Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications A remote camera station in the North Cascades spots a visitor: a rare red fox! A carnivore in the North Cascades has lived up to its reputation—crafty as a fox. During a recent visit to a high-elevation camera station (~6,500 feet) in the North Cascades, Woodland Park Zoo field biologists discovered photos of a red fox that stopped by in early March. Given the station’s remote mountainous location, scientists are hopeful that this rare visitor was a native Cascade red fox ( Vulpes vulpes cascadensis ), a subspecies of red fox that is currently listed as Endangered in Washington state. Because Cascade red foxes are not visually distinctive from non-native red foxes, genetic information is required to determine if a fox is a Cascade red fox. The field biologists, Robert Long, PhD, and Paula MacKay, deployed the cameras last summer as part of their leadership role with the Cascades Carnivore Monitoring Program , a highly collaborative, long-term mon...

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Welcome, Tuah! We're already smitten with you! Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Last month Woodland Park Zoo heralded the arrival of a new female Malayan tapir, Binti. Now, her future companion, a male named Tuah, has completed the cross-country trek from Minnesota and is settling into his new digs at the zoo. Tuah, whose name means “good fortune or luck” in Malay, will turn 5 on August 8. The new tapir moved from Minnesota Zoo under a breeding recommendation by the Malayan Tapir Species Survival Plan. Species Survival Plans are cooperative breeding programs across accredited zoos to help ensure healthy, genetically diverse populations of select species or subspecies. Tapirs are among the most primitive large mammals in the world, changing little in appearance for millions of years. These prehistoric-looking animals are long and similar to the weight of a light horse and look like a massive pig with a long snout. Because they h...