The Education Center
Wild animals have been kept in captivity for thousands of years, as symbols of power or religious significance and many times as pets for those that have the love and fascination for animals.
However, what we now recognize is the need to use the animals in our care to inspire behavior-change and conservation-action, especially among the young people in our society. The transition from the traditional zoo to the Education Centre came with the demands for a complex operation:
- A move from simply displaying animal collections to utilizing them for education as a response to a growing realization of the decline in wildlife population.
- The exploration of new avenues to help conserve wild animals and their habitats fulfill a number of roles. Some of the species which we keep at UWEC are already extinct in the wild and would have disappeared completely without captive environment. These animals have not only an educational role, they are ambassadors for their species!
Through visiting the facility, one makes a direct contribution to the daily operation as well as enabling the Education Centre to undertake field conservation activities aimed at ensuring that the few wildlife is saved for the generations to come.
