems for conservation and restoration of endangered species, and then to implement creative, collaborative, and, most importantly, lasting solutions.
—Nadine Lamberski, DVM, Dipl. ACZM, Dipl. ECZM (ZHM) Chief Conservation and Wildlife Health Officer

A Conservation Organization with Two Front Doors

Having two front doors gives San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance an opportunity unlike any other conservation organization in the world. The millions of guests coming through our doors every year provide us with an exciting and unique platform to tell our stories and share the work of our partners. No one knows better than you, our members, how transformational each visit to the Zoo or Park can be. We believe walking through our gates is also a step toward taking action to save species. As San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, we can build on the successes we have had, and create an even brighter future for wildlife together.

At the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park, some things are core to who we are and will never change, such as the significance of the San Diego community and our commitment to providing amazing care for wildlife. Our new identity challenges us to engage our guests in our conservation mission through the habitats we develop for animals, the experiences we offer visitors, and the stories we tell.

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance will continue to cultivate care and compassion for wildlife. Many of us can identify formative experiences with animals in our childhood that helped cultivate the appreciation for nature and wildlife that we have today. Perhaps some of your fondest memories were built here with us at the Zoo and the Safari Park over the years. We are honored to have played that role in your lives, and we are committed to providing those opportunities for future generations.

We also want to tell the stories of the great work led by our team members and partners around the world, and we want that incredible work to inspire you as much as it does us. At the Zoo and Safari Park, our habitats and experiences will be designed for you to witness the conservation work happening around the globe for yourself. We also recognize that we cannot save species alone—we need you as part of our alliance. We want to offer you a place to learn more about the species we are trying to save, and how you can take action.

Sometimes it can feel like the actions of one individual cannot really make a difference. But, every individual can contribute, and as San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, we want to elevate the important actions you have taken on behalf of wildlife. We will leverage your individual actions for change at higher levels. In partnership with other accredited zoos and aquariums and their communities, we can expand our collective reach across the globe.
—Lisa Peterson, Executive Director, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and Dwight Scott, Executive Director, San Diego Zoo

Our Community, Our Future

Our new identity as San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance gives us an opportunity to redefine what it means to be a conservation organization, and to be agents of change in our communities on a local and global scale. Our potential rests in all of you who believe in our mission to save species, who work side by side with us to make the world a better place for people and wildlife. We are all a part of a global movement, and no one exemplifies that devotion more than our members. With you as our allies, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance will step forward to meet the conservation needs of the future.

Our New Look

Along with our new name, we have a new logo. A good logo tells a story—and ours tells three. Blending three iconic images, the logo features symbols that uniquely reflect our story: The Lion represents the founding of our “World Famous” zoo more than a century ago—how it all started with a roar. The Rhino represents our park, known for its expansive savanna “unlike anywhere on earth” — and a growing symbol of our cutting-edge conservation work. The Bird represents our groundbreaking work to save the California Condor— firmly establishing our commitment to changing outcomes for wildlife. It is a logo that represents long-term achievement and our future as a collaborative force for conservation.