Seattle — Woodland Park Zoo is one of 10 zoos sharing the honor of receiving the International Conservation Award by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) for the “Rodrigues Fruit Bat Conservation Program.” Program officials recently accepted the award at AZA’s 79th Annual Conference held in Columbus, OH.

Woodland Park Zoo currently supports more than three dozen conservation projects in more than 42 countries. As a conservation partner in the Rodrigues bat program, Woodland Park provides funding support for the conservation education portion and curriculum development.

With golden-highlighted chocolate-brown fur, big brown eyes, small triangular ears, and naked black wings, the endangered Rodrigues fruit bat is found only on the tiny island of Rodrigues in the southwestern Indian Ocean. These bats are threatened with extinction due almost solely to human activities. When people settled on Rodrigues about 300 years ago, forests were cleared for farms and livestock. Rodrigues fruit bats roost in trees and feed on the trees’ fruits, flowers, nectar and leaves. Without forests, the bats’ numbers declined and by the mid-1970s fewer than 100 bats remained on Rodrigues. At this time, as a hedge against possible extinction in the wild, 27 bats were captured to found a captive population. All of the Rodrigues fruit bats in zoos worldwide descend from these 27 founders.

Fortunately, Rodriguans began to make changes to their land management practices and to set aside habitat for bats. The bat numbers slowly increased both in the wild and in zoos. A goal of most captive management programs, including this one, is to retain in the captive population as much as possible of the genetic diversity of the wild population. Towards this end, Philadelphia Zoo initiated a project to quantify genetic diversity in each population. This project included a trip to Rodrigues to capture wild bats and to obtain tiny tissue samples from them and from bats in the captive colony on nearby Mauritius. Genetic analyses demonstrated that both bat populations retained substantial genetic diversity as compared to many other endangered mammal species and that the captive population was sufficiently genetically diverse to avoid problems associated with inbreeding. Molecular techniques developed during this study were subsequently used to establish relatedness estimates for all of the bats in the North American zoo population upon which all breeding recommendations are based.

While on Rodrigues studying bats, Philadelphia Zoo staff also taught lessons about bats in every primary school on the island. Woodland Park Zoo’s Interim Director of Education, Terry O’Connor, co-chair of the AZA’s Bat Taxon Advisory Group (TAG), worked with Philadelphia Zoo staff and other TAG members to develop bat lessons in cooperation with Rodriguan school administrators and create bat education kits for 5th grade students and teachers. The lessons were well received and the project inspired an initiative to place a full-time environmental educator on Rodrigues in 1998. “Education is becoming an integral part of zoo and aquarium field conservation programs,” said O’Connor. “Having the consistent presence of Rodriguan educator Mary Jane Raboude has made a tremendous difference in the success of the program, benefiting the island’s communities as well as the bats.”

In the five years since, the program has grown tremendously and now influences many aspects of life on Rodrigues. The educator works in cooperation with community groups, schools, government ministries, and NGOs to provide information and resources to support their positive environmental initiatives. The success of the environmental educator project has created a welcoming atmosphere on Rodrigues for further environmental initiatives resulting in successful grant application to fund new conservation projects and six new full-time conservation jobs. Increased focus on the environment has had positive implications for the bats, too; there are now estimated to be over 5,000 of them living on Rodrigues.

Visitors to Woodland Park Zoo may encounter a colony of four Rodrigues bats in the zoo’s Night Exhibit. Fall hours are 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and until 4:00 p.m. beginning October 15. For more information, visit the zoo’s Web site at www.zoo.org or call 206.684.4800.

In addition to Philadelphia and Woodland Park Zoos, the other eight AZA accredited zoos participating in the project are: Oregon Zoo, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Roger Williams Park Zoo, Blank Park Zoo, John Ball Zoo, Riverbanks Zoo, Folsom Children’s Zoo and the Biodome de Montreal.

The American Zoo and Aquarium Association presents the International Conservation Award each year for recognition of outstanding dedication to international conservation issues and development of natural resources.

AZA was founded in 1924 and currently represents 212 accredited zoos and aquariums in North America. AZA’s mission is to support membership excellence in conservation, education, science and recreation.

NOTE: For additional information, please contact Gretchen Toner at the Philadelphia Zoo at 215.243.5205.