Heidi Ross and Edgardo Griffith received the prestigious Conservation Medal from San Diego Zoo Global for their work with frogs. (Photo by Lindsay Renick Mayer, Smithsonian

Congratulations to Edgardo Griffith and Heidi Ross Griffith of the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center (EVACC) and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute who received the prestigious Conservation Medal from San Diego Zoo Global on Wed., Aug. 1. Previous winners of the award include primate researcher Jane Goodall, natural history film presenter Sir. David Attenborough and Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson.

The pair was selected for the Medal and a $10,000 prize in the category Conservation-in-Action for their pioneering wildlife conservation efforts to create amphibian survival colonies in Panama. In the award letter the San Diego Zoo’s Board of Trustees stated: “Your program serves as a groundbreaking model for the development and successes of similar programs worldwide.”

EVACC, founded by the Houston Zoo, joined forces with the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project to save twenty target species from a devastating disease caused by a fungus by learning how to breed them in captivity.