Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

Twenty-Six Questions with Dave Ruhl, CMZoo’s New President & CEO

Dave Ruhl has a new nametag as of this week! After six years at CMZoo, with nearly three years as executive vice president, Dave is CMZoo’s president & CEO. Dave’s keen to connect with CMZoo members and the community, and in his typical approachable fashion, he humored the Zoo’s communications team by answering twenty-six questions, in honor of 2026 – the Zoo’s centennial year.

Dave will be at the next Member Appreciation Night from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Wed., June 24, and looks forward to mingling with members then! More information on Member Summer Nights is available here: https://www.cmzoo.org/membership/current-members/ .

1. How would you describe yourself in three words?
Curious. Caring. Optimistic.

2. You have been integral in the design and construction of the International Center for the Care and Conservation of Giraffe for the past six years. What are your favorite:

– Animal welfare improvement features?
In the wild, giraffe make hundreds of decisions every day. They choose where to spend their time, whether they want sun or shade, what they want to browse on, and who they want to be around.

One of the things I’m most proud of is that the new center gives our giraffe more opportunities to make those same kinds of choices. They have access to different temperature zones, different feeding opportunities, different substrates under their feet, varying amounts of shade, and a variety of spaces to explore.

The more choices we can provide, the more control animals have over their daily lives, and that’s a huge part of providing excellent animal welfare.

Read more here: https://www.cmzoo.org/news/archive/twenty-six-questions-with-dave-ruhl-cmzoos-new-president-ceo/

Can you spot these native plants around Colorado? So can the pollinators!

This time of year, it’s common to see lots of pollinators in Colorado. From bees and butterflies to beetles and wasps, pollinators play a critical role in healthy ecosystems. By moving pollen between flowers, they help plants reproduce and support the food and habitats that wildlife depend on. Pollinators help provide one out of every three bites of food we eat.

One species CMZoo is especially focused on this year is the monarch butterfly. Colorado serves as an important stopover for both Eastern and Western migratory monarchs as they travel across the continent, relying on nectar-rich habitats to rest and refuel along the way. Some of the recent ways CMZoo has supported pollinator conservation include joining Monarch SAFE, participating in the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (MLMP), and installing Motus wildlife tracking towers to help researchers better understand the movements of tagged species, including monarch butterflies.