local animal welfare organizations, host Meet Your Best Friend at the Zoo, the nation's largest offsite companion animal adoption program. Since the event's inception in 1993, more than 25,000 dogs, cats, and rabbits have been placed into new homes at the spring and fall events. The Center for Zoo and Aquarium Animal Welfare and Ethics (CZAAWE) was created in 2009 as a resource center for captive exotic animal welfare knowledge and best practices. It provides a much-needed forum for exotic animal welfare policy discussion/debate and recognizes captive exotic animal welfare initiatives through awards. The Society provides educational experiences to nearly 70,000 teachers and students annually through camps, curriculum-based field trips, family and youth programs and professional development opportunities. The Society also supports students and teachers through conservation education in rural rainforest communities through the Adopt-A-School program. The Berman Academy for Humane Education offers a broad range of programs that help people help animals. The academy uses a variety of teaching strategies – from traditional instruction to storytelling, role-playing, theater, and virtual technology – to educate audiences about the need to treat other living creatures with empathy, respect and gentleness. Accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, the Zoo features many award-winning habitats including the Wildlife Interpretive Gallery, National Amphibian Conservation Center, Great Apes of Harambee and Arctic Ring of Life, which was named the number-two best zoo exhibit in the U.S. by the Intrepid Traveler's guide to "America's Best Zoos". The Simulator Ride offers an educational experience from a motion-simulated theater seat. The 126-seat 4-D Theater, the only of its kind at any Michigan zoo, features special effects such as blasts of wind, mist and scents. Belle Isle Nature Center The Belle Isle Nature Center sits on a five-acre site surrounded by undisturbed forested wetlands on Belle Isle State Park in Detroit. The facility features indoor animal habitats, a bee exhibit, bird observation window, an outdoor native butterfly garden, outdoor classrooms, nature play area and the Blue Heron Lagoon Nature Trail. It provides year-round educational, recreational and environmental conservation opportunities for the community. See also Architecture of metropolitan Detroit Tourism in metropolitan Detroit Detroit Zoo Map HD Notes References and further reading Austin, William (1974). The First Fifty Years. The Detroit Zoological Society. Kvaran, Einar Einarsson. Shadowing Parducci, unpublished manuscript, Detroit. External links Timeline of Zoo history Belle Isle Nature Center Zoos in Michigan Culture of Detroit Metro Detroit