African Elephant Crossing > Elephant Conservation Efforts

Elephant Conservation Efforts
at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

Two of the Zoo's African Elephants

A Top Priority

African Elephant Crossing will mark Cleveland Metroparks Zoo's largest ever investment in preserving the future of elephants, but the Zoo and its nonprofit fundraising partner, the Cleveland Zoological Society, already support important conservation work and initiatives to protect these endangered animals.

Elephant conservation efforts currently supported by Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and the Cleveland Zoological Society include:

• The Living With Elephants Foundation, an outreach aimed at fostering harmonious relationships between people and elephants in Africa.
  
• Sponsoring a Congolese graduate student researching threats to elephants near the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo.
  
• The international Bushmeat Crisis Task Force, which works to protect elephants endangered by hunters wanting to sell them as meat.
  
• An "eco-guard patrol" charged with protecting elephants from illegal poaching in rainforests, run by Habitat Ecologique et Liberte des Primates, or HELP International Congo.
  
• Cornell University's Elephant Listening Project, which locates illegal poaching of elephants by tracking gunfire in African rainforests.
  
• Studying the reproductive cycles and insulin levels of the Zoo's elephants to gauge and maintain their overall physical fitness and health.
  
• Hiring a Regional Conservation Coordinator to represent the Zoo in Africa and lead efforts there to sustain the wild elephant population.