ROYAL OAK, Mich., September 24, 2009 – The Detroit Zoo has received the 2009 North American Conservation Award from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) for its coordination of the Great Lakes piping plover salvage captive rearing program.  The significant achievement award honors the Zoo’s efforts to conserve the endangered bird.

The Great Lakes population of piping plovers has been listed as federally endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act since 1986.  Once estimated at over 600 pairs, piping plovers nested throughout the Great Lakes region.  By the early 1980s, the population had declined to under 20 pairs due to loss of habitat and disturbance of nesting birds.    

For the past nine summers, Detroit Zoo bird keepers have gathered at the University of Michigan’s Biological Station in Pellston with bird keepers from other zoos across the country.  As part of the recovery plan, piping plover nests are monitored daily and all abandoned eggs are collected for captive rearing.  The program includes artificially incubating the abandoned piping plover eggs, rearing hatched chicks and releasing the birds back into the wild when the chicks fledge. 

“Captive-reared piping plovers help to supplement the chicks that are reared naturally in nests along Lakes Michigan, Huron and Superior,” said Detroit Zoo Curator of Birds Tom Schneider.  “Over the last several years, the captive birds have represented approximately 15 percent of all Great Lakes piping plover production, with several of these birds returning to nest.  This effort has preserved genetic lines that may otherwise have vanished.” 

The piping plover population has been growing steadily as a result of the recovery efforts, and in 2009 there were 71 nesting pairs in the Great Lakes region.  Although still extremely vulnerable to extinction from predation, beach development and nest disturbance, the Great Lakes piping plover’s numbers are stable, but guarded.  Salvage captive rearing will remain an important component in the population recovery goal of 100 breeding pairs.  The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation provides grant funding to support the effort.

The Detroit Zoological Society is a non-profit organization that operates the Detroit Zoo and Belle Isle Nature Zoo.  Situated on 125 acres of naturalistic exhibits, the Detroit Zoo is located at the intersection of Ten Mile Road and Woodward Avenue, just off I-696, in Royal Oak.  The Detroit Zoo is open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. April through Labor Day (with extended hours until 8 p.m. Wednesdays during July and August), 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. day after Labor Day through October and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. November through March.  Admission is $11 for adults 15 to 61, $9 for senior citizens 62 and older, and $7 for children ages 2 to 14; children under 2 are free.  For more information, call (248) 541-5717 or visit www.detroitzoo.org.  The Belle Isle Nature Zoo is open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. year-round and provides educational programming with interpretive staff support from the Huron-Clinton Metroparks.  Admission is free.  For more information, call (313) 852-4056. 

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