News Archive

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s highly competitive Summer Teen Program application period opens on Sat., Feb. 1. The three-month program takes a unique approach to fostering nature stewardship and inspiring young people to take part in protecting the wild world. Soon, it will welcome new and returning participants for summer 2025. Applications for the program for sixth . . .

In 2023, Zoo members voted to fund GPS trackers that U.S. Fish & Wildlife and the USDA Forest Service are using to study Mexican spotted owls in New Mexico and Arizona. They hope to learn what sort of habitat features Mexican spotted owls are using to nest, and what they are avoiding. The data collected . . .

Quarters for Conservation Legacy Project: Palm Oil Conservation The Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) recognized Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s collaborative palm oil conservation work at the RSPO annual conference in Bangkok last month. PalmOil Scan, a global mobile app that empowers consumers to choose companies that commit to using sustainable palm oil, won the RSPO . . .

During the cooler months, African penguins mostly focus on nesting and eating. As daylight hours decrease, they naturally pair up and settle in for snuggle season. While penguins don’t technically mate for life, they are monogamous and typically stay with the same partner during breeding season. The sixteen ‘flockstars’ at CMZoo have been together since . . .

Each year, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo members vote to help the Zoo decide how $75,000 should be split between staff-championed conservation efforts, in CMZoo’s annual Member Conservation Vote. Of six projects funded in 2024, members decided to continue funding two conservation partners in Kenya: Protect Pancake Tortoises through community conservation in Kenya Conduct community awareness training . . .

This fall, volunteers and conservation experts gathered near Las Animas, Colorado, to release 33 endangered black-footed ferrets (BFFs) into the wild, including some that were born at CMZoo! 2024 was a record-breaking breeding year for CMZoo’s BFF conservation program, with 37 kits born! It was also a pioneering year. CMZoo’s conservationists tested multi-partner breeding to . . .

It’s the howl-iday season at CMZoo, and our pack is thriving! CMZoo is home to five Mexican wolves: Navarro and his offspring — Hope, Shadow, Phoenix, and Uno. Sisters Hope and Shadow have stepped up as confident leaders, often being the first to investigate food, while Uno, Phoenix, and Navarro take a more laid-back approach. . . .

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, its members, visitors and donors are celebrating another conservation milestone. In mid-September, the Zoo surpassed $1 million donated to its African elephant and black rhino conservation partner, Tsavo Trust, since establishing a partnership in 2016. Tsavo Trust was founded in 2012 to help protect the last of the ‘Super Tuskers’ – African . . .

CMZoo has been pioneering innovative farming techniques in zoos since introducing its first shipping container farm, in 2021, followed by a second, in 2022. Today, only a few zoos are using hydroponic systems like these. By producing their own fertilizer, the CMZoo horticulture team is saving money and resources while gathering essential data to fine-tune . . .

This summer, the black-footed ferret (BFF) breeding program at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo saw a record number of kits born: 37. Conservationists tested multi-partner breeding to see if females could conceive and whelp kits from different dads in the same litter, and to see if having multiple breeding partners impacted the number of kits born overall. . . .