New York, December 20, 2024 – The Wildlife Conservation Society releases its ten favorite wildlife images of 2024, highlighting amazing wildlife stories. Five of the images come from WCS’s zoos and aquarium in New York, and five images are from WCS Global taken by WCS staff working around the world. WCS operates five wildlife parks in New York City, the Bronx Zoo, New York Aquarium, Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, and Queens Zoo, and works in over 50 countries saving wildl...

New York, Dec. 19, 2024 – The following comments were issued by Boo Maisels, a conservation scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and a contributing author to a new study on bonobos, an Endangered great ape only found in Congo. The study was published in the International Journal of Primatology and can be found HERE. The research was led by the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB), including first author, Mattia Bessone, a postdoctoral researcher; and Barba...

WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 18, 2024—The following statement was released today by the Wildlife Conservation Society upon the passage of the bipartisan U.S. Foundation for International Conservation Act and the WILD Act. Both were part of the National Defense Authorization Act headed to the president for his signature. Wildlife Conservation Society’s Executive Vice President for Public Affairs John F. Calvelli said: “It was a great bipartisan win for wildlife conservation in W...

New York, December 11, 2024 -- Conservationists have succeeded in restoring tiger populations in a region where they were virtually absent for more than 50 years in Russia. This restoration took place from 2012-2021 in the Pri-Amur region of Russia. The techniques used to restore the tiger population are highlighted in a new study in the Journal of Wildlife Management which can be found HERE. In addition to highlighting this Russian success story, the study outlines a pathway for...

New York, December 6, 2024 – An Atlantic puffin chick hatched this summer has now been fully integrated with the rest of the colony in the Central Park Zoo Polar Zone.   Weighing just 2 ounces at hatching on August 11, the chick, known as a puffling, has joined 11 adult Atlantic puffins in the exhibit. The puffling is now the size of an adult bird but has not fully attained its adult plumage. It currently weighs more than 11 ounces. With black-and-white feathers and a large, m...

New York, NY, December 3, 2024 — Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) today announced it has been selected as a winner of the 2024 Amazon Web Services (AWS) IMAGINE Grant, a public grant opportunity open to registered 501(c) nonprofit organizations in the United States who are using technology to solve the world’s most pressing challenges. The grant will enhance WCS’s MERMAID platform, accelerating use of cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools t...

New York, Nov. 26, 2024 – The New World screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax), eradicated from Central America, Mexico, and the U.S. over 30 years ago at an approximate cost of $800 million, is making a dangerous comeback. Illegal cattle trafficking has fueled the parasite’s rapid resurgence across Central America, with the recent confirmation of the first screwworm case in Mexico on November 23, 2024. In response, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has temporarily halted l...

Entre Ríos, Argentina, November 26, 2024 – The newly established Islas y Canales Verdes del Río Uruguay Natural Park represents a key milestone in global conservation, aligning with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and its '30x30' target to protect at least 30% of the planet by 2030. Spanning 4,006 hectares of wetlands, islands, riparian forests, and sandy beaches along the Uruguay River, this park is a beacon of collaborative and sustainable conservation efforts....

NEW YORK, NY, November 20, 2024 – The Wildlife Conservation Society issued the following statement regarding the new Scientific Opinion ‘One Health Governance in the European Union’ by the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors. WCS welcomes this scientific opinion by the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors (GCSA), which provides recommendations to support the successful implementation of European Union (EU) policies deriving from a One Health approach. This o...

BAKU, Azerbaijan (November 15, 2024)—Rio Tinto has committed $16 million to the Makira Natural Park REDD+ Project in northern Madagascar, through a new partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Everland. This commitment complements Rio Tinto’s investment in nature-based solutions in the south-east of the country.   The Makira Natural Park REDD+ Project encompasses 372,000 hectares of dense primary forest. One of the largest remaining rainforests in the...