GLOBAL ACTION TEAM TO EMPOWER A WORLDWIDE COMMUNITY TO SAVE ENDANGERED SPECIES

With thousands of Earth's animals and ecosystems in peril, the San Diego Zoo has launched a new online program-San Diego Zoo's Global Action Team-to generate support for its worldwide conservation efforts and empower a global community to take small steps toward making a big difference in our planet's future.
         
"The San Diego Zoo works to connect people with endangered species," said Douglas G. Myers, chief executive officer of the Zoological Society of San Diego. "Through the San Diego Zoo's worldwide conservation efforts, we are involved in more than 100 conservation programs in 35 countries around the world. The Global Action Team program connects members not only with animals at the Zoo and Wild Animal Park but with the efforts to conserve them in the wild.
         
The Global Action Team Web site, www.globalactionteam.org, will highlight some of the Zoo's conservation projects and feature updates from its conservation researchers about their day-to-day efforts in the field via blogs and e-newsletters.  The initial project in the Global Action Team spotlight is elephant conservation in southern Africa.  Based in Botswana, this project involves tracking GPS-collared elephants to study their migration routes, which in turn helps the researchers mitigate human/elephant conflict.
         
"We feel its important to provide people-no matter where they live-with the opportunity to become involved in our conservation work," said Allison Alberts, Ph.D., chief conservation officer.  "We envision the Global Action Team as a platform for people who want to support conservation as well as learn about and follow our critical work on behalf of wildlife in places like Africa, Asia, South America, and even locally, in our own backyard."
         
To join the San Diego Zoo's Global Action Team, people can visit www.globalactionteam.org to learn how they want to get involved.