Ann Unterberg and Allison Stern

Nearly 650 of the city’s A-list animal lovers, decked out in a mix of South American safari and black-tie garb, batted nary an eye as they mingled and flitted amidst humans with butterfly wings and larger-than-life plush sea animals at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Spring Gala: SAFARI at the Central Park Zoo. This was, after all, the Upper East Side animal sanctuary, a great escape where one’s inner animal can run free. The event raised a phenomenal $1.3 mil for WCS, which is led by the flagship Bronx Zoo and works to save wildlife and wild lands.

Honorary chairs Julian and Josie Robertson, co-chairs Katharina Otto-Bernstein and Nathan Bernstein, Allison and Leonard Stern, Ann and Andrew Tisch, and Ann and Thomas Unterberg welcomed guests for cocktails by the sea-lion pool and dinner beneath the stars with penguins and polar bears. Tiffany & Co. and its Chairman and CEO, Michael Kowalski, were honored for the company’s commitment to global conservation.

Hugh Hildesley of Sotheby’s conducted a one-of-a-kind auction in which WCS Trustee Daniel Thorne snagged the right to name a newborn female rhino for a staggering $85,000 and Paola and Michael Schulhof plunked down an impressive $47,500 for a first-class, five-star safari dubbed “Best of Brazil.” Following dinner, guests took cues from their surroundings and got wild on the dance floor, forming a conga line to the tunes spun by DJ Tom Finn.

Winding through the zoo’s wildlife: Ann Colley, ex-wife of Bruce Colley (the straw that broke the camel’s back in the marriage of Kerry Kennedy and Andrew Cuomo), who arrived with Zack Bacon (Diandra Douglas’s ex). Also spotted “on safari”: WCS President and CEO Dr. Steve Sanderson, Karenna Gore Schiff and Andrew Schiff, Andrew Fox and Caroline Hirsch, Jamee and Peter Gregory, Bernard and Stephanie Lackner, Brian Stewart and Stephanie Krieger, Susan Hayes, Debbie Bancroft, Denise and Larry Wohl, Hilary Geary and Wilbur Ross, Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos, Emma Snowdon-Jones, Melissa Berkelhammer, Marcia Mishaan, Muffie Potter Aston and Dr. Sherrell Aston, Somers White, Dale Brooks, and Fernanda Kellogg and Kirk Henckel.

S’far-i, so good!