WEEKEND OF LOVE! Dallas Zoo celebrates “We ❤ Wildlife”

Dean of Dallas Zoo’s Wild Earth Academy, Ben Jones, guest blogs on ZooHoo!

Our “We ❤ Wildlife” Valentine’s weekend proved love is truly a powerful thing. Across our campus, Dallas Zoo animals inspired 4,000 personal pledges for conservation action from members and guests and launched us toward our goal of 50,000 pledges for wildlife conservation this year.

Families created Valentine’s and shared their love for our animals, zookeepers and our conservation partners around the globe. Students from Coppell Middle School East, Coppell iWest and Westlake Academy showed their love by displaying 90 pieces of Dallas Zoo-inspired art in our breezeway. The students’ artwork is part of a project called “Through Their Eyes, Animals of the Dallas Zoo,” to bring awareness of the declining species across the world.

These students will join us again for our next Wild Earth Weekend: Endangered Species, May 21-22, where they’ll display an iBook they’ve written and published about the Dallas Zoo and our conservation work.

This past weekend was a special celebration of Dallas Zoo’s love for wildlife. But truth is, we love and care for animals here and around the world every day. Working and caring together, one small action at a time, we can change the world for wildlife and save animals from extinction.

If you didn’t make it out for We ❤ Wildlife Weekend, you can still make high-impact commitments at home to save these animals of focus:

❤ Our Pledge to Protect Gorillas:

• We’ll extend the life of our mobile phones and recycle them.
• We’ll reuse paper and buy sustainable forest products.

❤ Our Pledge to Protect Elephants:

• We’ll never buy ivory & tell 5 people why.
• We’ll respect & protect native wildlife.

❤ Our Pledge Inspired by Giraffes:

• We’ll respect & protect native wildlife.
• We’ll restore wildlife habitat.

❤ Our Pledge to Protect Penguins:

• It’s really black & white: we’ll only eat sustainable seafood.
• We’ll save energy. When not in use, we’ll turn of the juice.

❤ Our Pledge to Protect Tigers:

• We’ll support companies committed to deforestation-free palm oil.
• We’ll choose FSC certified wood products.

❤ Our Pledge to Protect Texas Horned Lizards:

• We’ll leave horny toads in the wild.
• We’ll buy a Texas Parks & Wildlife conservation license plate.

❤ Our Pledge to Protect Flamingos:

• We’ll use reusable grocery bags.
• We’ll pick up 10 pieces of litter pollution every week.