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Families start the 3K run at the Bronx Zoo with a bang. Photo by Carol Chen<\/p>\nOn a rather chilly and gloomy morning last Saturday, more than 5,700 runners and walkers flooded the Bronx Zoo for the 18th annual Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Run for the Wild \u2014 marking the largest turnout in the event\u2019s history, and a testament to how deeply New Yorkers care about conservation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Run for the Wild, which features an endangered species every year, was dedicated to the red pandas, a species native to the Eastern Himalayas and southwestern China with fewer than 10,000 remaining in the wild. Participants completed either a 5K race or a 3K family fun walk through the zoo\u2019s 265-acre grounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After the run, the participants enjoyed all-day admission to see more than 11,000 animals \u2014 including the red pandas themselves, viewable at the Bronx Zoo\u2019s Himalayan Highlands exhibit.<\/p>\n
John Calvelli, Director of Public Affairs at the Bronx Zoo, was there when the idea of a run for animal conservation was first born. \u201cThis was an idea that 18 years ago, I was actually involved in the first one,\u201d he said. \u201cI was pushing for a Walk for the Wild. Thankfully, somebody said, \u2018No, that\u2019s horrible,\u2019 and we got to call it Run for the Wild.\u201d<\/p>\n
What started as a hope to attract 1,000 participants has grown significantly. \u201cThis year, we have 5,700 people,\u201d Calvelli said. \u201cIt is just an amazing statement of people\u2019s love for wildlife, people\u2019s love for nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
Families start the 3K run at the Bronx Zoo with a bang. Photo by Carol Chen<\/p>\n
Why Red Pandas?<\/p>\n
Craig Piper, the WCS\u2019s Director of Conservation, opened the family 3K walk with a rallying call: \u201cConservation isn\u2019t a sprint. It\u2019s a long term commitment,\u201d he told the crowd. \u201cEvery one of those 4,000 steps you\u2019re going to take today is a step to help pandas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piper shed light on just how unique red pandas are. Despite their name, they share little with giant pandas. \u201cScientists have debated over the years how to classify them,\u201d he told the Bronx Times. \u201cWhen you start to look at really scientific differences in their body structure and when we start doing DNA analysis, the taxonomy completely changed. In the most recent times, red pandas are in their own scientific family all by themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their physical adaptations are equally remarkable. \u201cThey spend most of their time in trees, and the way their wrist bones are developed for flexibility allows them to go up and down trees in either direction. They\u2019ll come down a tree head first, which most animals won\u2019t do,\u201d Piper said.<\/p>\n
But the species faces serious threats. Habitat loss from deforestation, agricultural expansion, and poaching have pushed red pandas to endangered status. WCS has been working to protect them and their habitat in China and Myanmar since 1910, with over 115 years of on-the-ground conservation work. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you save this iconic species, you save a lot of other species too that aren\u2019t as well known,\u201d Piper said.
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Craig Piper (left), Council Member Amanda Far\u00edas (middle) and John Calvelli (right) participate in the \u201cRun for the Wild\u201d race at the Bronx Zoo. Photo by Carol Chen\n<\/p>\n
A diverse community of runners and walkers<\/p>\n
Among the runners of the 5K is Jessica Stahmer, a 34 year-old Bronx resident and nine-year zoo member. She ran the 5K for the second year in a row.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really proud that we have a world class zoo 10 minutes from where I live,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the reasons I love living in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n
City Council Member Amanda Far\u00edas, who also completed the 5K alongside her boyfriend, who is a runner, said she participated because, \u201cAnything around conservation of certain species that are endangered. It\u2019s like our duty\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Far\u00edas also called on city and state leaders to put resources behind that mission. \u201cFunding is where it\u2019s at,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to be able to put our money and our wallets in the right places.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Casey Neistat is among the participants of the Bronx Zoo Run. Photo by Carol Chen<\/p>\n
For YouTuber Casey Neistat, who chaperoned his seven-year-old to the walk with his classmates, the Bronx Zoo holds personal memories: \u201cThe Bronx Zoo was one of the first places I visited when I was a little kid on a school trip,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t grow up in the city, so my earliest childhood memories of coming to New York were to come to the Bronx Zoo. So it\u2019s fun to bring my little ones here.\u201d<\/p>\n
And for seven-year-old Theodore Stromstedt, who completed the walk with his father Christopher, the lesson of the day was already sinking in. Asked what he knew about red pandas, he didn\u2019t hesitate: \u201cThey climb a lot. They move their ankles a lot when they climb down trees.\u201d Asked if that made him want to protect them, his answer was simple: \u201cBecause they\u2019re so cute.\u201d<\/p>\n
For those inspired to get involved with wildlife conservation, Piper\u2019s advice was straightforward: reduce waste, support clean water, use public transit, and raise your voice with political leaders to protect wild spaces. \u201cAll those little steps that each individual takes,\u201d he said, \u201cthey add up to really big change over time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carol Chen is a student at the\u00a0Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. For more coverage, subscribe to our\u00a0newsletter<\/a>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>!<\/p>\n