Zooper Pacs Lining Up to Support Their Favorites
​BRIDGEPORT, Conn. –October 31, 2023–-Five animal candidates are vying for the much sought-after title of Mayor of Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo. This important election will decide the Zoo’s fourth Mayor, the highest-ranking animal official who will showcase the important role of animal ambassadors. Last year’s winner, Rhubarb the two-toed sloth,  whose campaign slogan was “If not today, tomorrow,”  has spent most of his term hanging out in trees, while promoting the health benefits of life in the slow lane.

​BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – October 25, 2023 –Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo invites members of the community and friends of the Zoo to attend the fourth-in person Gala on Saturday, November 11 at The Inn at Longshore in Westport, Conn. The evening promises a wildly good time and all funds raised will support the Zoo’s mission of conserving critically endangered species with its award-winning conservation, education, and animal welfare programs. 
 
The Gala includes a seated dinner, musical entertainment, and silent and live auctions at a beautiful venue on the water. The evening begins at 5:30 p.m. with a cocktail hour offering up-close experiences and photo opportunities with the Zoo’s ambassador animals. The program features representatives of the Zoo’s Conservation Discovery Corps, an award-winning teen program, with remarks from Jennifer Farrell, the recipient of the Zoo’s Achievements in Conservation Award. Farrell will talk about Monarch Watch, a Citizen Science program that collects valuable data to study the declining population of Monarch butterflies. 

Two-year-old Nuna Joins the Zoo Family 

​BRIDGEPORT, Conn. –— October 23, 2023-- Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo is the new home for Nuna, a two-year-old female Andean bear newly arrived from the Queens Zoo in New York. Nuna has just completed her standard 30-day quarantine and has joined twenty-year-old female Andean bear Cayambe in the habitat which opened in May of this year. As a species, the Andean bear population is classified as vulnerable, with a decreasing population. The bears suffer from destruction and fragmentation of their habitats in the wild, with deforestation causing a decline in their numbers.
​Nuna was born on July 28, 2021.  Her name means soul, or spirit, in the language spoken by the indigenous Quechua people of the Peruvian Andes.