Zoos Urged to Bolster Efforts to Save World’s Wildlife : Preservation: Conservationist tells zoological group and zoo patrons they have only until end of decade to stop “the greatest mass extinction” ever.

Zoos must become partners in wildlife preservation efforts and launch educational campaigns to entice their visitors to aid preservation, a leading conservationist told zoo directors and curators Monday.

The world is on the edge of “the greatest mass extinction episodes that have ever occurred,” and zoos must act to help stop it, Norman Myers, senior fellow of the World Wildlife Fund, told 1,300 delegates attending the convention of the American Assn. of Zoological Parks and Aquariums in San Diego.

“We have only to the end of this decade to stave off a biological holocaust that will make millions of the species that share this world with us extinct,” Myers said. “After that, the process of habitat destruction . . . will have worked up so much momentum, it will cost so much more to stop it.”

Zoos and aquariums must educate the 120 million people a year nationwide who walk through their gates that they too can play a role in saving the environments of not just this country but the rest of world, Myers said.

“Quietly, slowly, subtly feed this message into them so that, when they go away, they will think about it not for several more hours but days, weeks and years,” Myers said.

Zoo-goers must be made sensitive to the consequences of their lifestyles on the environment like never before, he said.

“This hand has unwittingly contributed to the deforestation of South America,” Myers said, his left arm raised, referring to having eaten meat from cows raised on ranches where rain forests used to stand.

Myers also told delegates to focus their zoo’s resources on conservation programs outside the United States and enter cooperative agreements with other zoos to pool resources.

While Myers praised San Diego’s zoos for educational efforts, he said every zoo can do more in preserving the wildlife outside the United States.

“Look out beyond your borders. The real battle lies out in the Third World,” he said.

Local delegates to the convention agreed with Myers’ proposals.

The Zoological Society of San Diego, which operates the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park, already has joined an informal organization of 18 zoos in California.

“Hopefully, we will be able to combine our resources to move outside the United States and into other conservation programs outside,” said the society’s executive director, Douglas Myers.

The society has conservation programs in the Galapagos Islands, Belize, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Colombia and Costa Rica working in conjunction with those governments and their zoological agencies.

Michael Hutchins, the zoological association’s director of conservation and science, agreed that San Diego is on the cutting edge of environmental presentation by zoos.

“The only other institution that begins to match San Diego’s commitment is in New York,” Hutchins said.

Although 50 species of animals, mostly insects, become extinct everyday, Myers said he believes it is possible to reverse the course.

“There is still time to get on top of this problem before it gets on top of us. It will be nip and tuck, no doubt about it, but there is still time,” Myers said.

Myers points to the success in rebuilding the Bengal tiger population in India as one example.

“That was accomplished by India. Overcrowded India. Impoverished India. If they can accomplish it, just think what we can do,” Myers said.