Saving Species Challenge

A MAJOR INVESTMENT IN THE FUTURE OF OUR WORLD’S WILDLIFE

The Indianapolis Zoo has a long history of innovative conservation strategies with the creation of the Global Center for Species Survival, the Indianapolis Prize and our field conservation grants. Our mission is to protect nature and inspire people to care for our world.

As an investment in the future of our world’s wildlife, we have created the Saving Species Challenge, a $1 million investment to change the decline of a single species. The goal of this award is to support a conservation project in its efforts to improve the existing status of a threatened species to its next best designation, putting it on the path for recovery.

Introducing the Winner of the Saving Species Challenge

Blue-throated Hillstar

The Ecuadorian conservation group Fundación Jocotoco has been awarded $1 million to save the newly-discovered hummingbird from the brink of extinction.

Discovered in 2017, the Blue-throated Hillstar is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List due to habitat loss from mining and frequent burning. Soon after the bird was discovered, Fundación Jocotoco created the Cerro de Arcos Reserve to protect its habitat. The group will use the grant to work closely with local communities to expand protected land to ensure the bird’s survival. Fundación Jocotoco will have five years to implement their plan and improve the hummingbird’s Red List status.

Click below to read the full announcement:

Press Release

Blue morpho butterfly with vibrant blue wings resting on leaf

FOCUSING ON THE WORLD’S MOST THREATENED SPECIES

The Indianapolis Zoo Saving Species Challenge awarded a $1 million grant to one organization that can develop and execute a plan that will have a measurable and sustainable impact on the survival of an animal species.

The Saving Species Challenge requires the focal species to be designated by the IUCN Red List as one of the following categories: Extinct in the Wild, Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable. The proposed project must demonstrate how this investment will give a species the greatest opportunity to be down listed from its current conservation status to the next best designation (ex. a Critically Endangered species improving to an Endangered Species).