Wildlife Conservation Society

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) based at the Bronx Zoo ^[1] was founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society (NYZS) and currently manages some 200 million acres (810,000 km²) of wild places around the world, with over 500 field conservation projects in 60 countries, and 200 scientists on staff. It also runs five facilities in New York City: the Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, New York Aquarium, Prospect Park Zoo and Queens Zoo which together welcome over 4 million visitors per year.^[2] All of its New York City, USA facilities are accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).^[3]

Mission

The stated mission of the Wildlife Conservation Society is:

The Wildlife Conservation Society saves wildlife and wild lands through careful science, international conservation, education, and the management of the world’s largest system of urban wildlife parks. These activities change attitudes toward nature and help people imagine wildlife and humans living in sustainable interaction on both a local and a global scale. WCS is committed to this work because we believe it essential to the integrity of life on Earth.^[2]

History

The Wildlife Conservation Society was originally chartered by New York on April 26, 1895 as the New York Zoological Society with a mandate to advance wildlife conservation, promote the study of zoology, and create a first-class zoological park. Its name was changed to the Wildlife Conservation Society in 1993.

Among the founders of WCS were Andrew H. Green, best known as the father of greater New York City, and Henry Fairfield Osborn, Columbia University professor and curator of the American Museum of Natural History. Theodore Roosevelt and other notable New Yorkers were also involved in the Society's creation.

The Bronx Zoo (formerly the “New York Zoological Park”) was designed along the lines of other cultural icons in New York City, such as the American Museum of Natural History. The city provided the land for the new zoo and some funding for buildings and annual operating costs. WCS raised most of the funds for construction and operations from private donors, and selected the scientific and administrative personnel.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the WCS took a leadership role in pioneering zoological exhibitions by seeking to recreate natural environments for the animals on display. Under the leadership of WCS director William G. Conway, the Bronx Zoo opened its World of Darkness for nocturnal species in 1969 and its World of Birds for avian displays in 1974.^[4]

Eventually New York City turned to WCS to renew and manage three city-run facilities in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. The redesigned Central Park Zoo opened in 1988, followed by the Queens Zoo in 1992 and the Prospect Park Zoo in 1993.^[5] From 1994 through 1996 Archie Carr III of WCS helped establish the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary in Belize, a reserve for endangered jaguar.

Work on conservation of wildlife and wild places

In the late nineteenth century William Temple Hornaday, then director of the New York Zoological Park (now the Bronx Zoo), carried out a direct-mail survey of wildlife conditions through the United States, and publicized the decline of birds and mammals in the organization's annual reports. In 1897 Hornaday also hired field researcher Andrew J. Stone to survey the condition of wildlife in the territory of Alaska. On the basis of these studies, Hornaday led the campaign for new laws to protect the wildlife there and the United States as a whole.

Starting in 1905, Hornaday led a national campaign to reintroduce the almost extinct bison to government sponsored refuges.^[6][7] The Bronx Zoo sent 15 bison to Wichita Reserve in 1907 and additional bison in later years. The saving of this uniquely American symbol is one of the great success stories in the history of wildlife conservation. Hornaday campaigned for wildlife protection throughout his thirty years as director of the Bronx Zoo.

William Beebe, the first curator of birds at the Bronx Zoo, began a program of field research soon after the Bronx Zoo opened. His research on wild pheasants took him to Asia from 1908 to 1911 and resulted in a series of books on pheasants. Beebe's field work also resulted in the creation of the Society’s Department of Tropical Research, which Beebe directed from 1922 until his retirement in 1948.

Beebe’s research in an undersea vessel called the bathysphere took him half a mile under the ocean floor off Bermuda in 1934 to record for the first time human observations of the bottom of the deep sea. The bathysphere is currently displayed at the New York Aquarium.

After World War II, under the leadership of Fairfield Osborn, a best selling writer on conservation and son of WCS founder Henry Fairfield Osborn, the organization extended its programs in field biology and conservation. In 1946 WCS helped found the Jackson Hole Wildlife Park, which became part of Grand Teton National Park in 1962.

In the late 1950s WCS began a series of wildlife surveys and projects in Kenya, Tanganyika (now Tanzania), Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Burma, and the Malay peninsula. In 1959 it sponsored George Schaller’s seminal study of mountain gorillas in Congo. Since that expedition, Schaller has gone on to become the world's preeminent field biologist, studying wildlife throughout Africa, Asia and South America.

Conservation activities continued to expand under the leadership of William Conway, who became director of the Bronx Zoo in 1962 and President of WCS in 1992. Active as a field biologist in Patagonia, Conway promoted a new vision of zoos as conservation organizations, which cooperated in breeding endangered species. He also designed new types of zoo exhibits aimed at teaching visitors about habitats that support wildlife, and encouraged the expansion of WCS's field programs.

Today

Today the WCS is at work on some 500 projects in 60 nations around the world that are intended to help protect both the wild life and the wild places in which they live.^[2] It has given support to the Forests Now Declaration, which calls for new market based mechanisms to protect tropical forests.

The Wilderness Conservation Society is working in conjunction with the Lava Lake Institute for Science and Conservation to document the movement of pronghorn through the Craters of the Moon/Pioneer Mountain region of central Idaho. In two years of study they have found that pronghorn move up to 150 miles from their summer ground to their winter range, meeting up with herds from Montana and eastern Idaho.A Narrow Path for Pronghorns

Mannahatta Project

The Mannahatta Project^[8] is a project by the WCS to reconstruct and map how Manhattan looked in 1609 when Henry Hudson discovered the island. Elements being mapped include where the streams flowed and where each species of tree grew.^[9] The Lenni Lenape people who lived there called the island Mannahatta, or "land of many hills." The project highlights the ways that development has altered the natural ecosystems.^[10]

Criticism

In Malaysia/Sarawak the WCS has been working hand in hand with the Sarawak Forestry Corporation, the Sarawak Forest Department, and the Samling Corporation since 1984 to certify timber for the European market. Although timber certification is intended to promote and encourage sustainable forest management and provides an assurance to buyers that the timber products come from sustainably managed forests, Samling is considered overly aggressive by some.^{[citation needed]}

In June 2011, the head of India's Wildlife Conservation Society was fired for being part of a government committee that backed tribal rights over forest lands under the Forest Rights Act. Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, reacting to the WCS move to throw out Chellam said, "It is sad that he was penalised for being pro-tribal and pro-people. It shows how anti-democratic some of the self-styled champions of transparency really are."^[11]

See also

• Wildlife Conservation International
• 21st Century Tiger
• Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance
• Last of the Wild

Notes

1. ^ "Wildlife Conservation Society". ct.gov/dEP. State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection. http://www.ct.gov/dEP/cwp/view.asp?A=2723&Q=325792. Retrieved 28 May 2010. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} "About Us". wcs.org. Wildlife Conservation Society. http://www.wcs.org/about-us.aspx. Retrieved 28 May 2010. 
3. ^ "List of Accredited Zoos and Aquariums". aza.org. Association of Zoos and Aquariums. http://www.aza.org/current-accreditation-list/. Retrieved 27 May 2010. 
4. ^ David Hancocks (2002). A Different Nature: The Paradoxical World of Zoos and Their Uncertain Future. University of California Press. p. 105. ISBN 0520236769. 
5. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20080822074725/http://nyzoosandaquarium.com/czabout About the City Zoos
6. ^ "William Temple Hornaday: Saving the American Bison". si.edu. Smithsonian Institution. http://siarchives.si.edu/history/exhibits/documents/hornaday.htm. Retrieved 28 May 2010. 
7. ^ "William Temple Hornaday: Visionary of the National Zoo". si.edu. Smithsonian Institution. http://nationalzoo.si.edu/AboutUs/History/hornaday.cfm. Retrieved 28 May 2010. 
8. ^ "The Mannahatta Project". themannahattaproject.org. Wildlife Conservation Society. http://www.themannahattaproject.org/. Retrieved 28 May 2010. 
9. ^ "Welikia: Beyond Manahatta". 2009. http://welikia.org/explore/mannahatta-map/. 
10. ^ Nick Paumgarten, Our Local Correspondents, "The Mannahatta Project," The New Yorker, October 1, 2007, p. 44.
11. ^ Scientist sacked for supporting tribal rights

References

• "Wildlife Conservation Society". fundinguniverse.com. Funding Universe. http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Wildlife-Conservation-Society-Company-History.html. Retrieved 28 May 2010. 
• Vedder, Amy. "Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Organizational Overview: Central Africa Programs". yale.edu. Yale F&ES Bulletin. http://www.yale.edu/sangha/PDF_FILES/ENGLISH_.PDF/SEC._3/VEDDER.PDF. Retrieved 28 May 2010. 

External links

• Official website
• Champion Of Wildlife; Zoological Society at 100 The New York Times
• 21st Century Tiger