Friday, October 3, 2008

Power to the Primates! Shirley McGreal Speaks at the Oakalnd Zoo

Hello all, Arun here. Last night I had the great honor of attending the Primate Lecture and Silent Auction at the Oakland Zoo. Shirley McGreal, the founder and director of the International Primate Protection League (IPPL), spoke about her organization’s inspirational success in helping to bring down some of the worst wildlife criminals involved in the illegal trade of live primates. She overseas the IPPL primate sanctuary in South Carolina, home to 31 gibbon apes rescued from the trade, and spends a great deal of time raising awareness about the hideous practices that have greatly contributed to the world-wide trafficking of apes and monkeys, including biomedical research, and the unconscionable animal acquisition techniques that many less-than-reputable zoos in Asia have and still employ to this day. She is a true wildlife hero!



For this event, I donated two of my paintings to the silent auction. I was so excited, for being a broke college student, this was all that I could afford to contribute. By the end of the evening they had fetched a handsome $150 and were purchased by the Oakland Zoo’s Conservation Program Manager and host of the evening’s event, Amy Gotliffe.



There were dozens and dozens of awesome items on the auction list, including get-aways to Safari West, whale-watching trips, framed wildlife photos, dinners at bay area restaurants, and much, much more. I'm sure that my paintings were only a small part of what must have been an excellent haul! I was also extremely proud to have raised $30 from some of my cohorts from school earlier that day. Every bit helps!



All of the funds raised are going to the Budongo Snare Removal Project, an associated primate conservation organization, supported in part by the Oakland Zoo, working to protect a population of chimpanzees, known as the Sonso Group, in the Budongo forest of Uganda. Some of the Teen Wild Guides, the Oakland Zoo’s teen volunteer force, visited the program on a recent Zoo-sponsored trip to East Africa. Three of the TWGs spoke last night before Shirley began her lecture, and spoke of the animals and the people that they had encountered in Uganda, as well as of the Budongo forest itself. While their shares were brief, they eloquently conveyed the impact that their travels had on them in a way that beautifully illustrated a journey with an open heart to a land unknown by most. The impression of their experiences brought back for me the magical ties I still feel to this day to the time I spent with crocodiles in India with the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust.

This wonderful evening was just one of the many fantastic events that the Oakland Zoo hosts to help raise funds and awareness for wildlife conservation. If interested in attending future events where you can meet real wildlife heroes, hear their stories, be inspired, and truly make a difference in helping all the living beings that share our planet with us survive and thrive as they deserve, check out the Oakland Zoo’s website. Their lecture series always does an excellent job of giving bay area residents a chance to do their part for animals around the world that need our help.

Until next time!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hello Arun!

You captured the event beautifully and the great work IPPL and the Oakland Zoo is involved with. Your artwork was excellent and I wish you the best of luck in all that you do. You are a man of many talents!

Cherie (Docent at the Oakland Zoo)