In 1969 WCS established the Whale Fund. Under the direction of Roger Payne, the Whale Fund provided resources for the study and conservation of endangered whales.

View on Instagram

We are celebrating the 90th Anniversary of the WCS Department of Education! In this photo, the first Curator of Education, Claude Leister, lectures school children in 1931. Today, the Education Department works to inspire a diverse, inclusive movement of conservation advocates through their programs and activities across the five WCS parks.

View on Instagram

Happy World Snow Leopard Day! This poster was used by WCS and partner organizations in the 1970s to foster snow leopard preservation in Pakistan. The text translated from Urdu says “Snow Cheetah, This beautiful animal is protected by law but it cannot survive without your help and cooperation. Let it remain alive. It is a precious treasure of Pakistan.”

View on Instagram

A visitor at the @nyaquarium listens to an audio recording that describes the exhibits as she explores. June 12, 1957.

View on Instagram

A frog sits perched on the branch of a plant in Venezuela. This frog was observed by WCS’s Department of Tropical Research, who spent time studying wildlife in Venezuela in the 1920s and 1940s.

View on Instagram

In the 1960s, the Mammalogy Department at the Bronx Zoo invented an exhibit specially for housing nocturnal animals. The Red Light Room in the Small Mammal House opened in 1961, and it used Red Lights to help create a day cycle for the animals. Red light is bright for humans and dim for the animals, so the room allowed visitors to see the animals being active in their nighttime environment. White light at night simulated day time, when the animals sleep. This method was then implemented in the World of Darkness exhibit at the zoo that opened in 1969, which is featured in this photo.

View on Instagram

In the 1940s at the Bronx Zoo’s Children Zoo, guinea pigs experienced the life of medieval royalty. The guinea pigs had their very own castle, complete with a moat and drawbridge.

View on Instagram

Happy World Lion Day! WCS conservationist George Schaller took this photo of lions taking a break in the shade of a tree during his pioneering studies of lion behavior and ecology in the Serengeti in the 1960s. 

View on Instagram

William Beebe, the first curator of Ornithology at the Bronx Zoo and founder of WCS’s Department of Tropical Research, was born on this day in 1877. He’s photographed here in Venezuela where the DTR took part in three expeditions between 1945 and 1948.

We’re celebrating zoo keepers past and present for National Zookeeper Week! Bronx Zoo keeper Fred Martini and a California Sea Lion together in 1946.

View on Instagram