St. Louis Zoo's new efforts to safeguard the endangered polar bear

ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Zoo has launched a new conservation initiative that will help support research, fieldwork, and outreach for wild polar bears and the people living amongst them.

The St. Louis Zoo Wildcare Institute’s Center for Polar Bear Conservation is the first new conservation center created by the zoo since 2019.

It’s designed to be an adaptable program dedicated to safeguarding the polar bear species that are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. They face significant threats, including the loss of sea ice habitat due to climate change.

“Polar bears are an incredibly important species. They're an iconic species that represent a lot of the arctic region,” Julie Hartell-DeNardo, curator of carnivores at the St. Louis Zoo, said.

“And also, a lot of the change we’re seeing up in the arctic and the impacts of that on other species that are up there, as well as the people that live in the arctic regions.”

The Center for Polar Bear Conservation is now one of 17 St. Louis Zoo Wildcard Institute centers dedicated to the conservation of animals and their habitats globally.

“Those impacts would be measured by the impact we have on our guests here and what they can do to help mitigate the concerns of climate change. Conservation science—ways to improve what we know about polar bears—there's a lot about what we don’t know about them,” Hartell-DeNardo said.

“They’re actually relatively understudied as an overall population. And when it comes to population management, making sure that we mitigate any problems or challenges that they're facing in the wild. We do best to do so with the resources we have available.”