Lights, Camera, Action! Behind the Scenes of Madagascar

Roll out the red carpet for one of New York’s biggest stars - the Central Park Zoo! Fondly dubbed “the jewel of Manhattan,” the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Central Park Zoo roared onto the big screen this week with the opening of the summer’s first family blockbuster, Madagascar.  The movie is about pampered Central Park Zoo residents who find themselves thrust from their comfortable and luxurious 5th Avenue home and out into the wild. Like all fictional movies, this animated feature asks audiences to employ a little “willful suspension of disbelief” - and for more than just the talking animals. To clear up fact from fiction, WCS proudly presents the scoop behind the movie.       

While it may be the Central Park Zoo with its name in lights, many of the movie’s leading players call the Bronx Zoo their home. With a whopping 265 acres, WCS’s flagship Zoo provides ample roaming space for lions like Alex, giraffes like Melman, and zebras like Marty.  Fortunately, these upper-borough Zoo residents are happy to share the spotlight with their neighbors in Manhattan. Such neighbors include a colony of penguins (just like in the movie!), sea lions, snow monkeys, a tropical Rain Forest full of dazzling and exotic creatures, and many more exciting animals - including our own king of the urban jungle, Gus the polar bear.  For more information on what Central Park Zoo has to offer, visit www.centralparkzoo.com.

For zoo-goers who want a more legitimate Madagascar experience, WCS can provide. The fourth largest island in the world located off the east coast of Africa, Madagascar boasts an amazing diversity of wildlife, but zoo-goers can experience a piece of this magnificent African island right here in New York. Whether it be the Bronx Zoo’s ring-tailed lemurs, the Central Park Zoo’s Madagascar tree boas, the Prospect Park Zoo’s Madagascar day gecko, or the New York Aquarium’s Madagascar cichlids, each wildlife park features creatures that Alex, Melman and Marty would find on their African adventure.

Coming up in 2007, visitors can really immerse themselves in the Madagascar experience with the opening of The Bronx Zoo’s Madagascar! This exciting exhibit will highlight the extraordinary array of Madagascar’s wildlife and the many threats and challenges to species conservation.  The exhibit will both delight guests with displays of colorful and exotic creatures and inspire a conservation ethic by illustrating the threats to the island’s biodiversity and the urgent need for WCS and others to protect its wildlife and wild lands.                                    

WCS has been in Madagascar long before the movie came to the scene.  Isolated from the African mainland for 160 million years, Madagascar has a distinctive assemblage of wildlife, the vast majority of which exist nowhere else.  Increasing human pressures have degraded the habitats of Madagascar to the extent that many species are severely threatened causing it to be a global conservation priority.  For the past thirteen years, our scientists have been working to create national parks and reserves to protect the threatened wildlife and wild lands. WCS is thrilled that this movie might bring some attention to this very special island.

For Media Contact Information, Please Click Here.