Mission & Conservation ~

Our Mission

Our mission is to provide a self-sustaining zoological park for the public exhibition of animals and plants. The zoo will offer recreational activities appealing to a wide range of audiences and socioeconomic backgrounds, with a focus on family activities. To provide educational exhibits and programs to promote an awareness and appreciation for wildlife, and to instill a conservation ethic. To exhibit, propagate, and rehabilitate vanishing species. To create a fascination in the physical sciences. To assist the scientific community in the sharing of data, resources, and ideas. –Adopted by the Wheeling Park Commission June 12, 1996

How the Zoo Grew

The spirit of an adolescent boy, who lived in Wheeling and who died too soon, inspired this facility that is unique in scope and purpose. After the death of their oldest son, seven-year old Philip Mayer Good in 1971, the Laurance F. Good family pledged a substantial gift in his memory for the creation of a zoo at Oglebay. Energized by the enthusiasm of the Good family, the zoo concept caught on immediately. Thousands of contributions poured in, some in the form of pennies collected by school children. Because of this interest, the original ten-acre site was changed to a thirty-two acre wooded site between Camp Russel and the Wheeling Country Club property.

In August 1972, Jay and Paul Good, brothers of Philip, presided over the ground-breaking and became the founding members of the Good Zoo Friends. It would be the first zoo in the country to be built from scratch as a natural area. By 1977 when the first phase of the zoo was completed, the Good Zoo Friends reached its goal of four thousand family memberships. The facility opened to the public on Memorial Day weekend.

A paragraph in the Preamble to the Charter of the Good Zoo Friends sums up the meaningful relationships that existed and continue to exist between the many Philips of the world, who have lived and still live, and their families and friends: “As happiness makes up in depth for what it lacks in length, so did the joyousness of Philip’s life mirror our own affection. The creation of a zoo where the reality of life appears a bit happier and more comprehensible is, therefore, a very Philip thing to do.”

Good Zoo Breeding Program

Oglebay Good Zoo is one of only 230 AZA-accredited zoos or aquariums, and we are the only accredited zoo or aquarium in the state of West Virginia. In addition to providing family friendly, lifelong learning opportunities, we participate in 23 conservation breeding programs known as SSP’s, or Species Survival Programs, that focus on sustainable breeding and management of the species in our care. Several of the SSP’s that the zoo participates in include the golden lion tamarin, Grevy’s zebra, cheetah, mongoose lemur, and red panda SSP’s.

Conservation

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  Eastern Hellbender Conservation

  The Eastern hellbender is the largest salamander in the Western Hemisphere, growing to nearly 30” in length. Fondly referred to as the snot otter due to the copious amounts of slime that coat its skin, the hellbender resides under large boulders in clean streams and rivers throughout Appalachia. Team members at the Good Zoo were the first to hatch larvae from eggs of this species in a zoo or aquarium in 2007. Since that time, the zoo team has assisted in surveys of the hellbender across the state of West Virginia and has raised and reintroduced hellbenders back to our local streams and rivers with conservation partners including the West Virginia Division of Wildlife and the Wilds. 

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  Monarch Butterfly Conservation

  Populations of the monarch butterfly have declined greatly over the past 20 years. These declines have been associated with the loss of milkweed, the host plant that monarch caterpillars feed on, across the species’ breeding range. Oglebay Good Zoo participates in Project Monarch Watch, working with citizen scientists in the West Virginia Master Naturalist Program to rear and release and tag nearly 2,000 monarch butterflies. 

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  Migratory Bird Rehabilitation

  Oglebay Good Zoo has worked with the West Virginia Division of Wildlife to rehabilitate ill or injured migratory birds for over 25 years. Each year we care for between 50 and 75 falcons, hawks, and owls that are ill or injured. The zoo team and veterinarians provide critical care, physical therapy, and reintroduction flight training to these patients to help save populations of these species in our region. If you are interested in supporting migratory bird conservation, you can assist by providing migratory bird habitats in the form of nest boxes or plantings around your home, placing deterrent stickers on picture windows, contacting local law enforcement or conservation officers if you see an ill or injured bird, or by donating to our raptor rehabilitation program.

Make A Gift

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  Animal Welfare

  Our team strives to provide excellent welfare to all of the individuals in our care. We take great efforts to ensure that all of the animals in your zoo are cared for in a manner that meets their physical and behavioral needs. Welfare assessments are performed for every animal in our care regularly to monitor their physical and behavioral health. These assessments are utilized to ensure our commitment to the care of your zoo’s animals along with annual veterinary care plans, plans for environmental enrichment to stimulate activity and natural behaviors, training plans to facilitate veterinary and management procedures that reduce potential stress, and length of life plans for each individual to ensure that appropriate habitat, furnishings, and medications are provided to ensure comfort from birth through geriatric years. In our efforts to ensure that we provide the individuals in our care with choices over their environment, you may need to look for individuals under shade structures in their habitats during warm weather or may have to wait at habitats to observe individuals that may have chosen to go into their indoor climate-controlled habitats during hot or cold weather. We appreciate your understanding of us providing your zoo animals with these opportunities. If you are interested in assisting us with providing the animals with optimal welfare, you can assist by participating in the zoo’s “Play With The Animals” environmental enrichment programs, or by donating to the zoo’s enrichment and welfare programs.

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  Enrichment Opportunities

  Much like all of us, the animals in our care require enrichment to prevent boredom. Environmental enrichment includes all of the techniques that we use to provide the animals at your zoo with choices in their daily lives that will provide psychological stimulation. To ensure that the animals in our care are stimulated, we may use training techniques, new smells, furniture, and innovative ways to present their food. We assess enrichment daily and create plans of proposed enrichment activities to ensure the animals we care for are receiving novel forms of stimulation, so enrichment techniques don’t become routine. If you are interested in assisting us with enriching the animals at your zoo’s lives, you can assist by participating in the zoo’s “Play With The Animals” environmental enrichment program. 

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  Wall of the Wild

  We invite you to participate in a unique opportunity to make a lasting impression on Oglebay Good Zoo. Have your name, or the name of a beloved family member or pet, etched into a tile to be used in the creation of the Wall of the Wild. Each handcrafted tile is sculpted with an intricately detailed, raised-relief image of an animal. When completed, the wall will proudly display the names of our generous donors and remind current and future generations of your care and support for the zoo. By investing in these sculpted tiles, you will not only gain lasting recognition, but also provide support and funding for many different programs at the zoo. Call the Zoo Office at 304-243-4100 today to reserve your tile.