Anonymous donation helps Cheyenne Mountain Zoo save species

Flooding last summer at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo almost jeapordized the future of some endangered species.

But help is on the way in the form of an anonymous donation.

For animals like Dillinger.

He’s part of a group of Black Footed Ferrets that are cute, playful and – for the moment at least – homeless.

“We got a call early one day that we thought the hillside was a little closer to the building than it had been in the past.” said Bob Chastain, the President and CEO of Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

The reason? Heavy spring rains.

“Over the course of the morning. the land did start to move slowly until it started to push in one wall of the Black Footed Ferret building,” said Chastain.

The ferrets were in danger of being wiped out. It wouldn’t have been the first time.

Jeff Baughman of Cheyenne Mountain Zoo said “They were declared extinct twice.”

But thanks to an anonymous donation of $1 million the ferrets will move to a new facility.

They’ll share it with another endangered species – the Wyoming Toad.

Conservation programs like the one for Dillinger the Black Footed Ferret are part of the reason the zoo exists, and the donation, the contribution that was given will help continue those conservation programs.

Baughman said, “if it wasn’t for zoos and their federal partners, these species would be extinct.

Without the breeding programs, zoo visitors wouldn’t get the chance to learn about critters like Dillinger. And neither would future generations.

“I think our children should be able to enjoy the same wildlife that we have on Earth today,” said Matthew Doyle, who was visiting from New York.

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has been breeding Black Footed Ferrets since 1990 and Wyoming Toads since 2004.