Wildlife Conservation Society
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The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) endeavors to save wildlife and wild lands though careful use of science, conservation around the world, education and through a system of urban wildlife parks.
The wildlife parks include the world-renowned Bronx Zoo, New York Aquarium, Central Park Zoo, Queens Zoo and Prospect Park Zoo.
According to WCS's website, its mission is:
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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. |
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[edit] History
The Wildlife Conservation Society traces its origin to April 26th, 1895 when New York State chartered the organization as the New York Zoological Society. As one of the first conservation organizations in the United States, WCS began with a clear mandate: advance wildlife conservation, promote the study of zoology, and create a first-class zoological park.
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.
WCS's flagship "New York Zoological Park" - the Bronx Zoo - 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. From private donors, WCS raised most of the funds for construction and operations. It also selected scientific and administrative leadership for the enterprise. This partnership of city government and cultural organization has endured and grown for more than 100 years.
Later, New York City again 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 Prospect Park Zoo in 1992 and the Queens Zoo in 1993.
[edit] Work on conservation of wildlife and wild places
Even before the Bronx Zoo opened its gates, WCS was at the forefront of conservation and field research. In the late nineteenth century Zoo Director William Hornaday 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. 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 zoo's first curator of birds, 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 the Grand Teton National Park in 1962.
In the late 1950's 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.
The conservation activities of the Bronx Zoo and WCS continued to expand under the leadership of William Conway, who became director of the 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.
[edit] Today
Today WCS is at work in 53 nations across Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America, protecting wild landscapes that are home to a vast variety of species from butterflies to tigers.
The current CEO of WCS is Dr. Steven E. Sanderson.
