biology

The Wild Animal Sanctuary

The Wild Animal Sanctuary is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Wild Animal Sanctuary rather than just read about it. In short: The Wild Animal Sanctuary is a 33,000-acre (13,000 ha) animal sanctuary in Keenesburg, Colorado, United States. The sanctuary specializes in rescuing and caring for large predators which are being ill-treated, for which their owners can no longer care, or which might otherwise be euthanized.

Key takeaways

The Wild Animal Sanctuary belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Wild Animal Sanctuary to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Wild Animal Sanctuary from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Wild Animal Sanctuary is a 33,000-acre (13,000 ha) animal sanctuary in Keenesburg, Colorado, United States. The sanctuary specializes in rescuing and caring for large predators which are being ill-treated, for which their owners can no longer care, or which might otherwise be euthanized. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and a state and federally licensed zoological facility. Created in 1980, The Wild Animal Sanctuary is situated on grassland northeast of Denver, and has helped over 1,000 animals since it first opened. By early 2022, home to more than 550 animals, and 192 staff and volunteers to take care, the group announced the purchase of a major addition, a 9,004-acre ranch near Springfield, Colorado.

Mission The stated mission of the sanctuary is "to rescue captive large Carnivores who have been abused, abandoned, illegally kept or exploited; to create for them a wonderful life for as long as they live; and to educate about the causes and solutions to the Captive Wildlife Crisis." The sanctuary states that there are many large carnivores living outside the zoo system in the United States, including 4000 or so tigers living as pets in Texas alone, and many of these come from the black market trade in exotic animals.

History

Pat Craig started The Wild Animal Sanctuary when he took in a jaguar cub that he kept on a licensed facility on his family's farm outside Boulder, Colorado. The animals were soon moved to Lyons, Colorado to provide additional space. After 8 years in Lyons, a limestone quarry was opened nearby, forcing the sanctuary to move. In 2005, largely because of relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina and the Indonesia tsunami, donations to the sanctuary decreased significantly, and by mid-2006 the staff thought the sanctuary would need to close. In order to help raise money, the sanctuary was opened to the public, started selling donated merchandise, brought in more volunteers, and started a program of sponsoring individual animals.

By 2007 the sanctuary was using 160 acres (65 ha) of its 320-acre (130 ha) site for rescued animal habitats. By 2010 it had 240 acres (97 ha) of habitats. In February 2011, the sanctuary, in cooperation with Animal Defenders International, Bob Barker, and the Bolivian government (which had recently enacted legislation outlawing performing wild animals), received 25 lions from circuses in Bolivia that had typically housed the lions in crates for transport. The sanctuary built a fabric covered structure isolated from the main facility to house the lions while they got acclimated to the Colorado climate, and while four 20-acre (8.1 ha) outdoor enclosures were being prepared. The first of the prides, picked because they "appear to be close-knit and familiar with each other", was first allowed access to their large outdoor habitat on April 14, 2011. The additional 80 acres (32 ha) of enclosures created for the Bolivian lions took up the remainder of the existing sanctuary property, but later in 2011, a donation allowed the sanctuary to purchase another 400 acres (160 ha), expanding the site to 720 acres (290 ha) and providing space for future expansion of the habitats. In May 2012 the sanctuary completed the "Mile Into the Wild" walkway. This 4,800-foot (1,500 m) walkway has let visitors view and photograph the animals in their large habitat areas from above, and at the time connected the original holding area and education building with the Bolivian Lion House and a new parking lot that was built for the increasing number of visitors. In addition, the county paved the road to the sanctuary, making access easier.

Facilities

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Wild Animal Sanctuary

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Wild Animal Sanctuary claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Wild Animal Sanctuary before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Wild Animal Sanctuary ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Wild Animal Sanctuary

In research: The Wild Animal Sanctuary appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Wild Animal Sanctuary in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Wild Animal Sanctuary is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1980 establishments in Colorado, Animal sanctuaries, Cat conservation organizations, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Wild Animal Sanctuary outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Wild Animal Sanctuary in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Wild Animal Sanctuary means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Wild Animal Sanctuary out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Wild Animal Sanctuary in simple terms?

Why does The Wild Animal Sanctuary matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Wild Animal Sanctuary?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Wild Animal Sanctuary.