Scientists have been more than explicit! Many species on earth are severely threatened or on the edge of extinction. Some scientists, like Anthony Barnosky at the University of California, Berkeley, speaks of “mass extinction on the scale of the dinosaurs.” It is a silent tragedy of epic proportions that inevitably will affect each one of us in this interdependent, interlinked world of ours. However, there is perhaps still time to slow down or even stop the destruction. This is the mission of the St. Louis Zoo.

Situated on 90 acres in Forest Park, St Louis, the Zoo (which is free) is a very popular destination with residents and visitors alike. It is home to over 19,000 animals from 655 species, many of them rare and endangered. However, this is not just a place to go and see wild animals. Since its founding in 1910, the St Louis Zoo has been a world leader in the conservation and reproduction of several endangered species, including through the creation of the WildCare Institute, whose impact extends far beyond the St. Louis City limits.

The Institute aims to address three major areas: conservation of endangered species, recovery, management of wildlife, and support to the human populations that live together with the animals. The need is great across the world but WildCare Institute has chosen to focus its efforts on a select number of projects. These include teaching ranchers how to coexist with cheetahs in Tanzania, developing a recovery plan for the horned guans of Mexico and Guatemala; and teaching the locals in Niger how to protect the Saharan ostrich (which is practically extinct) once the species is returned to the wild from captive breeding.

One of the Zoo’s most extensive projects is the WildCare Institute Center for Conservation in the Horn of Africa that is partnered with a number of local conservation programs such as the Grevy’s Zebra Trust and the Northern Rangeland Trust. During one of our visits to the St Louis Zoo, we are fortunate to meet with the Curator of Mammals/Ungulates and Elephants, Martha Fischer, who is also the Director of the WildCare Institute for Conservation in the Horn of Africa.

Ms. Fischer, who is passionate about her work, tells us that, without the support and active involvement of the local populations to protect the animals, conservation will not succeed. She explains how the Center is working to raise awareness and achieve a balance between the needs of the local people in the Horn of Africa and several nearly extinct species which share the land. These include the Ethiopian Wolf, Speke’s Gazelle, the mountain nyala, and Grevy’s Zebra, which have suffered one of the more substantial depopulations of any African mammal.

Three decades ago, more than 15,000 Grevy zebra inhabited the plains of Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. Today, they are extinct in Somalia, and there are fewer than 150 left in Ethiopia with perhaps no more than 2,200 in Kenya. They have become the victims of poaching as well a losing their territory and water supplies to the increasing number of livestock that compete for grazing lands. The Grevy’s Zebra is the largest, wildest and most untamable of Africa’s three zebra species. Named after Jules Grévy, a former President of France, who was given a zebra as a gift in 1881 by the Government of Abyssinia, it has a long history, having first appeared outside Africa in Roman circuses.

The St. Louis Zoo is home to a number of these zebras, the most recent additions born in April 2011. They are part of an on-going effort to increase the population and maintain a robust gene pool that could be used to repopulate the wild herds. Compared to a plains zebra, a Grevy’s zebra is bigger with rounded ears, a white unmarked belly, and very fine black stripes. (A zebra’s stripes are like a fingerprint on a human. No two patterns are identical.) The mane resembles a series of very still brush bristles, sticking straight up. Watch as they gambol around their enclosure, braying periodically to each other. How sad it would be if this species became victim to the “mass extinction” that we are not doing enough to prevent. You cannot help but admire the work of Martha Fischer and her colleagues who are working so hard to preserve life on earth, one species at a time.

IF YOU WANT TO HELP
The WildCare Institute has created Grevy’s Zebra scholarships to pay for the secondary education of Kenyan youngsters. If you want to help conserve the Grevy’s zebra, consider making a donation to the Zoo at 314-768-5440.
The St. Louis Zoo is located at Forest Park, St Louis (1 Government Drive, St. Louis, MO). It is open daily from 0900 to 1700. Check website for winter hours, directions and transportation options.

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