SAN DIEGO and PALM DESERT, CALIF. (Sept. 30, 2022) – As a changing climate impacts wildlife around the globe, one keystone species in the Southwest United States serves as a prime example of the dangers of rising temperatures and habitat loss.

The plight of a desert icon and our efforts to turn things around.

SAN DIEGO (Sept. 23, 2021) – After more than four decades of successfully breeding, rearing and introducing California condors and other vultures back into their native habitats, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is ushering in a new era of vulture conservation. 

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.