Media Coverage
Collection of our coverage on established media institutions and outlets.
Media Coverage
2019
Federal and State Wildlife Agencies Release New England Cottontails on Island Refuge
05.09.2019
As part of an ongoing conservation effort to restore the rare New England cottontail rabbit to New England and eastern New York...
...the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), along with partners, released 13 wild-caught New England cottontails on Tuesday on Nomans Land Island National Wildlife Refuge, an island off Martha’s Vineyard...
A forbidding island off Martha’s Vineyard, once a bombing site, is now a bunny refuge
05.09.2019
The 38-foot aluminum catamaran sliced across a light chop on Vineyard Sound, headed for a sandy brown strip of land with a foreboding name and a treacherous past.
Closed to the public, Nomans Land, 3 miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard, is littered with unexploded bombs and rockets from its years as a naval bombing site.
This week, the federal government was delivering a payload of a gentler sort: 13 cinnamon-colored New England cottontail rabbits...
Status change proposed for endangered American burying beetle
05.05.2019
Local scientists skeptical over downgrading American burying beetle.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed to downgrade the status of the American burying beetle from endangered to threatened, but local scientists say climate change is putting the species even more at risk.
Under the Endangered Species Act, the status change would loosen...
Beetles get by with a little help from their friends
05.01.2019
Conserving the Nature of the Northeast
In 1994, Lou Perrotti was asked to take on an urgent new assignment at work. It’s unlikely he imagined it would result in monthly handwritten notes from Jane Goodall and a larger-than-life beetle tattoo on his right forearm. It wouldn’t have mattered.
“When the Service approached...
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to Release New England Cottontails on Island Refuge
04.16.2019
Nomans Land Island National Wildlife Refuge will soon become home to the New England cottontail rabbit as part of an ongoing conservation effort to restore this rare species to New England and eastern New York.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), in collaboration with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife), Roger Williams Park Zoo, Bristol County Agricultural High School (Bristol Aggie), and the University of Rhode Island (URI), is planning to release rabbits in...
Roger Williams Park Zoo ready to Party for the Planet
03.29.2019
Celebrate our world at Party for the Planet at Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, April 16 and 17.
This year's event will highlight the Zoo's conservation and animal care while also giving guests the opportunity to join the zoo in engaging experiences that empower everyone to help conserve wildlife and wild places. The rain date is April 18.
Party for the Planet will include the...
Can a zoo boost the economy?
03.22.2019
The nation’s third-oldest zoo has grand expansion plans. Can it raise the $60 million needed to get there?
Adults and kids stare, almost unblinking, at the sleek bodies of giant river otters gliding dreamily in figure eights through their tank. The human faces…
Providence's New, Conservation-Minded Rainforest Exhibit Brings The Amazon To New England
02.28.2019
It's quite a thing to come face to face with a two-toed sloth, especially when you're the one disturbing him in his home.
But, even if he were inclined to reach out to you, you think to yourself, he'd do it so slowly that you've have plenty of time to duck.
Depending on what metric you use, Roger Williams Park Zoo in...
Welcome to the Jungle
01.31.2019
A brand-new rainforest exhibit at Roger Williams Zoo showcases tropical wildlife – and kicks off a 20-year Master Plan
The first thing you feel is heat. Step through the great wooden doors, and your skin turns warm and clammy. Glasses fog up. Winter coats feel heavy. Here, the 80-degree air contrasts starkly with Rhode Island winter. As you strip away gloves and wool cap, the rainforest emerges...
Amid frigid conditions, zoo staff taking special care of warm-weather animals
01.31.2019
As an arctic blast moves through the Northeast, Roger Williams Park Zoo is making sure its animals are comfortable for the rapidly changing weather conditions.
Diane Nahabedian, the zoo's director of public relations, said they have specific guidelines for each animal and what climates they should be kept in.
"If it's an animal like the red panda, the snow leopard, the moon bear, this is their weather, they would be out in this weather,"...