Santa Barbara Zoo Reopens Conservation Hub

At the Santa Barbara Zoo’s newly redesigned Conservation Hub, visitors can “monitor” 3-D replicas of tiny snowy plover eggs and chicks. But the real deal is only paces away. 

In a restricted area next door, zoo staff raise and rehabilitate live snowy plovers, giving these little shorebirds a better shot of survival in the wild. 

While the Conservation Hub is just a replica, the pretend plovers, incubators, and temperature-controlled tubs are dead on.

It’s not “fake,” per se. It’s symbolic of the real conservation work the zoo does every day, explained director of education JJ McLeod during the hub’s reopening ceremony on Tuesday. 

This is the second iteration of the Richard Block Conservation Hub, with two new endangered species in the spotlight: western snowy plovers and southern California sea otters. 

“Some people think of conservation work as scuba diving or rappelling down a mountain, but a lot of it is actionable for everybody,” McLeod said.

Two years ago, the space was a gift shop. Now, it is a place for zoo visitors of all ages to peel back the curtain usually separating the public from the zoo’s behind-the-scenes efforts.

This year, high tides are causing problems for snowy plovers’ nests on beach dunes, explained Nadya Seal Faith, a conservation and science associate, as she walked through the zoo’s plover nursery. One of the zoo’s partners in Ventura lost 52 eggs to high tides this year. 

“We’ve had so many snowy plovers come in that I can’t keep track,” she said.

The zoo has taken in 59 snowy plover eggs this year, and currently has around 18 chicks in its care. In total, zoo staff have rehabilitated and released 173 plovers back into the wild.  

Additionally, zoo staff have helped count 71 otters this spring as part of a monitoring program for the species.

Seal Faith joked that “selfishly,” she loves “seeing that there is a big interpretive space that helps to showcase the work that I do day in and day out.”

The hub’s exhibit was built by the zoo’s conservation and education staff, leading guests through every single stage of snowy plover rehabilitation and release. It includes egg candling, prepping diets for the chicks, taking observations of simulated nests, and banding the plovers.  

There’s also an otter spotting activity, for guests to get a sense of how difficult it can be to pick out otters from their surroundings for population counts. 

“It uses a photo from the annual otter count that we’ve done,” Seal Faith said. “It actually was a picture that challenged us, and so we’re challenging our guests to see if they can spot the otter amongst the kelp bed.”

The space is small, but fully utilized: arts and crafts stations, experiments, and information about the two species are scattered throughout. Visitors can interact with a digital recreation of a rocky intertidal kelp bed with projections of fish and octopuses that respond to their touch. The community is also encouraged to bring in trash from beach and creek cleanups to help create an art piece from marine debris.

Seal Faith has been with the zoo for 11 years, and helped provide content for the first iteration of the hub — which was focused on the California condor and the Channel Islands fox.

The plan was for the species spotlight to change every 18 months to two years, with special activities being cycled out monthly. Species choices are not random. The zoo pulls species from its “big six,” the animals targeted in its conservation efforts: California condors, island foxes, snowy plovers, southern California sea otters, red-legged frogs, and monarch butterflies.

“They are hyper local, and we want to help what’s here in our backyard,” McLeod said. “Next up are red-legged frogs and monarchs.” 

Every day, performing arts staff will be stationed at the hub, acting as scientists equipped with training by the plover staff to invite guests to learn like they did.  

Performing arts staff were also consulted between the first and second iteration of the hub, to find room for improvement and make it a space that they can bring even more life into.

Guests can do arts and crafts in the zoo’s newly redesigned Conservation Hub. | Credit: Will Huebner, Santa Barbara Zoo.

“Even though we just got done with this, I’m already having ideas for when we turn it over again in two years to focus on our local amphibians and monarch butterflies,” Seal Faith said. “We have so many stories, and we want to tell them.”

Richard Block, who led the zoo from 1998 until his retirement in 2025, came back to visit his namesake. “It’s difficult to walk in here and not be moved, be impressed,” he said. “It’s a fantastic space, and certainly on par with anything any other zoo in the country has been able to create.” 

Charles Hopper, the new president and CEO of the zoo, moved from San Diego to Santa Barbara 18 months ago to take on the role. He said he loves it, and is constantly impressed by the zoo’s conservation efforts. “I get to do things like this every morning,” he said, gesturing to the crowd celebrating the redesigned hub. “We hope visitors leave not only with a deeper connection to wildlife, but with the understanding that each of us has a role to play in protecting our environment.”

For more information about the Santa Barbara Zoo’s conservation efforts, click here.