Archive
Caring for Andean bears at the San Diego Zoo leads to remarkable breakthroughs that support conservation of the species worldwide.
Latest Genomic Research Offers a Unique Lens for Understanding the Extinction Crisis in Hawai‘i
Five years after the Australian fires, we’re protecting koalas against future crises.
Tracing Retrovirus through the Generations for Conservation and Health
If it looks like a duck, swims like an otter, and lays eggs, it's the platypus! Get an in-depth look at this freshwater-loving mammal.
Technology is making a powerful difference in the world of conservation, and our teams are at the forefront.
SAN DIEGO (Jan. 9, 2024) – To apply cutting-edge technology to the conservation of koalas, San Diego Wildlife Alliance is partnering with Illumina, a leading genomic sequencing technology company, through the Illumina iConserve program to sequence the whole genomes (an individual’s complete set of DNA) of nearly 100 koalas residing in North America over the past 30 years. Whole genome sequencing is integral to learning more about Koala Retrovirus, KoRV – a virus that can insert into the koala genome and is associated with various health issues in koalas including immunosuppression and cancer.
SAN DIEGO (Nov. 30, 2023) – Scientists at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance have achieved a major milestone in saving wildlife species: With a blue-eyed black lemur’s cells recently added to its Wildlife Biodiversity Bank’s Frozen Zoo®, the nonprofit conservation organization’s unique collection of genetic material now contains 11,00o individual cell lines from more than 1,250 species and subspecies—some critically endangered. No other biobank in the world has a comparable number of living cell lines, with the potential to reverse losses of genetic diversity and contribute to population sustainability for endangered and threatened wildlife species.
Biodiversity banking is a critical component of conservation, and the need for it is more urgent than ever.