What happening at AZA-accredited Zoos and Aquariums?

Spring 2008 Newsletter
Bountiful Birds, Sustainable Seafood, Dances With Maned Wolves, and Where to See Red Pandas.

Summer 2008 Newsletter
Radical Reptiles, New Exhibits, Monitoring Butterflies, and Where to See Penguins.

Fall 2008 Newsletter
Precious Primates, Do You Want to Work at a Zoo or Aquarium?, Rescuing the Piping Plover, and Where to See Otters.

Connect with Conservation

Visit an AZA-Accredited Zoo or Aquarium

AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums are some of the best places for you and your family to get connected to conservation. Not only can you learn how to help protect endangered species and wildlife habitat, but you can also find out about recycling and energy conservation and other ways to help our planet.

Find an Accredited Zoo or Aquarium Near You

Visit your local AZA-accredited zoo or aquarium and see for yourself the extraordinary care, commitment and conservation that happens every day. You can find AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong, Bermuda, the Bahamas or Argentina. Search our online database to find one near you.

Do you know why these zoos and aquariums are in our database? Because they're accredited by AZA. Accreditation is proof positive that a zoo or aquarium is committed to the highest standards in animal care, ethics, conservation, and education. Learn more about AZA accreditation.

You can help!

Would you like to get involved? There are lots of things you can do:

Frogs are going extinct.

©Danté B. Fenolio

So are toads, salamanders, newts, and the intriguingly unusual caecilians. Like all wildlife, amphibians are threatened by habitat destruction, climate change, and pollution. Learn about the Top 8 Things You Can Do to Help Amphibians.

Can you survive the Call of the Wild?

WolfQuest is a exciting 3-D wildlife simulation game created by the Minnesota Zoo with funding from the National Science Foundation. Learn about wolf ecology by living the life of a wild wolf in Yellowstone National Park.

Play alone or with friends in on-line multiplayer missions, explore the wilderness, hunt elk, and encounter stranger wolves in your quest to find a mate.

Elephant Conservation

©Pittsburgh Zoo

Elephants in Africa and Asia face critical threats, including intense poaching, disease, predation, and dramatic loss of habitat. In the past 25 years in the wild, the African elephant population has fallen an average of more than 100 elephants each day. AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums are working worldwide – through our conservation, education and research programs – to save elephants. Read about AZA elephant conservation.

Wild animals do not make good pets.

It's wonderful to see exotic animals when you visit zoos and aquariums, but exotic animals don't belong in your house. If you're looking for a pet, you can take a personality text to find the best pet for you. (It could be a gerbil or a goldfish . . . but maybe it's an African millipede!). Learn why wild animals do not make good pets.

Animal Pictures

Take a look at our Conservation Snapshots and the winners of the Annual AZA Photo Contest. Amazing animals . . . and you'll learn what AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums are doing to save them in the wild.

Animals want to have fun, too.

Providing stimulating and interesting environments for animals in zoos and aquariums (called "enrichment") is an important part of the job for keepers and aquarists. Learn more about enrichment.

You'd rather be at the zoo, wouldn't you?

Unfortunately, you can't spend all of your time there, but you can make virtual visits to many AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums via their Web Cams. Go to the Web Cams.