Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Meghan Sawyer, Communications Malayan tiger, Azul, is making herself right at home in her Banyan Wilds habitat. Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Woodland Park Zoo has a new queen of the jungle: 5-year-old Azul recently arrived in Seattle all the way from the Bronx Zoo in New York City and now she’s ready to meet all of you! The beautiful young Malayan tiger spent 30 days in standard quarantine under the watchful eye of Woodland Park Zoo’s veterinary care team and is now ready to roam through the zoo's naturalistic Banyan Wilds habitat. 5-year-old Azul was born at Bronx Zoo in New York City. Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Azul was born at the Bronx Zoo on January 5, 2016, and had to be hand-raised in the days following her birth because her mother was not giving her proper care. That kind of upbringing means that Azul has an especially calm and mellow nature—she’s taken very well to her animal keepers here in her new home! Azul! Photo: Jeremy

Posted by Robert Long, Senior Conservation Scientist and Director, Living Northwest Program, Wildlife Conservation In a last-minute announcement, the Trump administration is proposing to eliminate protections for 3.4 million acres of critical habitat for the northern spotted owl across the Pacific Northwest and California. This decision, if enacted, could push this iconic Pacific Northwest species to extinction. Our forests are home to myriad species and natural communities, and essential to humans for things such as clean water, clean air and the very wilderness we treasure. Large blocks of connected, protected resilient forests are, indeed, the best insurance we have against massive losses of wildlife species and the effects of climate change. Photo of spotted owl by Frank D. Lospalluto/Flickr via Audubon. This decision is counter to the best available science. A very recent review by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service concluded that Northern spotted owls are in critical need of p

Posted by Elizabeth Bacher, Communications Nadiri is in the final days of her second pregnancy. Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Once again, it’s an exciting time for our western lowland gorilla family as the birth watch begins for our next baby. We announced last October that 24-year-old Nadiri is pregnant with her second infant, and her official birth watch is now underway. Technically Nadiri’s due date falls between late January and early February, but without knowing exactly when she became pregnant it is hard to pinpoint a specific date. The gestation period for gorillas is eight to nine months which is similar to humans.  Nadiri is in the final days of her second pregnancy. Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo The new baby will be the second for both Nadiri and 21-year-old Kwame, but their first together. Nadiri gave birth to Yola, who was sired by Vip, a little more than 5 years ago. Because Nadiri was partially human-raised as an infant and had no exper