SAN DIEGO (April 30, 2021) – This morning at the San Diego Zoo’s native pollinator garden, Mayor Todd Gloria (center) presented a proclamation—declaring May 1, 2021 Monarch Day in the city of San Diego—to Paul Baribault, President and Chief Executive Officer of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (left), and Paige Howorth, the McKinney Family Director of Invertebrate Care and Conservation (right). The monarch butterfly is a recognizable wildlife icon in Southern California and plays an important part in the local ecosystem as a pollinator of native plants.

A team of biologists—including members from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Endemic Environmental Services Inc., Citrus College and San Diego Zoo Global—worked together over the last couple of weeks to find and rescue the last remaining reproductively viable population of southwestern pond turtles (Actinemys pallida) in the San Gabriel Mountains.