How this endangered lizard helped Fresno Chaffee Zoo land a new conservation center

In 2020, the Fresno Chaffee Zoo partnered with the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Fresno State to start a breeding program with the last blunt-nosed leopard lizards from the Panoche Plateau in west Fresno County.

Since then, the program has continued to collect data to help recover the endangered species, which is found in the San Joaquin Valley desert and adjacent foothills.

To further that effort, and others, the zoo is building a new Conservation Action Center, which broke ground Feb. 13 and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

“This is a major milestone for the Zoo,” Fresno Chaffee Zoo CEO Jon Forrest Dohlin said in a statement.

“We have supported several conservation organizations over the years, and now, thanks to our partnerships, we are poised to become leaders in local conservation science to help save native California species.”

The Conservation Action Center will serve as space for the zoo’s future conservation initiatives, and give guests the opportunity to see that work in action. This includes the day-to-day operations of the blunt-nosed leopard lizard program.

“Endangered species recovery is complex and difficult work,” said Michael Fris, field supervisor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office. “The construction and operation of this center will be a vital part to recovering the blunt-nosed leopard lizard and many other species.”

The facility will be paid for through a series of grants provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Reclamation, though a portion of the building is being funded through Measure Z, according to the Zoo.

This story was originally published February 19, 2023 at 8:30 AM with the headline "How this endangered lizard helped Fresno Chaffee Zoo land a new conservation center."