‘OUR BACKYARD’ | John Ball Zoo working to save West Michigan endangered animals [Video]

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan — John Ball Zoo‘s conservation program has already found success, within just a few years of starting.

“Everybody’s heard of the monarch, right? But very few people have heard of the poweshiek skipperling, and that’s one of the most critically endangered animals in the world,” said David Pavlik. “Now, there’s only one or two very small populations in Michigan, and one or two populations up in Manitoba, Canada. “Everything else across this range has been lost.”

Pavlik is a research assistant at Michigan State University’s Haddad Lab. MSU’s partnership with John Ball Zoo has helped foster the regrowth of the population.

In 2021, they started with 32 butterflies. Today, they have over 1,400 caterpillars.

“A lot of people, when they think of extinction, they’ll think of the rainforest or something like that, but …