Dallas Zoo’s youth-led Zoo Corps conservation club guest-blogs on ZooHoo! Our teens worked together to select a conservation issue, develop a solution, and will put it into action on March 31!
Stop by the Zoo Saturday, March 31 to not only experience more than 2,000 animals, but to also help local teens and their wildlife conservation efforts! Right past the entrance, Zoo Corps will have booths set up for guests to participate in animal-themed activities to benefit urban wildlife. It’s a great family-friendly way to learn more about Texas’s environment and native species. Zoo visitors can make bird feeders from recycled materials; pledge to protect snakes; and decorate planters for native seedlings.
Zoo Corps is a teen-led Zoo conservation organization that strives to make a lasting impact on wildlife while engaging the community to take action. Our conservation issue is focused on birds, pollinators and snakes and how people can help these species in their backyards. These species serve a valuable role to humans and the ecosystem. For example, a single purple martin bird can eat 2,000 pesky mosquitoes a day; a scarlet tanager bird can eat 35 harmful gypsy moth larvae in a minute; snakes control rodent populations like nothing else can; and pollinators are vital for 75-percent of crops and flowering plants. Because these species help us out so much, it’s time we help them, too.
Songbirds suffer from loss of habitat and food sources because of human expansion and development. Building bird feeders is a simple way we can help provide them with sustenance. We can also make pledges to not use pesticides in our yards, and to leave snakes alone when we come across them. Snakes are a feared and misunderstood group of animals, but in reality, they fear us more than we should fear them. More people are actually killed by lightning in Texas than by venomous snake bites. Lastly, native pollinator populations continue to decline due to habitat degradation and loss. One easy step we can take is planting native plants to provide a safe migration route for monarch butterflies, and other critical pollinators.
These are easy steps to take, so come take them with Zoo Corps on March 31!
It is so cool that you are getting the community involved in this. Glad to see you getting the kids back outside!