Sunset Working with Other Zoos

Sunset Zoo is an accredited member of the American Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) – a network of 200+ Zoos and Aquariums who are committed to the highest level of animal care and guest experience. Association of Zoos & Aquariums institutions are also deeply committed to ensuring the animals they collectively exhibit are preserved for future generations – both in captivity and in the wild.  

Efforts to secure the future for animals in the wild were elevated in 2015 through the AZA SAFE program.  The AZA network of Zoos and Aquariums are collectively working to save 10 species from extinction with more species being named in the future.  The two SAFE species Sunset Zoo is currently supporting are the cheetah and the vaquita.

Sunset Zoo participates in the Species Survival Plan® (SSP) program – a cooperative effort by AZA institutions to manage specific, and typically threatened or endangered, animal species. Species survival plans oversee a species’ captive population, including developing breeding and transfer recommendations among AZA institutions. Often representing species that urgently need to be conserved in the wild, SSPs “significantly contribute to field conservation efforts, veterinary care for wildlife disease issues and increase public awareness for wildlife conservation.”

There are currently more than 300 SSP programs; Sunset Zoo participates in several including:

American Flamingo Amur Leopard Asian Small-clawed Otter Bennett's Wallaby Black & White Colobus Monkey Bobcat Chacoan Peccary Cheetah Chimpanzee Cinereous Vulture Crested Screamer Giant Anteater

Kookaburra Maned Wolf North American Porcupine Parma Wallaby Red Panda Red-crowned Crane Spotted Hyena Southern Three-banded Armadillo Swift Fox Western Tufted Deer White-handed Gibbon