Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund Jumps In with Major Donation,Challenges Others to Match Gift for Amphibian Conservation.
Silver Spring, Maryland (Vocus/PRWEB ) February 29, 2008 -- Today, Leap Day, added than 100 accepted zoos and aquariums in North America, abutting by their counterparts about the globe, kicked off the Year of the Frog to brainwash humans about the amphibian attention crisis.
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums has declared 2008 the Year of the Frog; and with acceptable reason. A fungus, which kills 80 percent of apparent frogs, toads and salamanders, has advance to every continent One-third of all amphibians on the planet could be absent because of this bane and added threats. In accession to lending their accurate expertise, accepted zoos and aquariums are confined as ecology educators, extensive 157 actor visitors anniversary year Disney hopes that those visitors, and anybody who cares about our planet, will accord to the AZA Amphibian Fund too and advice bifold the donation to save the frogs. Disney’s attention administration will accredit zoos and aquariums, partnered with all-embracing attention organizations, to acknowledge on an aberrant scale Accredited zoos and aquariums accept the different accurate ability to anticipate the accumulation afterlife of amphibians. Now Disney has provided analytical assets to jumpstart the mission. Going to your bounded AZA-accredited zoo and aquariums is a abundant way for families to abutment wildlife attention and accept a abundant time accomplishing it “The Association of Zoos and Aquariums has declared 2008 the Year of the Frog; and with acceptable reason. A fungus, which kills 80 percent of apparent frogs, toads and salamanders, has advance to every continent,” said AZA President and CEO Jim Maddy. “One-third of all amphibians on the planet could be absent because of this bane and added threats.”
Habitat loss, pollution, and invasive breed abide to abuse amphibian populations. But the bane Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) presents a different attention challenge. Hundreds of amphibian breed will die if larboard in their built-in habitats. They can alone be adored if they are calm and housed in bio-secure accessories until answers can be found.
Lending analytical abutment to the effort, Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund today appear a $250,000 donation to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Amphibian Fund, which will abutment the burning charge to abode and affliction for hundreds of amphibians threatened with extinction.
“In accession to lending their accurate expertise, accepted zoos and aquariums are confined as ecology educators, extensive 157 actor visitors anniversary year,” said Dr. Jackie Ogden, Vice President for Animal Programs and Environmental Initiatives at Walt Disney World and Disney's Animal Kingdom. “Disney hopes that those visitors, and anybody who cares about our planet, will accord to the AZA Amphibian Fund too and advice bifold the donation to save the frogs.”
“Disney’s attention administration will accredit zoos and aquariums, partnered with all-embracing attention organizations, to acknowledge on an aberrant scale,” Maddy added. “Accredited zoos and aquariums accept the different accurate ability to anticipate the accumulation afterlife of amphibians. Now Disney has provided analytical assets to jumpstart the mission.”
For Leap Day, zoo and aquarium visitors everywhere are accommodating in educational activities including leapfrog contests, frog calling, administrator and aquarist talks, amphibian scavenger hunts, salamander abode investigations, and abutting encounters with bright and abnormal amphibians.
“Going to your bounded AZA-accredited zoo and aquariums is a abundant way for families to abutment wildlife attention and accept a abundant time accomplishing it,” said Maddy.
The Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund (DWCF) was accustomed in 1995 on Earth Day (April 22) as a all-around awards affairs for the abstraction and aegis of the world's wildlife and ecosystems. It provides anniversary awards to US nonprofit attention organizations alive alongside their aeon in added countries. In 1998, as Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park opened, the DWCF fabricated its aboriginal grants. Since then, the DWCF has accurate 650 projects with added than $11 actor in grants to organizations and individuals alive in 110 countries.
Founded in 1924, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums is a nonprofit alignment committed to the advance of zoos and aquariums in the areas of conservation, education, science, and recreation. Look for the AZA logo whenever you appointment a zoo or aquarium as your affirmation that you are acknowledging a ability committed to accouterment accomplished affliction for animals, a abundant acquaintance for you, and a bigger approaching for all active things. With its added than 200 accepted members, the AZA is a baton in all-around wildlife conservation, and your hotlink to allowance animals in their built-in habitats. To acquisition the accepted zoo or aquarium abreast you, appointment http://www.aza.org/FindZooAquarium/.
