The Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo strives to make a difference for animals every day. To help achieve this goal, we participate in programs and initiatives to protect animals and their habitats around the world.
ACRES Land Trust is one of our many conservation partners at the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo. ACRES Land Trust is an organization that aims to acquire and protect natural areas in northeast Indiana, southern Michigan, and northwest Ohio. Their mission is to own and protect natural and working lands, as well as to inspire people to value, appreciate, and support these natural areas.
The zoo financially supports ACRES Land Trust and its efforts to restore the Marsh Wren Nature Preserve and Quog Lake in northeast Indiana. Through the Kids4Nature and “round up” programs, Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo’s visitors have contributed over $13,500 towards the preservation and study of the Marsh Wren Nature Preserve and Quog Lake. Through funding, we have helped ACRES acquire both properties to permanently protect them.
In partnership with ACRES Land Trust, a major project we have launched is the Motus Wildlife Tracking System. “We really wanted to work with ACRES Land Trust to install Motus towers because there were none in the Northeast Indiana region when we first started this project. Now there are 7 towers in Indiana, 4 of which are ours. Not only does this project allow for the public to track migration of small animals, but it can also help provide data to people for projects,” said Joe Smith, Director of Animal Programs at the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo.
The Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo has worked with ACRES Land Trust to build and installed a Motus tower station at the Zoo, as well as three stations on ACRES Land Trust’s property: Bluecast, Dygert, and Wildwood. Motus Wildlife Tracking Systems is a program that uses automated radio telemetry arrays to study the movement of small animals and their migration. To find out more about this project or to track migration, visit https://motus.org/data/receiversMap.
“Many of our conservation partners are international. We help save lions in Kenya, gibbons in Indonesia, and penguins in South Africa. It is nice to invest in a local organization that is doing great work right in our own back yard,” said Jim Anderson, Executive Director of the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo.
To learn more about our conservation partner, ACRES Land Trust, visit their website at https://acreslandtrust.org/. To help protect local areas and support global conversation, visit their website to donate.
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