Audubon Institute, San Diego Zoo Global join forces to create Algiers preserve for endangered animals

Audubon and San Diego Zoo Global are announcing a partnership to replenish animal populations that face possible extinction. The Alliance for Sustainable Wildlife will devise strategies to ensure sustainable populations of unique and endangered zoo animals.

The common eland at the Freeport McMoRan Audubon Species Survival Center gallery (5 photos)

Audubon Nature Institute and San Diego Zoo Global, who individually have garnered acclaim for their work in the preservation of endangered species, are joining forces in an attempt to restore populations of threatened animals by creating a massive preserve in lower coast Algiers. The two entities will announce a groundbreaking partnership, called the Alliance for Sustainable Wildlife, Tuesday at the Audubon Center for the Research of Endangered Species or ACRES.

The center will be transformed into a 1,000-acre refuge, allowing the alliance to tap into the reproductive and behavioral sciences that they specialize in to rebuild vulnerable species and create sustainable populations for the future.

Steve Feldman, senior vice president of the nonprofit Association of Zoos & Aquariums, said San Diego and Audubon are two of the leading organizations in conservation.

"This unique, innovative partnership is a big deal for us,'' Feldman said. "We have a common mission to make sure these animals don't go extinct. It's really going to make a new and meaningful difference in our work.''

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