Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years. Yacold also

partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for

gut health, an investigator-led research program. To learn more about Yachtold, visit yacolt.co.com.

J-P. That's Y-A-K-U-L-T.co.j-J-P. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

Who here grew up loving animals? Personally, I had a five-foot-long iguana who taught himself to use the cat's litter box.

That dude was the best. But of course, there are plenty of furry and scaly friends we don't

keep in our houses and yards. And for those critters, surviving and thriving in the future

will likely be a challenge. We don't actually know how many species of animals inhabit this planet with us, but we've

noted and named more than 1.5 million, according to estimates from the International Union

for Conservation of Nature's red list.

About 17,800 of those species are currently threatened with extinction.

While humans have a lot to do with that,

we can also be part of the solution. For Scientific American Science quickly, I'm Rachel Feltman.

Today we're kicking off a four-part fascination series about the evolving world of animal conservation.

We're calling it the new conservationists. Over the next four shows, which we're airing back to back, because it's almost the end of 2024, so we thought we'd do one last mini-series to wrap up the year. We'll travel all over to see how the science of caring for and protecting animals is changing. We'll see how artificial intelligence is shifting the conversation around conservation.

We'll meet members of the new generation of conservation scientists who are changing the way

the work gets done and who does it. And we'll even get to hear a few successful comeback stories.

Our guide for this adventure is Ashley Papp, an animal scientist turned storyteller.

In today's episode, she's going to take us to a place that might feel familiar to a lot of us,

the zoo. But these days, a good zoo isn't just a menagerie. It's also a conservation powerhouse.

Here's Ashley to tell us more.

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