Kevin Leiske

The Living Desert

We are a Zoo with Desert Animals from North America, Africa, and Australia. We have 11 Desert Botanical Gardens representing deserts from around the world. We sit on 1200 acres and utilite about 250 acres and we have 5 miles of hiking trails. The Living Desert's mission is desert conservation through preservation, education and appreciation. The objectives of The Living Desert are: to preserve a portion of the Colorado Desert in its natural state; to foster, through interpretive exhibits, programs and publication, an awareness of, an and an appreciation for, the variety of plants and animals in worldwide ecosystems; to build up under controlled conditions, populations of various species of desert animals and plants threatened with extinction in the wild state; and to foster through cooperative research and educational programs, biological studies contributing to the protection of desert species in a wild state