Helping Mojave Desert Tortoises Survive in a Rapidly Changing World

Like 80 percent of all plants, the ʻālula depends on pollinators to survive, but there’s one big problem: its pollinator has gone extinct.

When it comes to pollinators, most people think of bees, butterflies, and birds, gracefully flitting from flower to flower. But do you think about bats, mice, lemurs, and mongooses?

SAN DIEGO (May 30, 2024) – San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance reintroduced a group of endangered Pacific pocket mice to a release site outside of active training areas on Marine Corps Installations West, Marine Corps Base (MCB) Camp Pendleton. In partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, this initiative is part of an ongoing effort to bring the species back from the brink of extinction.

What’s the buzz about pollinators? Here’s a look at how mighty these tiny species are.

Local students are discovering the importance of collaboration and teamwork in wildlife conservation.

SAN DIEGO (Oct. 11, 2023) – San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance has been recognized for its expertise in wildlife biobanking, and has partnered with the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the world’s largest conservation organization—the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)—to form the new Center for Species Survival: Biodiversity Banking. The new center is the first ever to have a strategy focus rather than a taxonomic one.

In the face of increasing biodiversity loss, biobanks like ours play an essential role in conservation.

Take a closer look at how we're rebuilding sustainable populations of critically endangered wildlife in the Pacific.

SAN DIEGO (Feb. 8, 2023) – San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance today received a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS^TM title for Oldest Living Mouse in Human Care recognizing “Pat,” a Pacific pocket mouse fondly named after actor Sir Patrick Stewart. Pat was born July 14, 2013 at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, in the first year of the organization’s Pacific pocket mouse conservation breeding and reintroduction program. Today, he is 9 years and 209 days old. The GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title is a win for all the tiny but mighty—and often overlooked—species around the world that play an important role in their ecosystems.