In Palm Beach County, the third week in July will now be known as National Zookeeper Week.
That’s after county commissioners approved a proclamation earlier this month honoring the Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society in West Palm Beach for its overall wildlife conservation efforts.
That includes work the zoo says it’s doing to help save endangered species like the Florida Panther, of which there are around 200 in the wild, up from around "20-30 in the early 1970s," said Renee Bumpus, the Chief Animal Conservation Officer.
"The people that you see here have all dedicated their lives to making sure that that's the case," Bumpus said. "And Florida in its itself should be so proud of just successes they've seen in bringing species back."
The award comes nearly a decade after zookeeper Stacey Konwiser was killed by a tiger at the Palm Beach Zoo in 2016 — which prompted improvements to safety protocols for staff.
As part of its animal education and conservation programs, the Palm Beach Zoo takes care of a once-orphaned panther named Sassy — a popular attraction — whose mother was killed by a car. Unable to survive in the wild, the panther was placed in the Zoo's care with permission from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The zoo is home to over 550 animals from more than 190 species, many of them threatened or endangered.
READ MORE: Sharks might be spending less time in Florida. That’s actually not good
This is a News In Brief report. Visit WLRN News for in-depth reporting from South Florida and Florida news.
