One of the main missions of a modern zoo is supporting conservation in a variety of approaches. Of course, when most think of the zoo, they think of the animals. The operational aspects of a zoo are intended to remain mostly unseen and not necessarily a part of the guest experience. But somewhere between the two, the conservation efforts overlap both front and back of stage.

The conservation efforts for individual species are important for telling their stories and need to be out front as part of the zoo’s efforts to educate guests about their importance and share information on what they can do to help. The more operational efforts of the zoo’s efforts include areas like recycling or financially supporting the conservation work of other organizations. There are hands-on efforts such as installing pollinator gardens, sending staff to participate in field conservation efforts, and even leading citizen science efforts such as the FrogWatch program.

The zoo has supported conservation efforts for many years. Most past efforts have gone toward supporting both giraffe and okapi programs. Over the years, the zoo has also worked hard to generate funds for conservation efforts through dedicated events, by soliciting donations, and by selling conservation-related items in the zoo gift shop. In 2021, the zoo established a formal Conservation Committee made up of all staff interested in participating.

The committee was formed to create some structure to the conservation efforts as means to evaluate what the zoo should participate in and then which programs it could afford to actively participate in. When the committee began, everyone was so excited, and it seemed like there were so many new opportunities for the zoo to find new partners to share this enthusiasm. However, one of the goals set when the committee was established was to work toward self sufficiency for its conservation efforts. Currently, most of the conservation funds are generated through a 50/50 split with the Greater Minot Zoological Society for the giraffe feeding station and the animal feeders at the farmyard area. As you can imagine, this revenue is pretty seasonal.

As the committee developed and members recognized the budgetary limitations of supporting all the programs they would like to be a part of, new revenue ideas were presented to increase the conservation coffers and expand the efforts of the committee so that more programs could be included. Keepers offered their time to conduct behind-the-scenes tours in various approved areas, developed more interactive animal specific recognition days such as World Giraffe Day, and whatever else they could do to help the overall efforts.

While there are currently some signed commitments to a few conservation programs such as Penguin S.A.F.E. and the Okapi Conservation Project, others are less formal but just as important to the staff that care for the species that are represented by them. The structure of the committee is still somewhat new for the staff, as is learning the importance of budgetary constraints. But as the zoo moves forward the staff excitedly expects to expand the committee with non-staff participants and to continue to find more creative ways of raising funds to enable the zoo to expand its support for the community and the world we live in.