Zoo de Granby expands conservation mission, aims to protect more at-risk species

The Zoo de Granby is launching a new movement called “Mission Faune.”

The multi-million-dollar initiative aims to accelerate the protection of biodiversity across the province and the planet.

By 2030, the goal is to protect 70 at-risk species across the world.

Mission Faune will collaborate on conservation programs in more than 15 countries, such as Cameroon, where they monitor gorillas and offer solutions to conflicts between elephants and humans.

For example, they found that elephants fear bees, so beehives have been installed around villages to keep the massive animals away.

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The movement will double existing investments and efforts to the tune of $11 million to protect biodiversity across the world, but also here in Quebec.

“A movement I would say of saving nature, of saving the animals in nature,” said Paul Gosselin, the zoo’s CEO. “For the zoo, it’s very important since our mission is to act to preserve animals.”

In Canada half of all animal species are in decline, with 37 threatened wildlife species in Quebec such as the spiny softshell turtle.

Zoo experts go to Lake Champlain and collect the eggs, nurse them at the zoo to make sure they hatch and then release them into the wild.

Since they started, they have released more than 2,000 turtles that otherwise might have not hatched.

They also raise awareness about the importance of the little creatures.

“A lot of people aren’t really aware of our education; of our conservation missions that we have and objectives at the zoo. They come to the zoo and think ‘it’s a tourist place’ but we are a group of nine biologists that are outside of the zoo 24/7 working with species at risk in Quebec and internationally,” says  Chelsea Paquette, the conservation coordinator at the Zoo de Granby .

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The zoo tapped renowned Quebec author Kim Thúy as the project’s ambassador. When Thúy’s family first moved to Quebec, they set up in Granby and she says she has wonderful memories of her visits, something she shares with her son who also loves the installations and the animals.

“To him, the zoo is paradise,” Thúy said of her son who is on the autism spectrum.

Her goal is for many more people to fall in love with the zoo, just like she and her son have.

“I’m sure to be a speakerphone, but mostly what we need is to bring the population to the zoo so they get to fall in love with the animals and the work of the zoo. When we fall in love we do anything to participate and work together to make things better,” Thuy said.

The program also includes an educational aspect with presentations at schools and four research partnerships with Quebec universities.

The zoo is actually a non-profit organization — all the proceeds from ticket sales go towards helping fund their conservation programs and to increase the number and protection of at-risk species in their care.