Open Fields and Flowering Meadows for the Partridge

Native species also need our support: The grey partridge was once a common and characteristic bird of our agricultural landscape. Today, it has become rare in many places. Since 1980, populations across Europe have declined by 94 percent. In Germany, the grey partridge is now classified as “Endangered”, and in Baden-Württemberg even as “Critically Endangered.”
One of the main reasons for this decline is the transformation of our agricultural landscape. Fallow land, perennial flower strips, field margins and other structurally diverse habitats have disappeared in many areas. At the same time, the use of pesticides is putting additional pressure on the species.

To provide grey partridges with suitable habitats once again, Wilhelma is working together with the Ludwigsburg Landscape Conservation Association (LEV) to create low-density arable fields and flowering areas and to enhance field tracks for wildlife. These measures are funded through the Conservation Euro.

Anti-poaching protection and environmental education

The Bonobo alive association, founded by behavioural scientists, conducts its research in Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In collaboration with the residents of the villages within the national park, the association organises anti-poaching patrols, thereby ensuring the protection of the bonobos in the area. In return, support is provided for children’s education and infrastructure in the villages.

Wilhelma has supported the project with a total of €65,000 between 2015 and 2023.

Rescue Centre and Reintroduction

The world’s only bonobo rescue centre, located near Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, rescues orphaned bonobos who have lost their mothers to the illegal bushmeat trade. The young bonobos are lovingly raised over a period of several years and eventually reintroduced into the wild in a protected area. The organisation also runs large-scale environmental education programmes to raise public awareness of the need to protect these animals.

We have been supporting the work of Lola ya Bonobo since 2013, most recently with an annual contribution of 10,000 euros from the Species Conservation Euro scheme. In 2022, with financial support from Wilhelma, 14 bonobos were successfully reintroduced into the ‘Ekolo ya Bonobo’ conservation area

To date (as of 2025), this has raised over 100,000 euros for the protection of our closest relatives.

Wildlife ranger equipment

Like all zoos that house okapis and participate in the Okapi EEP, Wilhelma also supports the Okapi Conservation Project in the Ituri Valley in the Congo. Some 5,000 of the approximately 10,000 to 20,000 wild okapis live there. The ‘Okapi Conservation Project’ is dedicated to preserving the okapi’s habitat.

We donate 5,000 US dollars to the project each year. This sum is used, amongst other things, to provide equipment for the gamekeepers and to fund environmental education projects that inform the local population about the importance of this habitat.

The Sarambwe Reserve in the east of the DR Congo is home to mountain gorillas and other rare wildlife. We have been supporting the Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe e.V. since 2009 through proceeds from the mobile phone project and, since 2019, additionally through the ‘Species Conservation Euro’. As well as providing equipment for the local game wardens, funding has also been used to build patrol posts and pay the salaries of trackers. 
Other projects, such as building wells, renovating schools and distributing goats to residents of the surrounding villages, aim to improve education and reduce the demand for bushmeat.

Protection of mountain gorillas, elephants and hippos

Between 2012 and 2023, Wilhelma provided a total of 300,000 euros in support to the Congohounds, the tracking dog team of the gorilla rangers in Virunga National Park. 
As well as funding the purchase of specially modified off-road vehicles to transport the rangers and their dogs, the project also covered veterinary and feeding costs. In addition, school fee sponsorships enabled orphans in the park to attend school.

Support for the project is currently on hold. The proceeds from mobile phone recycling are channelled to the Mountain Gorilla & Rainforest Direct Aid programme.

Protection of sea turtles

We have been supporting the Action Group for Species Conservation in its work to protect sea turtles since 2017.

To date (as of 2025), just over 115,000 euros have been allocated to the protection of these endangered marine creatures. This enables the Kenyan NGO Bahari Hai, which operates in the Ungwana Bay area, to safeguard nesting beaches and the nests of a total of five different species of sea turtle. In addition, with financial support from Wilhelma, a photo-ID catalogue of the animals frequenting the bay is being compiled.

In Angavo in south-eastern Madagascar, a new protected area covering around 42,760 hectares is being established as an important future reintroduction site for the endangered radiated tortoise. Thousands of these tortoises fall victim to poaching. Confiscated animals rescued in time will be cared for in Angavo and later returned to their natural habitat. The first releases are planned from 2027 onwards.

Wilhelma supports habitat restoration and the development of veterinary infrastructure. A community-based tree nursery will produce around 40,000 seedlings to restore at least ten hectares of degraded forest. Around 4,000 radiated tortoises are planned to be released by 2028. In the long term, Angavo could provide habitat for up to 20,000 tortoises.

The Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF) is the only NGO dedicated exclusively to the conservation of giraffes. It is thanks to the GCF that we now know there is not just one species of giraffe, but four! All are threatened by habitat loss and poaching.

In Namibia, the GCF runs the country’s largest environmental education programme, ‘KEEP’. The aim is to reconnect young people from Namibia with nature through hands-on learning and to instil in them sustainable behaviour.

Wilhelma supports the environmental education programme with an annual donation of €5,000, as well as the donations collected at Wilhelma on World Giraffe Day on 21 June.

Placement of livestock guard dogs to prevent human-wildlife conflicts

The world’s fastest land mammal is, tragically, in a race against extinction. Cheetahs often fall victim to conflicts with herders, who defend their livestock against the big cats with guns. Livestock guard dogs drastically reduce these conflicts and, consequently, the number of cheetah deaths.

Through our Friends’ Association, we support the work of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in Namibia with an annual donation of 25,000 euros. This significantly expands the CCF’s livestock guard dog programme and halves the waiting time for herders to receive a dog. Since 2021, 125,000 euros have been channelled into cheetah conservation in Namibia in this way (as of 2025).

Preventing human-wildlife conflicts

Once found in six African countries, the Grevy’s zebra population has plummeted by over 80 per cent since 1970. Today, only around 3,000 individuals remain in northern Kenya and neighbouring areas of Ethiopia. Competition with livestock herds for water sources and poaching threaten the survival of this spectacular zebra species.

We have been supporting Marwell Wildlife since 2005 in its conservation efforts, which focus primarily on collaboration with the local population. Through the ‘Species Conservation Euro’, a total of €73,000 has been channelled into the project since 2019 (as of 2025).

For decades, the Javan rhinoceros has been one of the world’s most critically endangered species. Once widespread, barely 70 animals now survive in the far south-west of the island of Java, in Ujung Kulon National Park. In 2024, to the horror of all conservationists, it emerged that a group of poachers had managed to kill 26 of the animals within four years – a third of the population.

To tackle this crisis, Wilhelma, together with the Indonesian NGO YABI and the Indonesian government, is supporting efforts to establish a breeding centre for Javan rhinos within the national park, modelled on the successful centre on Sumatra.

Anti-poaching patrols and environmental education

With the construction of the new snow leopard enclosure, which opened in 2018, Wilhelma has entered into a partnership with NABU to protect the animals in their native habitats. In Kyrgyzstan, the anti-poaching unit ‘Gruppa Bars’ combats poachers and their illegal trade in the animals’ fur and bones. NABU carries out vital awareness-raising work on the ground amongst herders and in schools, and prevents retaliatory actions by herders against the cats by funding snow leopard-proof livestock pens.

This project, too, has been funded by the Species Conservation Euro since 2019. To date, over 100,000 euros have been invested in the fight to protect these beautiful cats (as of 2025).

Searching for the Saola

The Saola, also known as the Vu Quang ox, is one of the most endangered mammals of our time. The species was unknown to science until 1993. Saolas live in remote, dense forests and are extremely elusive. Today, fewer than 100 individuals are thought to remain in the forests of Vietnam and Laos. There are no Saolas in human care.

Wilhelma supports the Saola Foundation in its search for what may be some of the last remaining individuals. Specially trained conservation detection dogs are being used in the forests of the Annamite Mountains to help find traces of this extremely rare species and determine where Saolas may still survive

Rising meat consumption, including in Europe, is leading to the daily clearing of precious rainforest areas in South America to create cattle pastures. In Ecuador, too, rainforest areas – home not only to spectacled bears and tapirs but also to rare amphibian and bird species – are under threat of destruction.

Since 2019, we have been supporting the Ecuadorian NGO Jocotoco in expanding its protected areas by purchasing rainforest land. The organisation has established 16 reserves in Ecuador. With Wilhelma’s help, the Tapichalaca, Narupa, Bueanaventura and Canande reserves have been expanded.

To date (as of August 2025), over 600,000 euros have been spent on this, and 1,100 hectares of rainforest have been secured.

The Andean forests of Ecuador are home not only to rare animals but also to plant species as yet unknown to science. Through the NGO Jocotoco, we have facilitated expeditions to search for magnolia species and funded the purchase of rainforest areas where specimens of these highly endangered species have been found.

As several species were represented by only a few individuals or were therefore at immediate risk of extinction, we joined forces with Jocotoco to take part in the ‘Species Pledge’ as part of the Reverse the Red Initiative. This is a public commitment to support the respective species until its conservation status on the Red List has improved.

The Association of Friends and Supporters of Wilhelma is supporting the conservation of magnolias in Ecuador with a donation of 50,000 euros.