PRESS ROOM

ROYAL OAK, Mich., 

Detroit Zoological Society (DZS) Curator of Birds Tom Schneider has received the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Recovery Champion Award. The award – presented June 19 at the Detroit Zoo – is given annually to individuals who have made significant contributions to the recovery of federally listed endangered species.

“The Detroit Zoological Society has been actively involved with endangered species conservation in Michigan for many decades. Tom Schneider has led a number of these efforts, and is recognized especially for his role in the critically endangered Great Lakes piping plover recovery plan,” said Charlie Wooley, Deputy Regional Director, Midwest Region, USFWS.

“This is such a wonderful honor and so well-deserved,” said DZS Executive Director and CEO Ron Kagan. “Tom’s work has helped bring the resources of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums to endangered species recovery efforts, contributing not only to increasing the piping plover population but also to expanding our partnerships and enhancing public awareness.”

Each summer for the past 18 years, Schneider has organized a large group of bird care staff from zoos across the country to travel to Michigan’s Biological Station in Pellston and work on the captive-rearing effort for these tiny shorebirds. The team incubates eggs and raises chicks from abandoned piping plover nests or broods. The chicks are cared for until they fledge and are ready to be released to join wild plovers.

When a federal recovery program was established by the USFWS in 1986, fewer than 20 pairs of Great Lakes piping plovers survived and this isolated population was close to extinction. By increasing the overall number of fledged birds and protecting unique genetic lines that may have been lost from the population, captive rearing has helped the Great Lakes piping plover population rise out of the dangerously low numbers of the 1980s and 1990s. Though the bird is still listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, the salvage captive-rearing program has been part of an effort that has helped recover the population to 76 pairs in 2017, more than halfway to the recovery goal of 150 pairs.

In addition to recovery efforts for the Great Lakes piping plover, Schneider has been involved in similar programs for the threatened Karner blue butterfly and other species of conservation concern in the Midwest.