Earth Day and Beyond: Advancing Canada’s Wildlife Cryobank

Earth Day and Beyond: Advancing Canada’s Wildlife Cryobank

We celebrated Earth Day with an activation at CIBC SQUARE from April 20-22 and with the announcement of a transformative gift in support of the Toronto Zoo’s Wildlife Cryobank.

Every Day Is Earth Day: Protecting Wildlife Starts With Us

Earth Day is a time to reflect on the power of the environmental movement and a time to recognize our responsibility to protect the planet we all share. It shines a light on urgent challenges like climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and the growing problem of plastic pollution. But the truth is, caring for our planet cannot be limited to just one day a year.

At the Toronto Zoo, each day is an opportunity to protect wildlife, to conserve natural habitats, and to inspire people to take action. It’s a reminder that even small actions can make a big difference.

Change happens when we work together – through education, community support, and through the choices we make every single day.

Turning Engagement Into Impact

We invited participants to engage with our interactive photo booth to let us know which of the Toronto Zoo’s areas of focus they thought would make the greatest impact on protecting our planet—Community & Education, Conservation Science, or Animal Well-being.

It was amazing to see how many people engaged and how close the voting was! More than 500 photo booth pictures were taken, and we received nearly 340 votes. Thanks to everyone who participated. We heard loud and clear that we are most impactful with animal well-being, and our conservation science programs were close behind. Events like this help build awareness of this important work, which in turn drives meaningful change and investment.

Support for Nature’s Insurance Policy

We finished out our Earth Day activation with the announcement of a $1 million donation from the Consecon Foundation to advance cryobanking initiatives that safeguard threatened and endangered species for generations to come.

This generous investment will support your Toronto Zoo’s wildlife cryobank—the most diverse of its kind in Canada—and significantly advance your Zoo’s mission to connect people, animals, conservation science, and traditional knowledge to fight against extinction.

Community support is critical to this work. As necessary as your Toronto Zoo’s Species Recovery programs are, they are funded almost entirely by donations and grants. To learn more about Canada’s Wildlife Cryobank, click here.