The zoo will celebrate Biodiversity Day with free events. (photo courtesy of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association)

The Los Angeles Zoo is celebrating California Biodiversity Day with a free on-site and virtual program to excite and educate participants on the state’s diverse and unique plant and animal population.

California is a global hotspot for biodiversity and possesses an abundance of plant and animal species found nowhere else on Earth, making this annual day of celebration important to sustaining the health of the state’s biodiversity through education and actions to protect it.

California Biodiversity Day happens annually on Sept. 7, however the zoo will hold special events on Sept. 4, 5, 11 and 12.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on all four days, zoo visitors are invited to imagine and share their vision of what people and animals thriving together looks like at their home. Visitors will be able to draw a scene showing their ideas and then attach it to a wall-sized map of Los Angeles.

At 11 a.m. on Sept. 11, people can get a behind-the-scenes look at the L.A. Zoo’s California condor facility with one of the animal experts who cares for the critically endangered birds every day.

After tuning into the zoo’s Facebook Live, residents will learn about the zoo’s efforts to protect the condor and see a part of the zoo that normally is inaccessible to the public.