Coney Island, NY, July 21, 2026—An Endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle will be released into the Atlantic Ocean along the beach outside the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium on Thursday, July 23 at 12:30pm. LAST WEEK WE POSTPONED TO THIS NEW DATE AND TIME DUE TO THE AIR QUALITY ALERT IN NYC. The turtle, named Pancake, was recovered by Massachusetts Audubon Society suffering from cold stunning in Duck Harbor Beach, Wellfleet, Massachusetts on Nov ...

NEW YORK, N.Y. — July 21, 2026 — The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Central Park Zoo is debuting twin Critically Endangered black-and-white ruffed lemurs, born April 5, 2026. The fraternal twin pair includes one male, named Maso, and one female, named Tonga. The black-and-white ruffed lemur is a primate native to the tropical rainforests of eastern Madagascar. They are considered Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species; wild populations have de...

Coney Island, NY, July 9, 2026—An endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle will be released into the Atlantic Ocean along the beach outside the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium on Thursday, July 16. The turtle, named Pancake, was recovered by Massachusetts Audubon Society suffering from cold stunning in Duck Harbor Beach, Wellfleet, Massachusetts on Nov 22, 2025. Pancake was transferred from Duck Harbor to the New England Aquarium on November 23rd for triage and me...

New York, July 7, 2026 -- The following statement was issued by Craig Piper, Interim Executive Vice President for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Zoos & Aquarium and Director of the Bronx Zoo: Patty, a 57-year-old Asian elephant, is healthy and doing well in her home where she has lived at the Bronx Zoo for more than 50 years. She chooses to enjoy multiple areas of her habitat and engages with her keepers and multiple enrichment activities. Following the recent loss of Happy,...

BRONX, NY, July 7, 2026—Conservation practitioners around the world now have free access to a wide variety of practical methods for measuring conservation success with the launch of COMET, the Conservation Monitoring Effectiveness Techniques platform. While practitioners can choose from a wide range of monitoring methods, there has until now been no centralized, field-tested guide to which are most effective and cost-efficient in different contexts. For decades, conservat...

New York, July 2, 2026 – The following statement has been issued by the Wildlife Conservation Society: “We at WCS express profound concern and alarm regarding the recent reported detention of wildlife conservationists Sepideh Kashani and Houman Jowkar, along with Sepideh’s sister Sima Kashani in Tehran on July 1, 2026. “Mr. Jowkar and his wife Ms. Kashani are among the world's leading experts on the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah. Through their pione...

NEW YORK, NY, July 2, 2026 — A newly published study in Conservation Biology warns that efforts to control New World screwworm will be weakened if governments focus primarily on legal livestock production systems while overlooking illegal cattle movements, wildlife, protected areas, and remote landscapes where infestations can go undetected. The paper, “Screwworm re-emergence, illegal cattle movements, and emerging risks to wildlife and protected areas in Mesoameric...

New York, NY – June 23, 2026 — Today, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) returns with Year 2 of its Petition Paper campaign, expanding its reach across select New York City restaurants to drive awareness and action around the protection of Hudson Canyon—a vital underwater ecosystem located just 100 miles offshore from here. The campaign aims to generate support for designating Hudson Canyon a National Marine Sanctuary. The campaign invites New Yorkers to engage with Hu...

MOMBASA, KENYA (June 18, 2026) – The following statement was released today by the Wildlife Conservation Society at the 11th Our Ocean Conference (OOC11) in Mombasa, Kenya. Said Dr. Susan Lieberman, WCS Vice President of International Policy: “This week exceeded our expectations in terms of advancing strong commitments for actions that have tremendous potential to truly lead to equitable and effective protection and conservation of ocean ecosystems, for the benef...

MOMBASA, KENYA (June 18, 2026) – Nine African governments announced new commitments to ocean protection this week at the 11th Our Ocean Conference (OOC11) in Mombasa, Kenya, marking concrete progress toward the global goal of effectively and equitably protecting 30 percent of the world's ocean ecosystems by 2030. The announcements – spanning newly gazetted marine protected areas (MPAs), national conservation strategies, new planning frameworks, and commitments to develop new...