Every Visit to Happy Hollow Helps Wildlife: 2025 Quarters for Conservation Award Recipients

August 26, 2025

When you visit Happy Hollow Park & Zoo, you’re doing more than enjoying a day with family and friends—you’re helping protect wildlife around the world.

Since 2015, the Quarters for Conservation program has set aside a small amount from the purchase of every admission ticket and Membership to support wildlife conservation projects, and that small change adds up!

In partnership with Happy Hollow Foundation, two-thirds of these funds support international organizations protecting species worldwide, while one-third stays local, funding conservation efforts at Happy Hollow and across Santa Clara County.

In 2025, we’re proud to grant more than $70,000 to three inspiring organizations making a difference for endangered animals and their habitats.

Macaw Recovery Network (Costa Rica)

Macaw Recovery Network works to protect and restore endangered birds, including the Scarlet Macaw, Great Green Macaw and Yellow-naped Parrot.

Their Bird Program safeguards nests, tracks wild populations and leads an annual census of Great Green Macaws.
At their breeding center, rescued macaws form bonds, raise young and are carefully prepared for release into the wild.

Another standout initiative of Macaw Recovery Newtork is the Women Rangers Program, created during the Covid-19 pandemic to support macaw conservation while providing jobs for women who lost work in tourism. These Rangers:

Partner with farmers to promote conservation-friendly practices.
Lead reforestation and ecotourism projects.
Care for tree nurseries that grow species critical to macaws’ survival.
Lead environmental education programs in local schools.

The program provides both income and training, while strengthening long-term conservation for birds and forests.

Turtle Survival Alliance (Madagascar)

The Turtle Survival Alliance works to protect Madagascar’s critically endangered Radiated Tortoise, which faces threats from illegal trade and habitat loss.

Turtle Survival Alliance currently cares for more than 20,000 rescued tortoises, confiscated from the illegal wildlife trade, at two conservation centers.
Their goal: reintroduce all the animals to protected natural habitats within seven years -making this the largest tortoise rewilding project in history.

Turtle Survival Alliance partners with local villagers to create community-protected forests, where people are trained and employed in conservation. This approach has already led to two protected forests and the release of more than 3,000 tortoises back into their natural habitat.

Wildlife ACT’s Vulture Conservation Program (South Africa)

In South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, vulture populations are in sharp decline. Wildlife ACT’s Vulture Conservation Program works to reverse this trend by:

Using tracking technology to monitor vultures.
Collecting data that guides real-time conservation actions.
Engaging communities to build coexistence with wildlife.

These efforts are especially urgent: the White-headed Vulture is already extinct in the province, while other species face threats from poisoning and habitat loss.

Vultures play a vital role in ecosystems by cleaning up carcasses and limiting disease spread. Protecting them benefits both wildlife and people.

Be Part of the Effort

Happy Hollow is proud to support these organizations and the communities working alongside them. With the help of you, our guests, we can make a difference for wildlife and their habitats across the globe.

Do you know a conservation group that would be a great fit for the Quarters for Conservation program? Look for more information about next year’s grant cycle by January 2026.

👉 Learn more about grant requirements, past recipients, and how to apply at Happy Hollow’s Quarters for Conservation webpage.