Easy as 1.2.3 – Click here to subscribe to our blog The El Paso Zoo and Botanical Gardens is working on a Climate Action Network that you can join with a few clicks of your computer keyboard. The goal is to help inform people about how climate change is impacting our world, our community and…
Month: September 2021
Free tailing it up to Carlsbad
Prior to moving to El Paso my friends used to call me Batman because of my job at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. From 1992 to 2000 I lived in government housing a stone’s throw away from the natural entrance to the cavern where all the bats exit at night to hunt for insects. Seventeen different…
Meet volunteer Dora Hernandez
Dora Hernandez is a native El Pasoan, who recently returned to the region after living in Washington State for the last 13 years. Dora soon connected with the Zoo education team about the same time she joined the board of directors of the Chihuahuan Desert Education Coalition. As a new City of El Paso Conservation…
Zoo launches new lecture series
The El Paso Zoo and Botanical Gardens new Zoo Talks program will be presented in our Wildlife Amphitheater. Guest speakers will talk about a wide variety of nature and conservation subjects. Our new program will be launched during the Chihuahuan Desert Fiesta on September 25, 2021. For more information contact us. Saturday, September 25, 2021, 12pm Get to…
The Return: Great news for the Bolson Tortoise
The Turner Endangered Species Fund with the help from partners including the El Paso Zoo and Botanical Gardens, recently made conservation history by releasing captive-born Bolson Tortoises in the Chihuahuan Desert grasslands of New Mexico. Thirty years ago, I was very fortunate to join a team of scientists and National Park managers on a trip to…
If the world is not safe for animals…
by Rick LoBello, Education Curator Over the past two decades I have often stated that if our world is unsafe for animals it will certainly not be a safe place for people. Just think about it for a moment. Animals need the same things to survive that people do, but in different ways. We all…
Chihuahuan Desert Wildlife: Western Screech Owl
Western Screech Owl Megascops Kennicotti Status: Least Concerned Size: 7.5-9.8 inches Habitat: Woodlands At the Zoo: Mixed Species Exhibit in the Chihuahuan Desert to the right of the Wolf Exhibit The Western Screech Owl, looking much like the Eastern Screech Owl, is found in the western US and Mexico. They live here in El Paso,…
Defensa De La Sierra volunteer update
Defensa De La Sierra de Cuidad Juarez is a group in Juarez that wants to make a difference to stop the uncontrolled destruction of wildlife habitat in Mexico. Earlier this year we told you about group leader Ray Aguilar who has provided this update. by Ray Aguilar Ciudad Juárez is a place that needs a…
Are javelinas having a baby boom in El Paso?
The javelina also called collared peccary is one of the most interesting animals in Texas, the southwest and the US and Mexico. At the Zoo we have an adult female and a new female baby. Both were born in the wild. Our new baby named Yucca was rescued by the Stick House Sanctuary in El…
Only in the Chihuahuan Desert: the reticulated gecko
Every year I find one or more geckos under things in my yard or climbing on a wall. For most of us in El Paso if we find a gecko we are more than likely seeing a Mediterranean gecko, an exotic species in the U.S. first reported in Florida in 1915. When I find one…
At the Zoo and the Park in September
Saturday at the Zoo Sunday at the Park Every year the Chihuahuan Desert Fiesta celebrates the natural wonders of the mountainous desert in our big backyard while encouraging people to explore and discover parks and other protected areas. The seventeenth annual Chihuahuan Desert Fiesta is coming up and for the first time will be held…
Go birdwatching at the Zoo
Have you ever thought of getting into birdwatching? Birdwatching is a great activity that you can be involved in now and for the rest of your life. Birdwatching Digest lists 10 reasons to be a birdwatcher. I agree with everyone of them. 1. Birds are all around us2. Birdwatching is a connection to nature3. Birdwatching…
Cruelty toward wolves is erasing conservation efforts
It’s time to reinstate their protections. Daniel M. Ashe, president and chief executive of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, served as U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director from 2011-2017. Today at the center of the wolf conservation radar screen is the ongoing war against the wolf in the lower 48 states that has alarmed wolf…
Conservation Education 