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The Caribbean nation goes green to help clean up the damaged country

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Extreme Sports Facts

Check out our range of extreme sports facts.

Learn about the summer and winter X Games, different types of extreme sports, the surfaces and environments such as water, land, snow and air, as well as lots more interesting facts and information.

Extreme sports, sometimes called action sports or adventure sports, do not have an exact definition but are generally considered to be activities that are seen as having a high level of potential danger.

Extreme sports often involve high speeds, dangerous heights, the requirement for a high level of specialist technical skill, and highly specialized gear or equipment.

Success in extreme sports usually involves judging panels scoring athletes based on visual and technical criteria and completion of a 'trick'.

Height based extreme sports include Bungee jumping, skydiving, BASE jumping, paragliding and hang gliding.

Water based extreme sports include scuba diving, windsurfing, kitesurfing, wakeboarding surfing, whitewater kayaking and rafting.

Wheel based extreme sports include BMX, skateboarding, mountain biking, inline skating, rally car and motocross.

Winter based extreme sports include skiing, snowboarding, and snowmobile.

Cliff and cave based extreme sports include rock climbing, ice climbing, caving, free diving, mountaineering and cave diving.

The X Games are an annual extreme sports event, organized by the U.S. sports broadcaster ESPN. Participants compete to win gold, silver, and bronze medals along with prize money.

The first Summer X Games were held in 1995 in Newport, Rhode Island. The first Winter X Games were held in 1997 at Mountain Resort, Big Bear Lake, California.

X Games are typically held in the USA. The winter games are held in January or February and the summer games are usually held in August.

X Games have also been held in Asia since 1998 and Europe since 2010.

The X Games competitions often makes heroes of those athletes who are talented and brave enough to pull of a new and exciting 'trick' such as Tony Hawk's 900 in skateboarding, Travis Pastrana's double backflip in freestyle motocross, Heath Frisby's first snowmobile front flip or snowboarder Torstein Horgmo's triple flip.

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Extreme Sports Facts - Information About X Games, Action Sports & More

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Extreme Sports Facts Check out our range of extreme sports facts. Learn about the summer and winter X Games, different types of extreme sports, the surfaces and environments such as water, land, snow and air, as well as lots more interesting facts and information.

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By Natalie Smith

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Explore National Geographic. A world leader in geography, cartography and exploration.

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Why Is Everyone Worried About
Global Warming?

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Why Is Everyone Worried About
Global Warming?

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Toronto is banning plastic shopping bags in stores.

Starting in January 2013, you'll have to bring your own reusable bag to the store to cart your goods away.

More than 250 million bags end up in landfill every year, never breaking down into compost, according to a report by CBC News.

Plastic bags can also clog drainage systems and, when they are washed out to sea, can hurt fish and other marine animals.

Plastic bags are banned or restricted in about a quarter of the countries in the world, according to online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

Countries including Italy and South Africa have banned plastic bags. Many large cities have also banned them.

Toronto currently charges five cents per bag-for instance, for people who want a plastic bag to carry their groceries home.

The five-cent fee was put in place to discourage people from using the non-environmentally friendly product. Instead, people are encouraged to bring their own reusable bags to stores.

After Ireland put a fee on plastic bags in 2002, 90 per cent fewer bags were used. In 2010 Washington D.C. began charging five cents per plastic bag and that city's consumption of them went down from 22.5 million to three million in the first month.

In Toronto, the plastic bag fee has cut down on the number of plastic bags used by half, according to Metro newspaper.

A ban was not exactly what Toronto mayor Rob Ford had in mind when he brought up the subject at City Council on Wednesday. In fact, he wanted to end the five-cent fee on bags.

However, Councillor David Shiner proposed a very different motion. He suggested Toronto do away with plastic bags altogether.

That motion passed, 24 to 20. Starting on Jan. 1, 2013, retailers in Toronto will not be allowed to give out or sell any plastic shopping bags, including ones that claim to be "compostable or biodegradable."

According to Metro, "Ford appeared upset after the vote, blinking rapidly." Ford said council's decision didn't make any sense, and said he felt the motion will be overturned.

Council also voted to stop the five-cent fee for plastic bags, from July 1 until the ban takes effect. That means stores will be able to hand out plastic bags free in Toronto for six months.

Ford later told a news radio station that he would like to see Torontonians come down to City Hall to protest the ban. He said he thinks the ban is the dumbest thing Toronto council has ever done.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Jonathan Tilly

Writing/Discussion Prompt
What do you think should be done about plastic bags. Should they be free of charge, cost 5 cents, or be banned altogether. Make a jot list of reasons to support your answer.

Reading Prompt: Purpose
Use the information in today's article to write a letter to Toronto's City Counsel. OK, now go ahead... and send send it. Let them know what you think!

Primary, Junior, & Intermediate
Identify a variety of purposes for reading and choose reading materials appropriate for those purposes (OME, Reading: 1.2).

Grammar Feature: Verbs
Verbs are action words. Every sentence includes at least one verb. The verbs authors choose help readers understand the text. Underline the "key" verbs in today's story that help you understand it. How do these verbs affect your understanding?

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Mayor Ford is furious that Toronto's city council voted to ban all plastic bags in 2013. Read the facts and form your own opinion! Kids News

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Unsightly plastic bottles, bags and other trash give just a hint of the largely unseen problem of plastic pollution. Scientists have found tiny bits of it throughout the ocean. The bad news: Sea life can’t tell the difference between plastic and food.

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Paper or Plastic: Which Bags Hurt the Environment More?

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News Analysis

IN my New York City apartment, the kitchen drawers, the coat closet, even the wine rack are overflowing with a type of waste that is rapidly disappearing elsewhere - the used plastic shopping bag.

Many countries and a handful of American cities have more or less done away with this supposed convenience item, by discouraging its use through plastic-bag taxes at checkout counters or outright bans. Walk down the streets of Dublin or Seattle or San Francisco and there is barely a bag in sight. Life continues.

"It didn't take people very long to accommodate at all," said Dick Lilly, manager for waste prevention in Seattle, where a plastic-bag ban took effect last summer. "Basically overnight those grocery and drugstore bags were gone."

But in much of America we seem more addicted than ever. On a recent shopping trip to Target in Chicago for some dorm supplies while visiting my son, I emerged with what seemed to be more bags than socks or rolls of toilet paper (only a slight exaggeration). At my local supermarket, plastic bags are applied layer upon layer around purchases, like Russian nesting dolls.

"Plastic shopping bags are an enormous problem for New York City," said Ron Gonen, the deputy commissioner of sanitation for recycling and waste reduction, noting that the city pays $10 million annually to send 100,000 tons of plastic bags that are tossed in the general trash to landfills in South Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania. That, he points out, "is amazing to think of, because a plastic bag doesn't weigh much at all."

All across the country, plastic bags are the bane of recycling programs. When carelessly placed into recycling bins for general plastic - which they often are - the bags jam and damage expensive sorting machines, which cost huge amounts to repair.

"We have to get people to start carrying reusable bags," Mr. Gonen said. "We're going to do what we can to start moving the needle."

"The question," he continued, "is do we use a carrot or a stick to change behavior?"

So far New York has used carrots, to little effect. (More about that later.) Unfortunately, most experts believe it will take a stiff stick to break a habit as ingrained as this one is in the United States. (In many European countries, like France and Italy, the plastic bag thing never fully caught on.)

In my case, I know I should bring a cloth bag along for shopping trips. And I do - when I remember. But experience shows that even environmentally conscious people need prodding and incentives to change their behavior permanently.

Image

Credit David Goldman for The New York Times

Where they exist, bans and charges or taxes (when set high enough) have been extremely successful and often raise revenue for other environmental projects. Unfortunately, these tactics are deeply unpopular in most of the nation.

After Austin, Tex., passed a bag ban earlier this year and with Dallas considering one, State Representative Drew Springer, a Republican, introduced the Shopping Bag Freedom Act in the Legislature. That act essentially bans bag bans, protecting the right of merchants to provide bags of any material to customers.

Businesses often fight hard against plastic-bag laws. When in 2007, Seattle first tried to impose a fee of 20 cents for each plastic bag, the American Chemistry Council financed a popular referendum that voted down the "bag tax," before it even took effect, Mr. Lilly said.

It took several more years for the city to regroup and impose its current ban. Plastic shopping bags are forbidden in stores, and though paper bags may be used, each one costs the shopper 5 cents. (There are exemptions, however: restaurants managed to secure one for takeout food, for example.)

A number of states are considering some form of statewide bans or taxes. And last month, Representative James P. Moran, Democrat of Virginia, introduced a bill to create a national 5-cent tax on all disposable plastic or paper bags provided by stores to customers. Some of the revenue would be used to create a Disposable Carryout Bag Trust Fund and to maintain national parks.

Actually, the idea of a bag tax may not seem so foreign to federal lawmakers: for the past three years, Washington has had its own 5-cent tax. Although bag use there dropped sharply, many experts feel that the charge should be even higher. In Ireland, for example, the bag tax is about 30 cents per bag.

By any measure, New Yorkers are laggards on the issue. In 2008, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg tried unsuccessfully to pass a bag tax of 6 cents. More recently, New York State has preferred to attack the problem with soft diplomacy. Since 2009, large stores throughout the state providing plastic bags have been required to take them back for recycling. But there is not much enforcement, Mr. Gonen said, and the program "hasn't put a dent" in the numbers.

While the chain pharmacies and supermarkets in my neighborhood initially put out recycling bins for the bags, they have largely disappeared. Some stores will begrudgingly take back plastic at the sales counter - though I've seen the bags subsequently tossed in the trash. (Though plastic bags can be recycled, they must be separated from other forms of plastic.) The Bloomberg administration is also considering partnering with supermarkets to create incentive programs with shopping points awarded to those who bring reusable bags.

Frank Convery, an economist at University College, Dublin, who has studied the effects of Ireland's 10-year-old bag tax - the first in the world - is skeptical: "As regards the plastic bag issue, whatever is done has to be mandatory," he said. "The New York model is designed to fail."

Mr. Gonen said cities got a lot of complaints about plastic bags. So why wouldn't that inspire more of them to take action? It is another paradox of environmental politics - just as when New Yorkers show strong support for a bike-sharing plan but protest when bike-sharing racks appear on their sidewalk.

In a city where dog owners are forced to pick up their pets' waste and are precluded from smoking in parks, why is it so hard to get people to employ reusable bags for shopping?

Correction:

A news analysis article last Sunday misstated the name of a trade association that has opposed efforts to tax plastic bags. It is the American Chemistry Council, not the American Chemical Council.

Elisabeth Rosenthal is a reporter on the environment and health for The New York Times.

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News Analysis IN my New York City apartment, the kitchen drawers, the coat closet, even the wine rack are overflowing with a type of waste that is rapidly disappearing elsewhere - the used plastic shopping bag.

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Paying Extra For a Plastic Bag for Your Groceries

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Paying Extra For a Plastic Bag for Your Groceries

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Re " Ten Cents a Bag? That's About Right " (editorial, April 8):

I must contend there is very little right about this bill before the New York City Council. While the ultimate goal of the bill - to sharply decrease the number of plastic bags used in New York City's retail and grocery stores - is a virtuous one, the means are far too harsh on residents to justify the end. To ask New York City residents, who already suffer with some of the highest taxes in the country, to pay 10 cents per bag (which for a family could easily amount to an extra $3 or $4 a week) is imprudent.

Although residents on food stamps will not be subjected to the charge, this does not exempt thousands of other New Yorkers who are struggling just to get by - not to mention senior citizens. For them, a few dollars a week could make a difference, and I for one do not believe that they should have to spend it on plastic bags.

That is why I am looking into alternative legislation to reduce plastic bag consumption, including offering a small discount to shoppers who bring their own bags (which some supermarkets already do) and a recycling program similar to the one for bottles.

We all know that these bags are harmful and need to go, but New Yorkers should not be the ones holding the bill at checkout time.

JAMES VACCA
Bronx, April 8, 2014
The writer is a City Council member. To the Editor:
Your editorial recommending passage of a bill imposing a charge for plastic bags ignores the hundreds of thousands of high-rise apartment dwellers for whom this will constitute an unwanted and unwarranted tax. How will we dump kitty litter? How will we dispose of garbage down the chute? Are the apartment buildings really ready for raw garbage going down the incinerator chutes as residents avoid another 10 cents?

Food stores often put packaged chicken in a plastic bag to keep it from contaminating fresh vegetables. How will this work? How many separate reusable bags will have to be used per shopping trip?

Food is expensive enough without the addition of 10 cents a bag, which will add up to a significant sum over a year of grocery shopping.

JANE E. COLVIN
New York, April 8, 2014

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Opinion | Paying Extra for a Plastic Bag for Your Groceries

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Re " Ten Cents a Bag? That's About Right " (editorial, April 8): I must contend there is very little right about this bill before the New York City Council.

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The Extreme Sports Addiction [Infographic]

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"The more fearful a certain sport makes you, the greater the release of chemicals. The greater the release of these chemicals, the greater the addiction-like symptoms." -Dr. Marvin Zuckerman, Professor Emeritus, University of Delaware CHASING THE HIGH WHAT IS THE E TREME SPORTS ADDICTION?

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Overconfidence and a lack of training and a habit of not wearing safety gear, especially helmets, help cause more than 40,000 head and neck injuries nationally a year in sports like skateboarding.

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The Nashville Zoo was pitched a new idea for an exhibit, thanks to 19 Williamson County high school students.

The students, who are involved in the ACE (architecture, construction or engineering) Mentor Program, presented the plan for a native Tennessee wildlife exhibit to Dale McGinnity, curator of Ectotherms, at the Nashville Zoo on April 22.

"If the Zoo goes forward with their concept, the thinking these young professionals-to-be have done, as well as the detailed preliminary narratives, site plans and 3-D model they've created, will hopefully help better refine the educational exhibit and aid in securing the funds necessary to build it," team leader Brittany Shepherd, an estimating engineer with Turner Construction Company and representative of the Nashville ACE affiliate, said in a prepared statement.

The Tennessee Aquatic Conservation Center would provide a look at the state's wildlife before European immigrants arrived and focus on endangered species. It would also include a facility for breeding and scientific studies, and be open for patrons to view.

The team included Lukas Barr, Jonathon Cole, Ryley Fodra, Stedman Howard, Claudia Santiago, Elijah Slaughter, Seth Thomason and Cross Yang of Independence High School; Nicholas Buhl, A.J. Fekete and William Woods of Centennial High School; Matthew Crispi of Summit High School; Lillian Powell of Page High School; and Jack Butler, Kyra Frank, Jacob Hunter, Francis Nunez, Austin Pytleski and Matthew Yeomans of Franklin High School.

Mentor companies were Turner Construction, Envision Advantage, Johnson Johnson Crabtree Architects, Littlejohn and Stanley D. Lindsey & Associates.

For more information about the ACE Mentor Program, visit www.acementor.org.

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Williamson high school students pitch exhibit to zoo

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The Nashville Zoo was pitched a new idea for an exhibit, thanks to 19 Williamson County high school students. The students, who are involved in the ACE (architecture, construction or engineering) Mentor Program, presented the plan for a native Tennessee wildlife exhibit to Dale McGinnity, curator of Ectotherms, at the Nashville Zoo on April 22.

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Costa Rica To Close Its Zoos And Release Animals Into The Wild

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Many products featured on this site were editorially chosen. Popular Science may receive financial compensation for products purchased through this site.

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Reintroduction programs, by which animals raised or rehabilitated in AZA-accredited zoos or aquariums are released into their natural habitats, are powerful tools used for stabilizing, reestablishing, or increasing in-situ animal populations that have suffered significant declines. Reintroductions may include animals that have spent some of their early life-stages being cared for in a "headstart" program that gives them a greater chance of survival than those born in the wild, those brought in for rehabilitation from illness or injury, those moved from one area for release elsewhere, or those that are offspring of animals that have had several generations cared for by AZA-accredited institutions.

Examples of AZA Reintroduction Programs

Asian wild horse: Equus ferus przewalskii, also known as takhi and Przewalski's horse, roamed the grassland steppes of Europe and Asia for millennia. But by the late 1960's, it was driven to extinction in the wild due to human persecution, grazing competition, and high mortality from harsh winters. Over the next several decades, zoos worldwide bred rescued individuals and worked with in-country partners to reintroduce the descendants back to the wild. Today, there are more than 500 Asian wild horses running free in Mongolia and China. In 2014, the Asian Wild Horse SSP launched the True Wild Horse Initiative to support in situ research and conservation efforts for Asian wild horses.

Black-footed Ferrets: In 1987, 18 of the remaining black-footed ferrets were placed into the care of AZA-accredited institutions as well as partner organizations and agencies. Due to the efforts of the AZA Black-footed Ferret SSP Program and their partners, these animals have successfully reproduced and thousands have been reintroduced into their historic range since 1991. Learn more about this species' road to recovery.

California Condors: In 1982, only 22 California condors existed in the wild. Conservation breeding and management of these animals in AZA-accredited institutions, overseen by the California Condor SSP, increased this population to almost 200 birds within 20 years. By 2014, their population totaled 425 animals, including 219 living in the wild. To learn more about the condor's ex-situ rearing efforts visit the San Diego Zoo website. Visit the USFWS Endangered Species Program to view a video of this success story.

Ohio River Basin Freshwater Mussels: Freshwater mussels are an imperiled group of North American animals with an estimated 43% of the species found in the Ohio River basin. In 2001, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, the Wilds, Ohio State University, Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department founded the Freshwater Mussel Conservation and Research Center. This Center has developed innovative conservation methods which have yielded the exceptional propagation, culture, translocation, and reintroduction of numerous state and federally listed freshwater mussel species back into Ohio's streams, rivers, and lakes.

Golden Lion Tamarin: In 2003, the previously Critically Endangered golden lion tamarin was downlisted by the IUCN to Endangered after nearly thirty years of conservation efforts involving the Golden Lion Tamarin Conservation Program (GLTCP) at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park and the Associação Mico-Leao-Dourado in Rio de Janeiro. New populations were established in Brazil's União Biological Reserve through the translocation of 47 individuals in six isolated groups from their original isolated habitats. This reintroduction program has also contributed to the protection of 3,100 hectares of forests within the tamarins' range.

Karner Blue Butterfly: While healthy populations of the federally endangered Karner blue butterfly remain in a handful of its historic range states, the species disappeared from Ohio in 1992. In 1998, the Toledo Zoological Gardens became the first institution to breed the Karner blue butterfly for reintroduction into the wild at restored sites and later offered assistance to the Detroit Zoological Park with releasing butterflies to a site in southeast Michigan.

Oregon Spotted Frog: In 2014, the Oregon spotted frog was listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act, after having been lost from almost 80% of its historic range. The Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre, working with the Oregon Spotted Frog Recovery Team in Canada on a headstart program, bred this species for the first time in 2010 and released tadpoles and metamorphs into native habitat. Other partners, led by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, are engaged in its recovery in the United States, including the Oregon Zoo, Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, and Woodland Park Zoo.

Palila: The palila is an endangered Hawaiian honeycreeper species that has suffered population declines due to the destruction of the dry forests it inhabits. Efforts to expand the palila population back to its historic range at Pu'u Mali have included successful releases of birds bred at the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center as part of the Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program run by San Diego Zoo Global, as well translocation of wild birds by the US Geological Survey.

Red Wolf: Red wolf populations had declined significantly by the 1960s due to intensive predator control programs and loss of habitat. 14 wolves out of a remnant population found along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana became the founders of a successful breeding program involving AZA-accredited institutions and the AZA Red Wolf SSP.

Wyoming Toad: The Wyoming toad was officially classified as Extinct in the Wild in 1994, when only one ex-situ population remained. This population was brought into the care of AZA-accredited institutions and, under the supervision of the Wyoming Toad SSP, it successfully managed to produce tadpoles and toadlets that continue to be reintroduced into the wild. AZA institutions and their partners continue to conduct regular releases of this species, as wild populations of the Wyoming toad are not yet self-sustaining.

More Reintroduction Projects

To learn about other reintroduction projects AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums are studying, developing, or conducting, explore the Conservation and Research Database. For reintroduction-related research projects, select "Research" as the project category, "Species and/or Habitat Conservation" as the keyword category, and "Reintroduction and Translocation" as the keyword. For field projects, select "Field Conservation" as the project category, "Ex Situ-Related" as the keyword category, and "Reintroduction" as the keyword.

Reintroduction-related Resources

AZA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Species Survival Commission (IUCN/SSC) play key roles in advancing the science of reintroduction programs in which AZA Animal Programs or its accredited institutions participate. Numerous reference materials and tools have been developed to advance the science and success of reintroductions.

AZA Guidelines for Reintroduction of Animals

AZA asserts that the scientific and ethical complexity of reintroduction necessitates guidelines for those who plan, conduct, fund, regulate and publicize reintroductions and in 1992 developed a bibliography that identified a variety of documents addressing reintroduction guidelines. These guidelines are often contradictory and AZA has suggested that sincere consideration be given to all bibliographic sources and guidelines during the planning stages of reintroduction, and that reintroduction be regarded as science, with surveys of the pertinent literature, interdisciplinary participation, formulation of testable hypotheses and goals, thorough documentation, rapid publication of results, and review of the program by independent referees be incorporated. Read more about the AZA Guidelines for Reintroduction of Animals.

IUCN/SSC Reintroduction Specialist Group

The Reintroduction Specialist Group (RSG) promotes the reintroduction of viable populations of animals and plants back to their natural ecosystems, contributing to conservation efforts worldwide. The RSG manages a network of global voluntary members to provide reintroduction practitioners with tools such as reintroduction guidelines, networking resources, and publications to provide a means for distributing information on reintroduction projects. Practitioners are encouraged to explore the RSG's website for the most current resources about reintroduction and other conservation translocation efforts.

Avian Reintroduction and Translocation Database

In 2008, Lincoln Park Zoological Gardens established an Avian Reintroduction and Translocation Database (ARTD) to centralize information about the avian species, release sites, and release events that take place around the world. The database describes every aspect of the reintroduction effort for each species including the variables that impact the efficacy of releases, species biology and ecology, habitat suitability, demography, and genetics.

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Reintroduction programs, by which animals raised or rehabilitated in AZA-accredited zoos or aquariums are released into their natural habitats, are powerful tools used for stabilizing, reestablishing, or increasing in-situ animal populations that have suffered significant declines.

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Why Zoos Matter

We at the Saint Louis Zoo are passionate about the work we do. We not only care about the work we're doing, we are fostering animals that are threatened or endangered and supporting their perpetuation into the future.

Making a Difference

The world around us is changing fast. Species of wildlife are facing global extinction on a massive scale. About 41 percent of all amphibian species and 26 percent of all mammals are now threatened with extinction, and fully half of the world's primates - our closest relatives - teeter on the edge of existence. We face the loss of one in eight of all bird species. Overall, the extinction rate has increased a hundred-fold over the last century, and today we estimate that over 18,000 species face oblivion. Zoos are in a unique position to make a difference. Zoos are focused on offering the very best possible nutrition, enrichment and environment for animals in their care.

The many committed people at zoos care deeply about animals, working with an incredible variety of species, from one-celled creatures to elephants. Our research on behavior, reproductive biology, nutrition, animal health and genetics is valuable to wildlife managers, field researchers and other scientists.

For example, the Saint Louis Zoo has been doing a mother/infant bonding study with antelope and other hoofed animals at Red Rocks for 14 years. The data we've gathered - how often and when a species typically nurses, who initiates nursing, proximity, grooming, nuzzling - has provided information to field researchers that would be hard to come by otherwise.

We are animal experts

Zoo professionals are experts on breeding small populations of endangered species. That knowledge, too, has become valuable to scientists working with wildlife populations. Nowadays animals in wild habitats are often found in small, fragmented groups because of agriculture, logging or other human activity.

We collaborate with organizations worldwide on conservation breeding, habitat preservation, community development, public education and research.

Explore our conservation efforts

From Fence to Field

In 2004, the Saint Louis Zoo established the WildCare Institute to work in conservation hotspots locally and around the globe.

From Forest Park and Missouri streams to the Horn of Africa or the coastline of Peru, the Zoo is taking a holistic approach to wildlife conservation. While the Zoo has been involved in helping save endangered species for decades, our goal today is create a sustainable future for wildlife and for people around the world. Ultimately, we need to help save the ecosystems on which animals and humans depend. WildCare Institute addresses three key ingredients in conservation success: wildlife management and recovery, conservation science, and support of the human populations that coexist with wildlife.

Connecting people to animals

People learn at zoos. They learn in our formal classes, lectures, camps, teacher workshops, distance learning, zoo tours, overnights and outreach programs. Informally they learn from keeper chats, docent volunteers, interpreters, signage and special exhibits. Most important, they learn from observing zoo animals.

On a scale of 1 to 10, our visitors rate their educational experience at the Saint Louis Zoo as a 9.1.

Unique Experiences.

Zoos are a place where families can have unique experiences together every time they visit. Today's families are more conscious than ever of the need to teach their children about the natural world and respect for living creatures.

Why do people come to the zoo?

Why do zoos matter?

Because we care.

We want to keep this planet's amazing wildlife around for future generations.

Donate to our Conservation Fund

If you'd like to contribute financially to our conservation efforts, you can make a donation through the Saint Louis Zoo.

Learn more

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The Saint Louis Zoo is dedicated to saving species and bringing people and wildlife together. Home to over 16,000 animals, many of which are endangered, entry is free every day for everyone, an important part of our commitment to people and animals - always.

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Kids Take a Stand Against Animal Captivity 

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Kids Take a Stand Against Animal Captivity 

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8 Ways to Tell a REAL Sanctuary From a Roadside Zoo | PETA Kids

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Roadside zoo or animal sanctuary? This list will explain the difference—so you can figure out if a place is hurting or helping animals.

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Teachers' #1 Choice for Current, On-Level Nonfiction

Over 6 million students read Scholastic News every week! See why so many teachers rely on this exceptional magazine to engage their students, build nonfiction-reading skills, and increase content-area knowledge.

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Teachers' #1 Choice for Current, On-Level Nonfiction Over 6 million students read Scholastic News every week! See why so many teachers rely on this exceptional magazine to engage their students, build nonfiction-reading skills, and increase content-area knowledge.

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Animals in Entertainment: Circuses, SeaWorld, and Beyond | PETA

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Animals in entertainment suffer immensely. Find out how PETA is putting an end to elephant rides, horseraces, roadside zoos, and safari parks.

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Slopestyle can be dangerous. But is it
too risky at Sochi Olympics?

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Slopestyle can be dangerous. But is it
too risky at Sochi Olympics?