The Chihuahuan Desert Education Coalition and the El Paso Zoo and Botanical Gardens are teaming up to host a third Chihuahuan Desert Conference in El Paso on November 15-17, 2023. To learn more about the meeting visit the conference website at http://chihuahuandesertconference.org. The Conference Committee is now accepting abstracts for both oral presentations and posters.
The conference will bring together researchers and conservation advocates from across the Chihuahuan Desert to help facilitate collaboration in the region and learn of new programs that have been completed or are underway.
The first conference hosted by the Zoo in 2019 featured the Zoo’s new $16M Chihuahuan Desert exhibit that features the flora and fauna of this amazing region. The exhibit includes an arroyo and a flash flood feature that helps people better understand an important natural force helping to shape the desert landscape, plus common plants and animals including a number of endangered species.
Jaguar by Yannick TURBE, Wikimedia Creative Commons
Recognized globally as a hotspot for wildlife conservation, the Chihuahuan Desert surrounding El Paso is one of the most biologically diverse eco-regions in North America. Chihuahuan Desert conservation programs at the Zoo underway include efforts to breed and release critically endangered Mexican wolves in the mountains of New Mexico and Arizona and both field and captive breeding conservation efforts to help save endangered Thick-billed Parrots, peninsular pronghorns and jaguars.
Greater Big Bend 