The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) headquartered at the Bronx Zoo in New York City and operating in nearly 100 countries around the world. WCS was founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society and operates five wildlife parks in New York City — the Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Queens Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, and the New York Aquarium — that together welcomed more than 3.5 million visitors in 2024.
WCS’s global conservation program conserves habitat for more than 40% of Earth’s biodiversity across the largest intact terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems. The Society has helped create or strengthen more than 430 protected areas worldwide and partners with more than 440 local organizations. WCS’s Global Conservation Programs focus on the most intact and ecologically important wild places — including the Congo Basin, the Amazon, the Arctic, the Northern Great Plains (notably the American bison, which WCS championed as the U.S. National Mammal), and the oceans. Recent successes include the return of the Asiatic wild ass (khulan) to Eastern Mongolia after a 65-year absence, made possible by the creation of safe crossings along the Trans-Mongolian Railway.
WCS has been an IUCN member for many years and contributes significantly to IUCN’s work through its species and protected-area expertise. The Society’s combination of field conservation, scientific research, public education through its urban wildlife parks, and policy engagement at the international level makes it one of the most consequential U.S. conservation organizations.
