The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a global nonprofit organization based at the Bronx Zoo in New York City. Its mission is to protect wildlife and their natural habitats around the world. The organization was founded in 1895 as the New York Zoölogical Society (NYZS). As of July 1, 2025, Adam Falk is the President and CEO of WCS. The organization manages four wildlife parks in New York City in addition to the Bronx Zoo: the Central Park Zoo, New York Aquarium, Prospect Park Zoo, and Queens Zoo. Together, these parks welcome about 4 million visitors each year. All of these facilities are accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). WCS also works to protect wildlife and their habitats in more than 50 countries worldwide.

History

The Wildlife Conservation Society was created by the government of New York State on April 26, 1895. At first, it was called the New York Zoölogical Society. Its mission was to protect native wildlife, promote the study of zoology, and build a top-quality zoological park that would be free for the public. In 1993, the organization changed its name to the Wildlife Conservation Society. Andrew H. Green was the first president, but he resigned due to poor health and was replaced by Levi P. Morton. Henry Fairfield Osborn, who was a curator at the American Museum of Natural History and the founder of the American Eugenics Society, became Morton’s successor. Madison Grant, a well-known eugenicist and author of The Passing of the Great Race, served as the society’s secretary and chairman of the executive committee. William Temple Hornaday was the founding director and general curator of the park. These leaders wrote many works that promoted conservation values. According to environmental historian Miles A. Powell, their writings were important for conservation but were also influenced by racial discrimination, a focus on traditional masculinity, and the idea that protecting wildlife was linked to protecting the white population.

Other important figures in the Society’s creation included George Bird Grinnell, founder of the Audubon Society and editor of Forest and Stream magazine, and members of the Boone and Crockett Club.

The Bronx Zoo (formerly the New York Zoological Park) was designed like other cultural institutions in New York City, such as the American Museum of Natural History. The city provided the land and some funding for buildings and operating costs. The Wildlife Conservation Society raised most of the money for construction and operations from private donors and chose the scientific and administrative staff. Hornaday’s work was important for conservation, but he faced controversy after displaying Ota Benga, a Mbuti man from the Congo, in a zoo exhibit.

In the late 1800s, William Temple Hornaday, then director of the New York Zoological Park (now the Bronx Zoo), conducted a mail survey to study wildlife conditions across the United States. He shared his findings about the decline of birds and mammals in the Society’s annual reports. Hornaday wrote many books, including The Extermination of the American Bison and Our Vanishing Wildlife: Its Extermination and Preservation. In Our Vanishing Wildlife, he linked species extinction to the decline of the white race in America.

In 1897, Hornaday hired Andrew J. Stone to study wildlife in Alaska. Based on Stone’s research, Hornaday pushed for new laws to protect wildlife in Alaska and across the United States. In 1901, a small group of American bison was moved to a 20-acre meadow near what is now Pelham Parkway. Starting in 1905, Hornaday led efforts to reintroduce bison to government-owned refuges. In 1905, Hornaday, Theodore Roosevelt, and others formed the American Bison Society. The Bronx Zoo sent 15 bison to the Wichita Reserve in 1907 and more bison in later years. Saving the American bison is considered one of the greatest successes in wildlife conservation history. Hornaday promoted wildlife protection for 30 years as director of the Bronx Zoo. Beginning in 1906, he displayed Ota Benga in a zoo exhibit. In July 2020, the Wildlife Conservation Society apologized for this action.

Madison Grant and Osborn worked with John C. Merriam, another eugenics supporter, to form the Save-The-Redwoods-League in 1918. Together, they convinced lawmakers to protect redwood trees by comparing them to a race in danger. Some local communities viewed Grant, Osborn, and Hornaday’s attitudes as elitist compared to those of poorer citizens and nonwhite citizens.

William Beebe, the first bird curator at the Bronx Zoo, started a field research program soon after the zoo opened. His studies of wild pheasants in Asia from 1908 to 1911 led to a series of books on birds. Beebe’s fieldwork also led to the creation of the Society’s Department of Tropical Research, which he directed from 1922 until his retirement in 1948. From 1930 to 1934, Beebe conducted research in an undersea vessel called the bathysphere off the coast of Bermuda. The bathysphere made 35 dives, reaching half a mile deep. During these dives, Beebe observed bioluminescent fish and identified new species. This expedition was important because it was the first time humans studied deep-sea life in its natural habitat. The bathysphere is now on display at the New York Aquarium.

During World War II, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Jr. became president of the New York Zoological Society, and Laurance Rockefeller was elected chairman of the executive committee. Osborn, a well-known conservation writer and son of WCS founder Henry Fairfield Osborn, supported new ideas within the organization. Guests were allowed to bring cameras into the Bronx Zoo. In 1941, the African Plains exhibit was opened, grouping animals by continent and ecosystem instead of by genetic family.

After World War II, under Osborn’s leadership, the Society expanded its field biology and conservation programs. In 1946, WCS helped create the Jackson Hole Wildlife Park, which later became part of Grand Teton National Park in 1962. In the late 1950s, WCS began wildlife surveys and projects in Kenya, Tanganyika (now Tanzania), Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Burma, and the Malay Peninsula. In 1959, WCS supported George Schaller’s groundbreaking study of mountain gorillas in Congo. Schaller later became one of the world’s leading field biologists, studying wildlife in Africa, Asia, and South America. Conservation efforts grew under William G. Conway, who became director of the Bronx Zoo in 1962 and president of WCS in 1992. Conway, an active field biologist in Patagonia, promoted a new vision of zoos as conservation organizations that bred endangered species. He also designed zoo exhibits to teach visitors about animal