The Denver Zoo sponsors global research and conservation projects
Most visitors think they've left the Denver Zoo when they step through the turnstile at City Park, never imagining that its borders now stretch to a windswept park in Mongolia, the wetlands surrounding Lake Titicaca in Peru, and Botswana's Kalahari Desert.
"We are much more than the 80-acre footprint that we occupy in City Park," zoo veterinarian David Kenny said.
"The zoo is a venue for us to reach lots of people, but the field work is where we get to contribute in an up-close and personal way."
In 2011, the United Nations Development Programme designated the Denver Zoo's work in Mongolia's Ikh Nart Nature Reserve a "model program" for other global conservation efforts.
Ikh Nart consists of about 160,000 acres in central Mongolia, on the edge of the Gobi Desert. At 4,000 feet high, Ikh Nart looks a lot like the eastern plains of Wyoming — vast, dry grasslands punctuated by rocky outcrops.
On those rocks, cinereous vultures, enormous birds that weigh about 18 to 21 pounds each, make huge nests so sturdy they can support an adult man. Durian and long-eared hedgehogs live inside the rock crevices. So does the Pallas' coluber, a snake species that was the subject of an award-winning research project by L. Ankhbayar, a Mongolian student working with the Denver Zoo.
For 16 years, teams led by Denver Zoo staff have worked with Mongolian students on research projects that establish a baseline of knowledge about the wildlife in Ikh Nart, and teach the Mongolians how to become conservationists, wildlife veterinarians and researchers.
"Mongolia is our largest program," said Ganchimeg Wingard, the Mongolia program director and a native of Mongolia.
When the project began, Ikh Nart was what field zoologists call a paper park — an area that the government officially designated as a protected nature reserve, but without funding or other support.
"What we did was work with the Mongolian government and non-governmental organizations to take a paper park — a park that exists on paper, but isn't actively managed — and developed a program to transform it into a managed park with sustainable funding," explained veterinarian Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald, a member of the Denver Zoo's board of directors who also spends several weeks each year in Ikh Nart.
"It involves research, setting up an administration, collecting data for a protected area so we could zone it, doing a lot of training. Hiring rangers. Putting up signs so people knew it was a protected area. Setting up women's groups and tourist camps so the local people there could benefit from tourists."
Before the Denver Zoo got involved with Ikh Nart, not much scientific data had been collected about the area's native animals, many of which are at risk.
From March to October, Wingard, Reading, Kenny and other Denver Zoo staffers join Mongolian students and volunteers from the Earthwatch Institute, to live in Ikh Nart.
To study the vultures, researchers climb to the nests to gently catch and bag chicks to be weighed, tested, measured, banded and outfitted with backpacks installed with chips that digitally track their movement. The chicks are returned to the nests. Some of those chicks are the progeny of adult vultures that also wear bands and backpacks that were installed during their fledgling days.
For Ikh Nart to continue as a self-sustaining program, managers must be able to document their work according to international scientific standards.
"We help the Mongolian students with fine-tuning the research," Fitzgerald said.
"They have convinced the local government of its worth. The value of a zoo doing this kind of conservation work is so unknown. The Denver Zoo is much more than animals in cages."
Denver Zoo visitors often are surprised to find out about the zoo's global conservation programs, said Kenny. "When visitors ask why we have a Mongolian ger (yurt) at the zoo, and we start describing our projects in Mongolia and other parts of the world, they are totally blown away."
Claire Martin: 303-954-1477, cmartin@denverpost.com or twitter.com/byclairemartin
Zoo without borders
The Denver Zoo sponsors research projects throughout the world, and recently was recognized by the United Nations for its program at Mongolia's Ikh Nart Nature Reserve.
"We are much more than the 80-acre footprint that we occupy in City Park," zoo veterinarian David Kenny said.
"The zoo is a venue for us to reach lots of people, but the field work is where we get to contribute in an up-close and personal way."
In 2011, the United Nations Development Programme designated the Denver Zoo's work in Mongolia's Ikh Nart Nature Reserve a "model program" for other global conservation efforts.
Ikh Nart consists of about 160,000 acres in central Mongolia, on the edge of the Gobi Desert. At 4,000 feet high, Ikh Nart looks a lot like the eastern plains of Wyoming — vast, dry grasslands punctuated by rocky outcrops.
On those rocks, cinereous vultures, enormous birds that weigh about 18 to 21 pounds each, make huge nests so sturdy they can support an adult man. Durian and long-eared hedgehogs live inside the rock crevices. So does the Pallas' coluber, a snake species that was the subject of an award-winning research project by L. Ankhbayar, a Mongolian student working with the Denver Zoo.
For 16 years, teams led by Denver Zoo staff have worked with Mongolian students on research projects that establish a baseline of knowledge about the wildlife in Ikh Nart, and teach the Mongolians how to become conservationists, wildlife veterinarians and researchers.
"Mongolia is our largest program," said Ganchimeg Wingard, the Mongolia program director and a native of Mongolia.
When the project began, Ikh Nart was what field zoologists call a paper park — an area that the government officially designated as a protected nature reserve, but without funding or other support.
"What we did was work with the Mongolian government and non-governmental organizations to take a paper park — a park that exists on paper, but isn't actively managed — and developed a program to transform it into a managed park with sustainable funding," explained veterinarian Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald, a member of the Denver Zoo's board of directors who also spends several weeks each year in Ikh Nart.
"It involves research, setting up an administration, collecting data for a protected area so we could zone it, doing a lot of training. Hiring rangers. Putting up signs so people knew it was a protected area. Setting up women's groups and tourist camps so the local people there could benefit from tourists."
Before the Denver Zoo got involved with Ikh Nart, not much scientific data had been collected about the area's native animals, many of which are at risk.
From March to October, Wingard, Reading, Kenny and other Denver Zoo staffers join Mongolian students and volunteers from the Earthwatch Institute, to live in Ikh Nart.
To study the vultures, researchers climb to the nests to gently catch and bag chicks to be weighed, tested, measured, banded and outfitted with backpacks installed with chips that digitally track their movement. The chicks are returned to the nests. Some of those chicks are the progeny of adult vultures that also wear bands and backpacks that were installed during their fledgling days.
For Ikh Nart to continue as a self-sustaining program, managers must be able to document their work according to international scientific standards.
"We help the Mongolian students with fine-tuning the research," Fitzgerald said.
"They have convinced the local government of its worth. The value of a zoo doing this kind of conservation work is so unknown. The Denver Zoo is much more than animals in cages."
Denver Zoo visitors often are surprised to find out about the zoo's global conservation programs, said Kenny. "When visitors ask why we have a Mongolian ger (yurt) at the zoo, and we start describing our projects in Mongolia and other parts of the world, they are totally blown away."
Claire Martin: 303-954-1477, cmartin@denverpost.com or twitter.com/byclairemartin
Zoo without borders
The Denver Zoo sponsors research projects throughout the world, and recently was recognized by the United Nations for its program at Mongolia's Ikh Nart Nature Reserve.
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