Top Prize to Crane Expert

The Indianapolis Zoo has announced that Dr. George Archibald has won the Indianapolis Prize for wildlife conservation. (Link)

The co-founder of the International Crane Foundation was one of six strong finalists for the $100,000 prize.

"Archibald is also known for having entered some of the world's most hostile territories, including Afghanistan, Cuba, Russia and the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea, to protect the watersheds and grasslands where cranes live and to help increase migratory flight paths." (Indianapolis Zoo)

The International Crane Foundation sent $25,000 for a Kabul Zoo crane exhibit through the North Carolina Zoo Society in 2004.

Other finalists for the prestigious prize included the chairwoman of the World Conservation Union Species Survival Commission, the man credited with inspiring the worldwide ban on elephant ivory trade, the founder of the International Wolf Center (Minn.), the president and founder of the Ocean Alliance (focused on the study of whales) and the person spearheading the Global Amphibian Assessment Project.

The North Carolina Zoo participates in many Species Survival plans, gives special emphasis to its field work with African elephants and red wolves, and is now very much involved in trying to aid the worldwide crisis in amphibian populations. "About 43 percent of all amphibian species are declining, while only 1 percent are increasing...and 123 species are believed to have disappeared forever." (Diana Penner, The Indianapolis Star)