Give to animal care
Your Denver Zoo donation helps to support our mission of Inspiring Communities to Save Wildlife for Future Generations. We are so grateful for your incredible generosity.
Donate NowAround-the-Clock Care
It takes a village to care for 3,000 wild + wonderful animals.
At Denver Zoo, our love for the animals under our care drives everything we do. Less than 10% of zoos in the U.S. meet the exacting accreditation standards of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)-and, as members of this exclusive group, we’re proud to be setting the gold standard for wild animal care and wellness in this country. Our ongoing mission: to enhance lives by maximizing daily choice, challenge and control for our animal family.
From the tiniest gecko to the most robust rhino, our 3,500 animals are our most precious resource. Your involvement ensures that the dedicated experts on our Animal Care team have the support they need to provide the best care in the industry, every single day-and that we continue to innovate and evolve with each passing year. Read on to learn some of the many ways you make this possible when you support Animal Care at Denver Zoo.
Zoo Babies
Support World-Class Care for Our Littlest Residents
Welcoming a new baby is a huge responsibility for any family. But when that baby represents the future of a critically endangered species-as is the case with many of Denver Zoo’s bundles of joy-the stakes are very high indeed. Case in point: the list of experts who contributed to the healthy birth of Joona, the greater one-horned rhino calf we welcomed in 2020, after 12 rounds of artificial insemination and more than a year’s gestation, is too long to list here. Suffice to say that it truly takes a village, and we’re eternally grateful for every person who takes part. Click the tabs below to learn what Denver Zoo’s expectant families need…and how you can help!
Getting Ready for Baby Birth Support Group Crucial First Days Baby Food Getting Ready for BabyGetting Ready for Baby
Birth Support GroupBirth Support Group
As the date approaches, the animal care team must closely monitor our moms-to-be-assembling essential birthing items like towels, lubricants and ultrasound machines. We also make sure to pamper our expectant moms with plenty of their favorite treats.
Crucial First DaysCrucial First Days
Occasionally, our newborns need specialized 24/7 care. Our detailed birth management plans include specific benchmarks for those crucial few weeks and months of life, and our veterinary teams perform important medical assessments. The goal is to always keep mom and baby together-but when interventions are necessary, our Animal Hospital is standing by to work miracles. Your gift of $1,200 runs our Intensive Care Unit for an entire day.
Baby FoodBaby Food
While our new babies typically stay close to mom, much of our neonatal care requires specialized attention from our nutrition staff. For example, we make sure to have insects small enough for our littlest babies to eat-we’ve even created diets for the insects themselves, to ensure that they’re providing our zoo babies with the nutrients they need to thrive.
Nutrition
Specialized nutrition for 3,000 individuals spanning 500+ unique species.
Outstanding animal nutrition is the foundation of a healthy and high-quality life. Our thoughtfully crafted nutrition program helps to encourage natural behaviors, promote overall wellness and help our animals live longer, healthier lives. Our Nutrition Department works tirelessly to create daily diet plans for more the more than 500 species that make Denver Zoo home, including healthy, nutritive meals that are as close as possible to the foods they would consume in the wild. This dedicated team also caters to some of the most highly specialized diets on the planet-including a gibbon with diabetes, a clouded leopard with a meat allergy and other (necessarily) picky eaters.
Browse
Fresh, natural nutrition for herbivores of all shapes and sizes.
For herbivores like Asian elephants and capybara, the team sources and distributes browse materials-the limbs, twigs and leaves that many of our animals eat. We receive and portion nearly 1,000 pounds of browse material every week for distribution throughout the Zoo. In the summer, we feed our animals using browse grown right here on campus, by our Horticulture Department.
Support Browse Feeding Program
Carcass
An important element of mealtime for social carnivores like lions and hyenas.
For carnivores like our African lions and spotted hyenas, carcass feeding provides fundamental opportunities for our animals to display natural predatory behaviors. Feeding large sections or whole prey provides mental stimulation, exercises jaw muscles, improves muscle tone, supports digestive health, extends foraging time and helps form bonds among our social carnivores.
Support Carcass Feeding ProgramEmily Insalaco
Curator of Behavioral Husbandry and Animal Ambassadors
Denver Zoo’s Curator of Behavioral Husbandry Emily Insalaco guides zookeepers in creating activities and training programs to support the mental and physical health of our animals with different goals for each species and each individual animal.
Click Here [VIDEO-POPUP]Enrichment
Specialized programs to engage the minds and enrich the lives of our animals.
Denver Zoo is one of only a handful of zoos in the country that employs a full-time animal care specialist wholly dedicated to animal enrichment programs. By encouraging natural and healthy behaviors like digging, tracking, swimming, dusting, climbing, foraging and play, we provide our animals with daily opportunities to explore and interact with their diverse environments-much as they would in the wild. From puzzle feeders to elephant art, these activities enhance both mental and physical well-being.
Support Enrichment at Denver ZooBecome Our Partner in Possibility
When you support Denver Zoo, you’re doing more than helping our animal family to thrive. You’re also ensuring that we can continue to be one of the city’s most vital community cornerstones-providing daily education and inspiration to animal lovers of all ages, so the next generation can experience the wonder of the natural world.
Donate Now
