Chicago Zoological Society

The Face of the Future
The Chicago Zoological Society’s long-term focus on animal well-being, education, science, and field work has helped to cement the organization as a world leader in conservation, ensuring that natural resources—including plants, animals, water, even whole ecosystems—will be available for future generations. The Center for Conservation Leadership expresses this leadership through a wide range of environmentally oriented programs and projects. Generally, conservation initiatives fall within three broad categories:

Creating Conservation Leaders
An investment in conservation leadership is an investment in the future. That’s why the Chicago Zoological Society places a high priority on developing and supporting conservation leaders of all ages and backgrounds. Our outreach efforts range from scientific discovery programs for toddlers and youth volunteer and internship opportunities for high school and college students to professional development and recognition programs for environmentally minded researchers and educators.

Protecting the Natural World
The Chicago Zoological Society has a long and continuing tradition of protecting, conserving, and managing threatened and endangered species. We have taken a leading role in evaluating threats to species survival and developing effective, long-term conservation programs through the Center for the Science of Animal Welfare to counter these threats.

Research is an important component of our conservation efforts, including groundbreaking dolphin studies, field work that promotes the protection of threatened and endangered species, technology-driven simulations of changes to ecosystems, and the interdisciplinary study of Conservation Psychology that examines the motivational forces that encourage humans to value the natural world and engage in more sustainable behaviors.

Conservation Outreach and Education in the Greater Chicago Region 
We believe that conservation starts at home, which is why we place a high priority on outreach and education programs in the Greater Chicago area. The Society is a founding member of Chicago Wilderness—an alliance of nearly 230 public and private organizations working together to protect, restore, study, and manage natural ecosystems in the Chicago region—and helped to establish the Chicagoland Environmental Network. Our regional conservation efforts also extend to the protection of the Great Lakes, perhaps the region’s most significant and endangered natural resource.

Training for Release Into Wild

Endangered Wolf Part of Recovery Efforts

With only 58 Mexican gray wolves living in the wild in New Mexico and Arizona, a 4½-year-old female Mexican gray wolf is leaving Brookfield Zoo, which is managed by the Chicago Zoological Society, to prepare to enter the wild. The release to the wild would help bolster the population of this endangered species.
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