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SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund Announces Latest Grant Recipients
Non-Profit Foundation Makes Worldwide Grants Totaling $362,500
St. Louis, Mo. (March 22, 2006) - The SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund, a non-profit foundation dedicated to wildlife conservation, research, education and animal rescue, today announced grants totaling more than $362,000. Thirty-one conservation and research organizations working on six continents will benefit from the grants.
"This is the largest grant session since the Fund was created in 2003, both in terms of total donations and number of beneficiaries," said Fund President Virginia M. Busch. "It is gratifying that we are able to assist so many worthy organizations that share our commitment to conservation and environmental preservation."
The grant recipients vary widely in their area of scientific focus as well as geography - from the preservation of bandicoots in South Australia to breeding endangered wolves in St. Louis. The Fund awarded nearly $600,000 in 2005.
The SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund was created in part to allow visitors to the nine Anheuser-Busch Adventure Parks, as well as members of the general public, to supplement the more than $2.5 million currently earmarked for conservation by the company.
Recipients of the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund Grants
Audubon Center for Birds of Prey/Audubon of Florida will receive $20,000 for a program to preserve bald eagles in Florida. Florida's Audubon Center serves the largest volume of injured and orphaned eagles, owls, falcons, hawks and kites east of the Mississippi River.
WildAid will receive $10,000 to help fund a complete renovation of the Water Bird Aviary in the Phnom Tarnao Wildlife Rescue Center in Cambodia. The aviary rehabilitation will allow WildAid to continue the process of rescue, rehabilitation, breeding and release of endangered Cambodian water birds.
Exotic and Wild Bird Rescue of the Florida Keys, Inc. will receive $2,500 for environmental education and habitat restoration efforts.
Warrawong Earth Sanctuary will receive $2,500 to help preserve the southern brown bandicoot, a species that has been decimated by the combination of non-native predatory animals (feral and domestic cats) and human impact
The Cheetah Conservation Fund will receive $20,000 to provide conservation, wildlife and livestock management, and biodiversity training to approximately 7,180 Namibian students, educators, and commercial and subsistence farmers. Namibia is home to the largest remaining population of wild cheetahs in the world, most of which are found on privately held and communal lands.
The Wildlife Society of Orissa will receive $10,000 for studying freshwater turtles in the Mahanadi river of Orissa, India. Poaching by fishermen and trade to outside markets is now a major threat to the survival of these freshwater turtles.
The World Wildlife Fund will receive $20,000 to study the effect of fisheries bycatch on endangered sea turtles. WWF advocates the use of fishing gear that dramatically decreases incidental killing of sea turtles, particularly in the lucrative long-line fishery in the Pacific Basin.
Conservation International will receive $15,000 for a marine rapid assessment program (RAP) in the northeast waters of Madagascar, between Cap d' Ambre and Vohmar. A team of international and national scientists will assess selected species, threats to biodiversity, health of coral reefs, stocks of commercially important species, marine resource use and the concerns of local stakeholders. environment.
The Sumatran Orangutan Society-Orangutan Information Centre will receive $11,000 to study orangutans and their interaction with human populations in Sumatra.
Hawaii Pacific University will receive $4,000 for a study of rough-toothed dolphins and melon-headed whales. Researchers hope to determine how deep they dive, where they forage, and the extent of their home ranges.
Wildlife Conservation Society will receive $5,000 to study the distribution, behavior and status of Atlantic humpback dolphins in the Mayumba National Park in Gabon, Africa.
Zoological Society of London will receive $10,000 for its Project Seahorse. This project aims to understand the relative contribution of each source to the live trade in seahorses, evaluate their conservation benefits and provide guidance to public aquariums and hobbyists on the best source of seahorses to promote their conservation in the wild.
The Nature Conservancy will receive $ 20,000 toward the creation of a regional marine protected areas system, enhance the scientific and management capacity of local partners at key sites and implement a virtual learning center to widely disseminate information and to provide vital training.
National Audubon Society will receive $15,000 for "Project Puffin," the restoration of seabird colonies on the Maine coast and to expand the society's seabird education program. Since its inception in 1973, Audubon's Seabird Restoration Program has served as a model for international bird restoration techniques. In cooperation with SeaWorld, Audubon seeks to protect and restore puffin and other seabird colonies on the Maine coast and to educate the general public about the importance of conserving marine ecosystems. The grant will assist the National Audubon Society to carry out its education mission by helping to fund outreach classroom visits, Internet seabird cameras, and staffing for a new visitor center in downtown Rockland.
Restore America's Estuaries will receive $15,000 for rallying volunteers in every coastal region. Restore America's Estuaries (RAE) develops and supports projects that empower ordinary citizens to actively participate in restoring their coasts and estuaries, which are among the richest ecosystems in the world.
Rainforest Alliance will receive $15,000 to protect wildlife habitat, both marine and land-based, in Belize through the promotion of environmental responsibility for small and medium hotels and accommodation providers in the country.
PRETOMA (Sea Turtle Restoration Program - Costa Rica) will receive $5,000 to protect and restore endangered sea turtles and their habitats. The most urgent sea turtle conservation need corresponds to the critically endangered Pacific leatherback sea turtle, which could go extinct within 15 years.
National Wildlife Federation will receive $5,000 for a program to conserve the Florida panther. The grant will allow the organization to convene scientists, to facilitate a consensus methodology for habitat evaluation that incorporates long-range recover goals based upon the best available science concerning the panther's habitat needs.
World Wildlife Fund will receive $15,000 to help preserve tigers in Sumatra, Nepal and the Russian Far East by operating anti-poaching teams in each area. Within the Russian Far East, WWF supports anti-poaching patrols, prosecution of arrested poachers, and tiger monitoring.
Bat Conservation International, Inc. will receive $10,000 for a program to protect a critical habitat in the Hill Country of Central Texas--the Bracken Bat Cave and Nature Reserve. Over the next few years, BCI will continue the restoration of plant and animal diversity on these ruggedly beautiful 700 acres, turning former ranchland into an educational and scientific resource for visitors from around the world.
Tropical Science Center will receive $10,000 for a project that aims to strengthen connections between biologically critical areas by encouraging coffee farmers to adopt conservation management on their farms as an environmentally friendly production alternative that supports biodiversity and creates habitat corridors between privately owned forests and the Biosphere Reserve.
Conservation International will receive a grant to further its work with The Asian arowana or dragonfish, stocks of which have been damaged as a result of collecting for the aquarium trade. Conservation International will provide scientific oversight to a project that will engage government staff, students from the Royal University of Agriculture in Cambodia, and local community members to assess the dragonfish range, population dynamics, and design a sustainable management plan for this specis.
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation will receive $10,000 for its Absaroka Conservation Initiative to protect and enhance highly threatened and ecologically significant wildlife habitat in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Yellowstone provides critical habitat to greater sage-grouse, grizzly bears, the largest Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep population in the 48 contiguous states, mountain lions, gray wolves, cutthroat trout, lynx, and numerous other species, and is the destination of one of the longest elk migration routes in the world
American Bird Conservancy will receive $10,000 to help establish the Jorupe Biodiversity Reserve in southwest Ecuador. American Bird Conservancy seeks to purchase 1,000 acres through its Ecuadorian partner, Foundation Jocotoco, as part the conservancy's plan to protect the entire upper watershed of the Jorupe River.
CENAP-IBAMA-Instituto Procarnivoros will receive $2,500 to conduct the first Maned Wolf Population and Habitat Viability Assessment (PHVA) workshop, which will be held in the town of Sao Rogue de Minas located just outside the Serra da Canastra National Park in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The group hopes to develop an action plan for maned wolf conservation throughout its native range.
Defenders of Wildlife will receive $15,000 to study and preserve the endangered California sea otter. The group proposes to help protect the declining sea otter population on California's central coast by promoting better water quality in nearshore waters.
Wild Canid Survival and Research Center will receive $20,000 for its continuing work in studying, breeding and replenishing wild stocks of North American wolves. The Center is located near St. Louis, Mo.
Earthwatch Institute will receive a grant in support of research to help clarify a long-term conservation plan that will help protect the ruffed lemur and its habitat in Madagascar.
Smithsonian's National Zoological Park Conservation & Research will receive $10,000 for a study of clouded leopards in Thailand. The Smithsonian's National Zoological Park has initiated conservation programs with the Thailand Department of National Parks and the Thailand Zoological Park Organization to determine the status of wild clouded leopards and to use clouded leopards in Thai zoos to develop innovative, non-invasive and traditional field techniques for monitoring and protecting free-ranging clouded leopards.
Conservation International do Brasil will receive $10,000 for a study of the critically endangered white-whiskered spider monkey. The project will map the distribution of the species in the Xingu-Tapajos interfluvium, with a focus on the Teles Pires river.
Duke University Department of Biology will receive a grant to help fund a study of the tropical forest ecosystem in southeastern Peru.
Wildlife Conservation Society will receive $10,000 for its Mbeli Bai Study, the longest continuous investigation of western gorillas in the Congo. The study employs direct observations, providing important baseline information on the social organization, demography and behavior of an intact population of gorillas, which is vital in predicting the effects of disturbances to these and other gorilla populations.
The SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund is a registered non-profit foundation. Its mission is to work with purpose and passion on behalf of wildlife and habitats worldwide, encouraging sustainable solutions through support of species research, animal rescue and rehabilitation and conservation education.
Busch Entertainment Corp., the family entertainment subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., operates nine U.S. theme parks: SeaWorld parks in Orlando, Fla., San Diego, Calif. and San Antonio, Texas; Busch Gardens parks in Tampa, Fla. and Williamsburg, Va.; Discovery Cove in Orlando; Sesame Place in Langhorne, Pa.; Adventure Island in Tampa and Water Country USA in Williamsburg.
For more information, contact Fred Jacobs at 314/613-6077.
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Busch Gardens Tampa Bay welcomes the birth of baby Geri into the park's black rhino population. Busch Gardens' veterinarians conduct blood studies on the black rhino both in the park and out in the wild to better understand the health of the endangered species.
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