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PHOTO BY MATT NAGLE

THANKING THE TRIBE. Caryl Zenker, deputy director of the Point Defiance Zoo Society, announced the Puyallup Tribe’s historic financial gift at the society’s fashion tea fundraiser April 26.

Tribe’s gift strengthens red wolf program

By Matt Nagle

The Puyallup Tribe of Indians recently gifted the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium with the biggest donation in the zoo’s history – $685,000 over the next five years. Caryl Zenker, deputy director of the Point Defiance Zoo Society, which accepted the money on behalf of the zoo, called the tribe’s gift “an absolutely historic occasion and a terrific partnership.”

The bulk of the funds, $510,000, have been earmarked as the naming gift for the zoo’s upcoming new red wolf exhibit. Some preliminary designs for the exhibit have been completed. “This contribution will allow us to move forward with the process,” Zenker said.

The balance of $175,000 will be for the presenting sponsorship for Zoobilee, the zoo’s black tie fundraising gala, for the next five years.

Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium is leading the charge nationwide to restore the endangered red wolf to a healthy population and has achieved the most successful wildlife conservation story in North American history. In the past, the species covered approximately one-third of the United States and numbered in the thousands. When that count dropped to a mere 14 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked for help and the zoo stepped up to establish and develop the red wolf breeding program.

Now, more than 34 years later, the zoo’s leadership has increased the red wolf population to a more robust 275. Over the years the program has produced nearly 1,500 red wolves. A reintroduced wild population of red wolves now lives in its native range in North Carolina. Last summer the zoo was awarded the American Zoological Association’s top conservation award for its work.

Now that the red wolf is coming back, the zoo needs to update the animals’ home, which still consists of the outdated chain link fence enclosure built in the early 1970s. The new exhibit will be built into a hillside and make use of natural features to provide visitors with unobstructed views. The wolves will have the pleasure of warming themselves on sunlit rocks and caring for their pups in dens equipped with cameras so visitors can monitor the wolves’ nurturing behavior up close.

For information on Point Defiance Zoo’s conservation programs, visit www.thezoosociety.org.

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