Do you have old holiday lights taking up space in your storage closets? Zoo New England is collecting holiday lights and extension cords for our first “Lights for Lions” drive! Guests can drop off used or non-functioning strings of lights and extension cords to our recycling bins, stationed at Stone Zoo’s main entrance and Franklin Park Zoo’s Zebra entrance. Proceeds from the recycled lights will support ZNE’s conservation commitment to lions.

ZNE supports Lion Landscapes, an organization dedicated to the conservation of lion populations and the protection of natural habitats for the species. Lions’ habitat range in Africa has decreased to just 10 percent of its original distribution, leading the overall population to decrease by 40 percent in the last 25 years. ZNE supports Lion Landscapes in their expansion of community led conservation work, aimed at protecting all of the large wild carnivores threatened by human-dominated landscape. This protection work at the Selous-Nyerere landscape in Tanzania is of high-importance as the landscape is considered to be one of the last strongholds for the lions, with a population of over a thousand lions.