ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Saturday marked the first day of the ABQ BioPark’s Great Ape-ril series, introducing zoo-goers to our closest relatives in the animal kingdom. “So we’re celebrating chimps, orangutans, siamangs, and gorillas,” explained primate zookeeper at the ABQ BioPark, Megan Agena.
Guests took a stroll down the ape walk trail at the BioPark for the start of the Great Ape-Ril series, a month-long celebration of our wildlife counterparts who call the BioPark home. “This is our 10th year doing it as the Albuquerque Biopark. We’ve raised almost $75,000 in the 10 years that we’ve been doing it,” continued Agena.
For the last decade, the BioPark has hosted this celebration in an effort to educate, raise awareness, and support conservation efforts to protect primates in the wild. The BioPark’s goal is to raise $20,000 for the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program and the Pan-African Sanctuary Alliance.
“The money that we make from the items that we sell go directly to organizations in these areas, so Africa, for example, that will help with the poaching, the deforestation, things like that that are declining the populations of the chimpanzees or gorillas,” emphasized Agena.
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Each week, the zoo dedicates education stations to a different great ape; this week, talks were centered around chimpanzees. “And every Saturday we’ll be kind of talking a little bit about each species and what they’re facing and why their populations are declining,” explained Agena…