San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA) is a conservation organization committed to saving wildlife worldwide. We strive to be the most effective wildlife conservation organization for the world by combining our skills and expertise in conservation science, wildlife health, wildlife care, and education and outreach.
A Hopeful Beginning
In 2025, SDZWA will celebrate 50 years of renowned conservation science work, initiated by Dr. Kurt Benirschke when he established the SDZWA’s research department in 1975. This research department later became the Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species (CRES) and home of the biological sample repository now known as the Frozen Zoo. But SDZWA’s commitment to wildlife conservation and scientific research can be traced back to our founder, Dr. Harry Wegeforth, who was a physician and advocate of science. A research committee was established as early as 1925, and the award-winning Zoological Hospital and Biological Research Institute (now known as the Scripps building) opened in 1927. In 1929, we became one of the first zoos to hire a staff veterinarian. A veterinary pathologist was added in 1964, paving the way for the systematic study of the health of wildlife in our care.
Thinking ahead: Dr. Kurt Benirschke’s foresight about science’s role in conservation led to the establishment of the San Diego Zoo’s research department in 1975, which included the biological sample repository now known as the Frozen Zoo.
Expanding Horizons
Our organization has always been committed to being more than a place to experience wildlife from around the world. We study wildlife in our care and use the knowledge gained to both improve our procedures and establish self-sustaining populations. For the first 20 years (1975–1995) there was an emphasis on learning more about the behavior, physiology, disease resistance, and genetics of endangered species, with the goal of improving animal reproduction, health, and well-being. A few examples include the use of noninvasive techniques for hormone monitoring in black rhinos, sex determination in California condors from a drop of blood, management strategies for breeding solitary species such as cheetahs, paternity testing in gorillas, and the veterinary management of malignant catarrhal fever in wildebeest. Bringing scientists from different disciplines together to solve problems is the essence of our conservation work.
Over the next 25 years (1995–2020), the conservation challenges and research questions became more complex as the rate of human-caused species extinction increased dramatically. The skills and expertise of our team broadened to better meet this evolving need. I joined the organization in 2001 as a clinical veterinarian and was able to witness this evolution firsthand.
The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for Conservation Research opened in 2004 and became the new headquarters for our work. We changed the name from CRES to the Institute of Conservation Research. And we expanded our focus to preventing the extinction of plants as well as animals. We leveraged our knowledge of the species in our care and applied it to the conservation of wildlife in their native habitats. In 1996, we received our first pair of giant pandas and began a very comprehensive breeding and research program that eventually helped improve the status of pandas in China. We initiated or expanded multiple species propagation and release programs, including for San Clemente Island loggerhead shrikes, Hawaiian forest birds, Pacific pocket mice, mountain yellow-legged frogs, and Torrey pines. We took over the management of the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center in Las Vegas, Nevada; the California condor program in Baja, Mexico; and the Stiefel-Behner Cocha Cashu Biological Station in Manú National Park, Peru. We designed headstarting programs to improve survival of endangered Caribbean iguanas and desert tortoises. We engaged in polar bear conservation work supported by advances in conservation technology. We began offering conservation education programs to local high school students, hosted teacher training workshops, and launched a master’s degree program called the Advanced Inquiry Program in collaboration with Miami University. We also began community-based conservation work in Cameroon and northern Kenya.
Bank on it: (Clockwise, from top left) Microscope slides of very thin tissues sections are part of our non-living biomaterials collection and are useful for disease investigations. A variety of plant and animal biomaterials are held in SDZWA”s Wildlife Biodiversity Bank. A seed being processed prior to banking.
Banking on the Future
While our conservation activities were evolving and expanding, so too was our Frozen Zoo, an irreplaceable biodiversity bank increasing in significance as the fields of genetic rescue and synthetic biology advance. With the establishment of the Frozen Zoo, SDZWA has been at the forefront of biodiversity banking since 1975. Living cell lines stored in this bank have been instrumental in bringing back valuable genetic diversity to the endangered black-footed ferret and Przewalski’s horse populations, increasing the odds of their species’ survival. Genetic rescue and advanced reproductive technologies utilizing samples preserved decades ago may be key to increasing the genetic diversity of white rhino populations in Africa.
Working Together
In recognizing the scope and complexity of these global challenges, we know that we cannot do this important work alone. As an Alliance, we cultivate collaborative partnerships that amplify our impact. By prioritizing collaborations with motivated organizations and combining our expertise, we commit to projects that engage, respect, and benefit local communities and their heritage; enhance capacity and local leadership opportunities; support human-wildlife coexistence; promote healthy ecosystems; and meaningfully contribute to the equitable and sustainable management of the biodiversity upon which so many lives depend.
SDZWA is committed to working together to advance biobanking and to safe-guard biodiversity on a global scale. In 2023, we partnered with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission to form the Center for Species Survival: Biodiversity Banking, which aims to catalyze conservation action, collaboration, and communication. As the Center for Species Survival: Biodiversity Banking, SDZWA is a global leader in cultivating a network of conservation practitioners engaged in biodiversity banking. I am so proud of the history of our organization and the invaluable contributions we have made over many decades. I am fortunate to lead an incredible team of scientists, wildlife health professionals, and conservation practitioners, and am excited about our current direction and future contributions to nature and people. Our work, and the work of zoos and aquariums around the world, contributes to larger global initiatives (such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals) that aim to restore biodiversity for a healthy, thriving planet. Working together, we can live in harmony with nature by 2050.
A new hope: Formerly extinct in the wild, the Przewalski’s horse has survived for the past 40 years almost entirely in zoos around the world, and all of the surviving horses are related to 12 Przewalski’s horses born in the wild. By reviving genetic diversity that was stored in San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Biodiversity Bank, conservationists hope to expand the strength of the species’ population.
