(Photo courtesy San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance)

In a flora and fauna filled parade, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s float won the top award. At the 135th Rose Parade in Pasadena on Jan. 1, 2024, the zoo won the 100th annual Sweepstakes Award for its float commemorating the zoo’s own centennial plus history of conservation efforts.

The theme “It Began With a Roar” had a large model of Rex the Lion, the zoo’s first animal, which roared out to the thousands of in-person parade goers and a global audience watching the show on tv and online. The float included other famous zoo animals from history and today, including polar bears, koalas, and orangutans. Karen the orangutan, who was born with a large hole in her heart, is alive due to the zoo’s cutting edge care. Her model on the float reached out to a Quino checkerspot butterfly, an endangered pollinator only found in Baja and Southern California. This year, thousands of these butterflies will be reintroduced into native habitats by zoo entomologists.

“We are humbled and honored to receive the Sweepstakes Trophy, but more importantly, we are grateful the Rose Parade allows San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance an opportunity to share our conservation message with a global audience,” said Paul A. Baribault, president and chief executive officer, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.

This is the fourth time the zoo has marched in the Rose Parade, starting in 1996 with a break until 2022. Last year, the float celebrating the Safari Park’s 50th anniversary won the Animation Award.