Oracle co-founder and one of America’s richest, Larry Ellison, is donating an undisclosed sum to revitalize endangered wildlife in Northern California. The center, which is on a former logging site in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and is valued at around $5.5 million, will become the Conservation Center for Wildlife Care. It will provide ideal conditions for breeding in captivity, and will focus on vanishing breeds of insects and amphibians, such as the Pacific giant salamander, the metalmark butterfly and the San Francisco garter snake.
Although the amount was not disclosed, the Mercury News estimates the cost to build it will be $50 million. Peninsula Humane Society Ken White said the Oracle founder, “has been very kind to this organization. There’s not enough money for any charitable causes, and there’s even less for those involving animals. And among those causes, the ones benefiting local wildlife are at the bottom.”
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Ellison has donated to wildlife causes in the past, but mainly overseas, such as effort to protect gorillas in Africa and prevent ivory poaching. His conservation philanthropy is coming closer to home with the Conservation Center and his transformation of the Hawaiian Island, Lanai, he owns into a center for eco-tourism.
