Fighting extinction in the Pacific Northwest

A young western pond turtle being raised for release

Section menu

Cascades Pika Watch
Animals
Conservation issues
Small actions
Fighting extinction
Research at the zoo
Animal well-being
Non-lead hunting education program

Wildlife conservation starts at home

The Oregon Zoo works with partners to restore populations of imperiled native species ranging from quarter-sized butterflies to the California condor. It takes a tremendous amount of resources to save a species from extinction. Donate now to the Oregon Zoo Foundation and make a world of difference for wildlife.

Endangered

California condor

By 1987, the entire California condor population had been reduced to 22 individuals. Today, lead poisoning poses the greatest threat to these critically endangered birds - the continent's largest. The Oregon Zoo operates a condor breeding facility at the Jonsson Center for Wildlife Conservation.

Learn more

IUCN Vulnerable

Western pond turtle

These diminutive turtles can live for 70 years. The destruction of their wetland habitat for agriculture, urbanization and water diversion has severely reduced their population from California to Washington. The Oregon Zoo participates in a 'head-starting' project to help vulnerable hatchling turtles evade predators.

Learn more

Proposed Threatened

Oregon spotted frog

The Pacific Northwest's most aquatic native frog is also its most imperiled. Like the turtle, it has suffered loss of its wetland habitat, as well as predation by non-native bullfrogs and bass. Since 1998, the zoo has worked with conservation partners to monitor, study and recover populations of these amphibians.

Learn more

Endangered

Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit

Widespread conversion of sagebrush lands for agriculture had pushed North America's smallest rabbit to the brink of extinction. By 2002, only 16 pygmy rabbits remained in Washington. The zoo is working to restore this species, and in 2011, for the first time in more than a decade, the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit bred and gave birth in its historic range.

Threatened

Oregon silverspot butterfly

Native to coastal headlands from northern California to southern Washington, these butterflies were reduced to four locations by the 1990s. Its larvae rely on a single host plant, the western blue violet. The zoo and its conservation partners are working to re-vegetate its range with this plant and at the same time, rear and release butterflies to increase wild populations.

Learn more

Endangered

Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly

They once fluttered across prairies west of the Cascade Mountains from British Columbia through Oregon's Willamette Valley. Today, 99 percent of their range has become farmland, pasture and city. The zoo is rearing and releasing checkerspot butterflies to build populations and restore this pollinator to the remaining areas of its historic range.

Learn more

Wildlife conservation starts at home

Related links