Declared by U.S. Congress in 2006, every third Friday in May is Endangered Species Day, a day to celebrate and protect our wildlife and wild places. Here at the Cincinnati Zoo, however, every day is Endangered Species Day. We work tirelessly to make emotional connections between people and wildlife, raise conservation awareness and promote ways everyone can take action to make a difference for wildlife.
Want to do something today to help save wildlife in honor of Endangered Species Day? How about helping us protect elephants?
As a coalition partner with more than 125 institutions, the Zoo works with the 96 Elephants campaign to protect elephants from poaching for their ivory tusks in the wild. The United States is the second largest ivory consumer nation behind China. While the recent strengthening of federal restrictions on the sale of ivory is a critical step towards ending the illegal ivory trade in the United States, state regulations are also necessary.
Join the effort by taking the pledge at www.96elephants.org to not to buy or sell ivory and to support a moratorium on ivory products in our country.
You can also participate in a letter writing campaign. On World Elephant Day, August 12, the campaign hopes to deliver 96,000 letters and drawings from people around the country to state legislators in support of a ban on the sale of ivory by state. Over the next couple of months, Zoo guests can draw or color pictures and write letters expressing what elephants mean to them at our Elephant Wild Discover Zone. We will collect the letters and drawings to deliver them to Governor Kasich on World Elephant Day. Be sure to stop by next time you’re at the Zoo!
If you can’t make it to Zoo, you can download the letter template from our website here, and send it to me in time for the August 12 delivery to the governor.
And remember, just by coming to the Zoo, you are helping us save endangered species every day. So come on out and play!
