TYLER, Texas — Friday was Endangered Species day around the world, an effort to raise awareness of animals in danger of extinction.
CBS19 visited the Caldwell Zoo along with hundreds of animal lovers to find out how the zoo was helping the animals.
"Here at the Caldwell Zoo we have right around 30 species of endangered animals, they range anywhere from our elephants down to the Texas horned lizard," said Scotty Stainbeck, curator of mammals at the Caldwell Zoo.
Hundreds of animal lovers visited to find out how the zoo is helping the animals.
"If the numbers of these animals continue to decline then we are looking at animals that are extinct. We participate in breeding programs to help the survival of the species and maintain genetic diversity," Stainbeck said.
According to Stainbeck, some species were able to actually be released into the wild. The black rhino, which the Caldwell Zoo houses, was on the top 10 list of endangered species for 2024.
"By having him here he's an ambassador to his wild counterparts and we'll get to share information about black rhinos and having guests come out and learning about black rhinos and hopefully in the end getting involved in conservation efforts," Stainbeck said.
Conservation efforts have been successful in the past, the bald eagle was on the endangered list for a long time and no longer is thanks to these efforts.
"That was due to us managing the population of eagles and supporting the conservation effort. It's gonna take all of us to have an impact on this species not being on the endangered list anymore," Stainbeck said.