San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

In 1923, seven years after the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance was born, the San Diego Zoo opened its doors. Struggling early on to acquire funding and animals, it became one of the planet's largest zoos. The 100-acre site in Balboa Park houses more than 12,000 rare and endangered animals from 680 species and subspecies. Its botanical gardens house more than 700,000 plants from around the world. The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (formerly the Zoological Society of San Diego and San Diego Zoo Global) also oversees the 1,800-acre San Diego Zoo Safari Park in nearby Escondido, which cares for more than 3,000 animals from 300-plus species in savanna habitats and features a botanical garden with more than 1.3 million plants.

In 2004, the alliance unveiled the Beckman Center for Conservation Research, which houses the zoo's eight research groups: biodiversity banking, community engagement, conservation genetics, disease investigations, plant conservation, population sustainability, recovery ecology, and reproductive sciences. In 2023, the alliance created the Center for Species Survival: Biodiversity Banking in partnership with the Species Survival Commission. To ensure the survival of animals, plants, and habitats worldwide, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance promotes education, research, and the human-animal connection.