San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

In 1923, seven years after the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance convened for the first time, the San Diego Zoo opened its doors to the public. While the zoo struggled to acquire funding and animals in its early years, it would grow into one of the largest zoos on the planet.

The 100-acre zoo in Balboa Park houses more than 14,000 rare and endangered animals from 700-plus species and subspecies. Its botanical gardens are also home to more than 700,000 plants from around the world. The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (formerly known the Zoological Society of San Diego and San Diego Zoo Global) also oversees the 1,800-acre San Diego Zoo Safari Park, which is located in nearby Escondido, California, and cares for more than 3,000 animals from 300-plus species. The park showcases animals in spacious savanna habitats and a botanical garden displaying more than 1.3 million plants.

In 2004, the San Diego Wildlife Alliance unveiled the Beckman Center for Conservation Research, located in the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The institute houses the zoo's eight research groups: biodiversity banking, community engagement, conservation genetics, disease investigations, plant conservation, population sustainability, recovery ecology, and reproductive sciences. In 2023, the alliance created the Center for Species Survival: Biodiversity Banking in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This center is the first of its kind to focus on strategy instead of taxonomy. Through all of its work, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance promotes education, research, and the human-animal connection as pathways to ensure the survival of animals, plants, and habitats worldwide.