Racing to save the Kihansi spray toad

Blue Iguanas restored
Bronx Zoo and partners begin the reintroduction of the Critically Endangered blue iguana to its native habitat on Grand Cayman Island. By 2018, the program releases its 1,000th blue iguana.

Premiering Tiger Mountain

Butterfly Garden opens
This indoor butterfly conservatory lets visitors walk through gardens and meadows and watch the butterflies up close, observing them at different stages of their life cycles.

Beavers back in the Bronx
A beaver is spotted on the Bronx River near the Bronx Zoo for the first time in over 200 years. This beaver was joined by a mate a few years later, and they had kits in 2013. The restoration efforts of the Bronx Zoo and Bronx River Alliance resulted in a cleaner river and the return of the beavers.

Madagascar! opens

Saving Kihansi spray toads

Hell-bent on helping Hellbenders
Bronx Zoo begins working with partners on a multi-year program to save the eastern hellbender, an aquatic amphibian species and one of the world’s largest salamanders. As part of this conservation effort, 38 eastern hellbenders raised at the Bronx Zoo are released into streams in the Upper Susquehanna River Watershed by 2013, 102 in 2017 and 124 in 2021.

Komodo dragon and Aldabra tortoise exhibits open at the Bronx Zoo
The new exhibits are located both in and outside of the zoo’s iconic Zoo Center. The grand opening marks the first time the Bronx Zoo has exhibited Komodo dragons since the 1950s.

Bison milestones

THE ZOO premiers on Animal Planet
Over five seasons, this successful docuseries provides an inside look at the Bronx Zoo and WCS’s other New York City parks, and brings our critical conservation message to more than 200 markets around the world, with an average of more than 1 million viewers in the US per episode. THE ZOO provided an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at how our expert staff care for thousands of animals, and focused on the relationship between the animals and the people who care for them.

Breeding and rewilding bison

WCS launches its Career Lattice, formalizing a longstanding program for youth from historically under-resourced NYC communities to gain expanded opportunities at the Bronx Zoo and our other parks. WCS is committed to diversifying science fields, and our work with youth is central to this mission; in 2022, 85 percent of youth who completed our programs said they planned to pursue a career in science.

Turtle Propagation Center is created
The Bronx Zoo creates a bio-secure facility to breed and raise some of the world’s most endangered turtle species—ensuring these species will not go extinct, and preparing many of them for release into the wild. Conserving freshwater turtles and tortoises is a major priority for the Bronx Zoo.

Discovering COVID-19 in big cats
One of our tigers becomes the first known wild animal to contract COVID-19 from a person (who was asymptomatic). Four other tigers and three lions also contract COVID in the days that follow. All animals fully recover, and WCS experts are able to share what they learned with the world, illuminating more about the virus’s impact on animals.

The Bronx Zoo lends a hand to help our community at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, serving as a COVID testing site and a base for 250 ambulances from around the country. In 2021, the Bronx Zoo partners with New York State to become a COVID vaccine administration location, distributing complimentary zoo tickets to people who receive their vaccine at the site.

Rote Island snake-neck turtles reintroduced
Thirty-six zoo-bred turtles leave the Bronx Zoo, bound for Mandai Wildlife Group’s Singapore Zoo as part of a collaboration that will eventually introduce the animals to their native range in Indonesia where the species is functionally extinct.