WCS Annual Report 2012 - Wildlife Conservation Society

dear friends,
A tiny animal experienced a gigantic milestone in 2012
deep in the forests of Tanzania. The Kihansi spray toad,
no bigger than a fingernail, may have beaten extinction.
For the first time, an amphibian has been reintroduced
into nature after it was declared extinct in the wild. The
habitat of the Kihansi spray toad had been altered by the
construction of a hydroelectric dam that eliminated the
heavy natural mist – necessary for the animal’s survival –
from the spray zone of the Kihansi Falls.
At the request of the Tanzanian government, staff from
the Bronx Zoo’s Department of Herpetology went to the
Kihansi Gorge to collect the last remaining wild toads
in November 2000. The toads were brought back to the
United States, where the Bronx and Toledo Zoos worked
out elaborate husbandry protocols with specific environmental
parameters designed to meet the unique requirements
of the toads.
As the Tanzanian government set up artificial misting
systems to replicate the animals’ original habitat, WCS’s
Bronx Zoo and the Toledo Zoo bred toads in specially
designed biosecure facilities in New York City and Toledo
with the hope that they could one day be returned to their
African home. It was zoological science and husbandry at
their best. At 2 p.m. on October 30, 2012, close to 2,000
Kihansi spray toads were reintroduced back into the wild.
In a truly extraordinary and historical moment, a missing
piece of nature’s puzzle was put back into place.
The story of the Kihansi spray toad is key to understanding
what differentiates the Wildlife Conservation Society
from other conservation organizations. Since our founding
in 1895, we have harnessed our expertise in zoological
husbandry, conservation biology, and veterinary science
to save wildlife and wild places. Now well into our second
century, WCS continues to excel in all three disciplines to
get the conservation results that count.
Indeed, our history is packed with stories describing
how we have combined our many strengths to fulfill our
mission. In addition to our work this year to protect the
Kihansi spray toad, we launched a bold strategy to save
the 25 most endangered turtle species and we continued
efforts that date back to the early 1900s to protect the
American bison.
We also continued our efforts to protect large wild
places across the globe in areas as varied as Afghanistan,
the Arctic, and Africa. As recently as December 2012,
we celebrated a major conservation success when the U.S.
government, using WCS research and data, announced
a final management plan for the National Petroleum
Reserve-Alaska that balances wildlife conservation and
energy development in the biggest public landscape in the
United States. This effort will help ensure that the most
important Arctic wetlands and wildlife corridors for caribou
and migratory birds will be protected from development.
WCS continued to address the global crisis in wildlife
trafficking on several fronts. In Mozambique we negotiated
an agreement with the government to co-manage the
Niassa National Reserve to combat elephant poaching in
that country’s largest protected area. In multiple landscapes,
we deployed a new wildlife protection initiative,
SMART (the Spatial Monitoring and Recovering Tool),
which helps park and community rangers fight trafficking
by identifying poaching hotspots, improving rapid
response measures, and calculating anti-poaching efforts
in order to maximize results.
At the same time, WCS conservationists have been
successful in places like Zambia in helping former poachers
find alternative livelihoods that generate income for
their families while relieving pressure on local fauna.
We love to tell stories describing how WCS’s components
complement one another. We are especially pleased to
explain how zoos are more important than ever as partners
in global field conservation. As wild landscapes shrink
and disappear, the knowledge and skills we have developed
in our zoos are vital to the care and management of
wildlife forced to live in ever smaller spaces. The Bronx
Zoo has been a leader in developing this know-how as
zoos evolve into scientific powerhouses and strategic settings
to raise assurance colonies of threatened species.
Other distinguishing characteristics of WCS have been
the vision, commitment, and creativity of our leaders
through the decades – beginning with New York Zoological
Society founding director William Hornaday and
continuing to the present. This year marked a major transition
for WCS as Dr. Steven Sanderson retired after leading
our organization for more than a decade. During his
tenure, Steve expanded our global conservation program
fivefold and shepherded a magnificent renaissance at the
Bronx Zoo. It was his leadership that helped knock down
the walls between our zoos/aquarium and our field work
– enabling us to take on challenges and create amazing
success stories like the Kihansi spray toad.
We take inspiration from our past as we recommit ourselves
to protecting our threatened planet for generations
to come. We invite you to join us in this effort.
Ward W. Woods
Chair of the Board
Cristián Samper
President and CEO
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president/ceo & chair LEtter