2024 Summer Appeal supporting Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo
2024 Summer Appeal supporting Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo
How Your Support Makes a Difference
Your generous donation ensures our ability to care for all of these important animals — to save and preserve their future, and educate our community in the process.
Contributions, of any amount, help us maintain the important work happening here at the zoo. From excellent animal care and conservation to engaging guest experiences and public education, we rely on your help to implement our important mission.
Please send what you can to ensure the continued care and protection of some of the most vulnerable species on the planet.
At the Rosamond Gifford Zoo, our skilled animal specialists don’t just provide care for the animals entrusted to us – they help these animals live their best lives, and also contribute offspring to their sometimes precarious populations.
It is not uncommon for newborn animals to require special care. Thanks to the generous support of our community, the Friends of the Zoo were able to get state-of-the-art equipment for the Animal Health Center, complete with its own animal Intensive Care Unit. Since its completion, this facility has already proven vital for several animals.
In April and May of this year, patas monkeys Iniko and Kasi gave birth to healthy babies – but neither demonstrate the maternal behaviors necessary to care for their new offspring.
This behavior is often observed in the wild, so their care team was already observing both mothers to see if they would need help. After careful consideration, the care specialists and the zoo’s veterinarian determined the best path forward for the patas babies would be to hand-raise them. This is a process that our zoo team has unique experience with; in 2020, zoo specialists hand-reared Iniko after her mother died during Iniko’s delivery. Now, the patas babies are receiving top-notch care in the Animal Health Center.
The Animal Health Center isn’t just for hand-raising animal babies; when Amur tiger mother Zeya gave birth to cubs Zuzaan and Coba last April, she immediately connected with her cubs and has since been an exceptional mother to both. The Amur tiger, though, is considered Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), so the wellbeing of the little tiger cubs was of the utmost importance.
Thanks to the Animal Health Center, furnished by donations from our zoo family, our staff had the necessary equipment to perform health examinations on Zuzaan and Coba.
We were even able to share live video in the Animal Health Center of Zeya and the cubs in their den. This diligent care set up both cubs for successful, healthy lives – and since then, the cubs are nearly full-grown, spending their days chasing each other, lounging in their pool, or snoozing on their platforms in their exhibit along the Wildlife Trail.
Outside of the Animal Health Center, our animal specialists still employ extensive equipment to safeguard the health of our animals.
When Asian elephant Mali made history by giving birth to twins Yaad and Tukada, our caretakers responded to the unprecedented situation by relying on their training and their supplies to take necessary action for Tukada.
When he was born, the little calf’s body temperature was low, and he was too weak to suckle from his mother. So, his caretakers helped warm him with a blanket, and supplemented him with a special elephant milk formula for his first week of life until he eventually learned how to nurse from Mali.
By graciously giving to our zoo, you provide us with the ability to rise to these significant occasions and safeguard the next generation of species – especially those threatened by extinction.
Your consistent support helps us to provide zoo caretakers with the technology and equipment to make miracles happen.
Together, we can continue to pursue our ongoing conservation mission.
Please give today.
Always grateful,
Carrie Large
Executive Director
Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo