Celebrating 7 big achievements in 2024

Every year, our small but talented teams do amazing things at Bristol Zoological Society.

As well as the most visible and exciting developments at Bristol Zoo Project, our conservation and education teams are doing inspiring work behind the scenes. A charity that packs a punch, we’re working on a huge variety of projects in Bristol, the UK and beyond.

Here are some of our achievements in 2024 so far:

1. Starting work on the Central African Forest habitat, a new home for our gorillas

Back in June, the creation of the Central African Forest habitat began. The new immersive area, due to open in spring 2026, will mark a major step forward in our plans to develop our conservation zoo at Bristol Zoo Project.

Central African Forest will be home to our troop of Critically Endangered western lowland gorillas as well as Endangered cherry-crowned mangabeys and Endangered African grey parrots. A separate aquatic area will house Critically Endangered slender-snouted crocodiles and several species of Critically Endangered West African fish. Not only will the new development be a fantastic experience for visitors, but it also includes a new teaching space, funded by Biffa Award and the Fraxinus Charitable Trust, allowing us to offer more visits for school children and an exciting new space for our higher education courses.

2. The successful breeding of over 628 individuals from 12 species as part of ex-situ breeding programmes

We're working to save wildlife through our conservation projects in the field, and bolster populations through ex-situ breeding programmes with the species we care for in Bristol. Currently, 78% of species cared for by Bristol Zoological Society are under threat in the wild, and are part of targeted conservation breeding programmes. We aim to increase this to 90% of species by 2035.

Some of our biggest breeding successes this year have been:

• Contributing to a collective effort with multiple UK zoos to breed and release over 6,000 individuals of two species of Extinct-in-the-Wild Partula snails, endemic to French Polynesia.

• The successful fledging of young from three of the world’s rarest bird species – Vulnerable Mauritian pink pigeon, Endangered Visayan tarictic hornbill and Vulnerable European turtle dove.

3. Launched our Reverse the Red pledge to save species

Back in May, we launched our Reverse the Red pledge to protect 97 threatened species around the world, with a special focus on six often overlooked species which our conservation charity is championing.

We made our pledge alongside other organisations around the world which aim to conserve species and ecosystems. Reverse the Red is jointly run by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA).

Our 97 species include many that are well-known and loved, like western lowland gorillas, but the six we are championing include some you might not have heard of, including the Tanzanian dwarf turquoise gecko or Britain’s native white-clawed crayfish.

“The species we’ve chosen reflect the range of countries we work in and are from very small geographical locations, where with local partners, we work to save them from extinction. For those, we are leading the charge,” says Brian Zimmerman, the Society’s Director of Conservation and Science.

See the full list here.

4. Continued to protect native British wildlife at Bristol Zoo Project and beyond

As well as our work overseas, we carry out conservation work right here in the UK, to protect native species and ecosystems. We create and maintain habitats and monitor native species at Bristol Zoo Project. The zoo site is home to over 380 wild British species, including over 30 of conservation concern. Our Native Species team conduct weekly surveys on site to monitor species, which informs the way our Landscapes team manages the site.

Off-site, we have two major projects that are championing British wildlife. AQUA, our water quality awards scheme to fight invasive non-native species, has been expanded this year to include more than 60 sites across the UK. It informs waterway users (those in kayaks, on paddleboards, fishing and more) of the dangers of non-native invasive species in our waterways, including New Zealand pygmy weed and American signal crayfish, which pose a serious threat to riverbank stability and our native white-clawed crayfish.

The second project is protecting the Endangered white-clawed crayfish. This year, we have bred and released 169 white-clawed crayfish at suitable ark sites across the South West, safe sites free from the American signal crayfish. We have also translocated 143 crayfish from Vobster, an ark site that is doing so well we can take crayfish from it, to the River Axe, an ark site we are trying to establish. Since the project began, we’ve released 3,000 crayfish into ark sites, helping bolster wild populations across the UK.

5. Inspired over 16,000 young conservationists through our school visits, higher education and Access to Nature scheme

So far this year, we’ve taught over 400 higher education students and welcomed over 16,000 school children to the zoo, including 860 via our funded Access to Nature scheme. The scheme offers educational zoo visits for schools that couldn’t afford to come otherwise, allowing local children from communities with fewer opportunities to be inspired by a zoo visit.

Our higher education courses, run in partnership with local institutions, including UWE and the University of Bristol, include undergraduate and postgraduate degrees covering conservation, ecology and zoological management. This September, we launched our new Conservation Leadership Masters course, which offers the unique opportunity for students to help lead one of our active conservation projects.

6. Continued to save wildlife in nine countries across four continents

As well as our amazing conservation work in the UK, our project teams have made wildlife-saving progress across our other projects around the world. Here are some of our key achievements so far this year:

In Equatorial Guinea, we established rapid response units to protect crops from foraging elephants. The new units are teams of people responsible for deterring elephants that have wandered into farms using loud horns and flashing lights, and back into safe habitats. The aim is to reduce human-elephant conflict, which can lead to retaliatory killings. This method has had promising results in other countries facing this issue, including Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique.

In Madagascar, we have planted a further 15,000 native trees, and continued to nurture the 15,000 planted last year, aiming to restore and re-connect fragmented forest habitats. The forests are home to many endemic and threatened species, including Critically Endangered blue-eyed black lemurs, one of the key species Bristol Zoological Society has promised to protect as part of our Reverse the Red pledge. This project is in partnership with AEECL (The Lemur Conservation Association).

In the Philippines, we supported more local people to establish new businesses, reducing reliance on hunting the Critically Endangered Visayan warty pig as a source of food and income. Our project team visited in June to see the opening of a new rice retail store, joining other businesses including shrimp and chicken farms, which have opened with support from the project. Locals have also started to diversify their livelihoods beyond the project's scope, including making beautiful woven bags to sell in local tourist areas.

In Tanzania, we’ve partnered with local conservationists to assist with reforestation efforts to increase the abundance of native tree species, on which the Critically Endangered turquoise dwarf gecko live. We have supported the raising and planting out of over 5,000 seedlings of this native tree species into degraded areas of the reserve.

7. Welcomed over 16,000 amazing new supporters like you

All of this amazing work just wouldn’t happen without you. Our funders, corporate members and partners, donors, volunteers and individual members of Bristol Zoological Society all help our impactful conservation work to take place.

Whether you can spare £1 or £1,000 for our worthy cause, your money really does make a difference to wildlife.

We've been selected to participate in the Big Give Christmas Challenge Campaign which kicks off on #GivingTuesday, December 3. That means that every donation made to our Christmas Appeal during the week of 3-10 December will be doubled!

Whatever you give, no matter the size, every donation will make double the difference in supporting us deliver critical conservation projects and provide care to keep animals and habitats thriving.

So please donate by clicking below and double the difference for the animals and habitats you love.