The Annual Drive to Support the Zoo

As you may know, the Houston Zoo relies on the kindness of individuals like you who share our commitment to conservation and education, and our love for wildlife. Earned revenue from gate admission, memberships, and concessions covers less than half of the total expenditures associated with operating the Zoo. Each year this substantial gap is filled by important supporters like you.

Annual support of the Houston Zoo makes a difference. Your gifts help feed, house, and care for the animals that call the Zoo home; provides free field trips for thousands of school children; and kept the gates to the Zoo open so that more than 1.6 million of your neighbors can visit and build a greater appreciation for the natural world.

In the coming year, gifts to the annual fund will support a wide variety of exciting additions and traditions including:

• Free school field trips — We hope you agree that visiting our Zoo is a special part of all our children's lives. To help make this happen, we welcome all school groups from the Houston area schools for free; this year we estimate that more than 50,000 children will visit the Zoo through this program.
• New animal additions — In 2009, the Zoo will add several new species to its collection and we are especially excited to welcome back red pandas after an absence of over 16 years. These animals are quite beautiful; their faces are predominantly white and they have long and soft reddish-brown fur on their upper body that fades to black on their legs. The wild red panda population has decreased by as much as 40% over the last 50 years due to massive habitat loss, increased human activity, and poaching.
• International conservation initiatives—The Zoo's conservation efforts span the globe, we are involved in over 22 conservation projects in more than 10 countries. In Borneo, we are helping to save the last of the orangutans; their habitat is dwindling due to the increasing number of palm oil plantations and so too is their population—researchers believe that these great red apes could be extinct by the middle of the century.

None of these projects, no matter how important, would be possible without help from passionate supporters like you. Year after year, it is the assistance from our friends that helps the Zoo continue to grow and improve.

For questions about supporting the HoustonZoo, please contact Nick Espinosa Director of Individual Giving and Donor Relations, at 713.533.6712.

Houston Zoo, Inc.
P.O. Box 4759<
Houston, Texas 77210-9862

(Please include your telephone number)