Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Caileigh Robertson, Communications Nearly two weeks ago, a male Asian small-clawed otter arrived at the zoo. Albeit a little early, this little fella is here in anticipation of the first phase of the zoo’s new Asian tropical forest exhibit complex , which he will call home upon its opening in May. (Psst…look for more news about progress on the new exhibit coming up on the blog this Thursday.) All newly arrived animals go through a routine quarantine examination and weigh-in by zoo veterinarian staff. Much like your yearly physical at your doctor’s office, quarantine exams help our animal management staff gather information about the animal’s overall health and well-being. The zoo’s Director of Animal Health, Dr. Darin Collins, checks the otter’s heartbeat during the exam. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Today, our new otter received his quarantine exam and, as expected, he is in great shape!  The veterinary staff checked his weight, pulse and oxygen leve

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Surprise! We’re excited to announce that we have not one, but two sloth bear cubs doing well behind the scenes at Woodland Park Zoo. It turns out our big news about having a cub born back in December is even bigger news, now that we know we have twins! Video: Sloth bear mom Tasha leaves the maternity den briefly, lured by a snack of crickets offered by zookeepers, revealing the two cubs she birthed on December 18. The case of the hidden sloth bear cub Back on December 18 when the cubs were born, 7-year-old mother Tasha was so quick to build a fortress of hay around her cubs to protect and support them in the maternity den, that we never got much of a visual on the litter. We spotted one cub, but we suspected there was a second cub in the litter, hiding out from where we could see it. What made us think we had two cubs? Through baby monitors, keepers could hear what sounded like two cubs breathing, grunting and nursing. But since

Posted by: Caileigh Robertson, Communications We’re capping off the year with yet another significant birth: an endangered sloth bear . Born Dec. 18, the tiny cub is off view with its mom, 7-year-old Tasha, in a behind-the-scenes maternity den. Dad, 16-year-old Randy, is staying in his own den right now, giving mom and cub their space to bond, which is a typical family structure for sloth bears. This screen capture from the internal web cam was taken just moments after the birth of the cub. The tiny size is normal, with an average birth weight for sloth bears at 10.5-17.5 ounces (300-500 g). Photo by Woodland Park Zoo. To minimize any disturbance to the family, zookeepers are keeping their distance, monitoring the new family via an internal web cam to keep their eye on things and make sure the cub continues to nurse and bond with mom. This is Tasha’s first cub, but her motherly instincts kicked in immediately. Right after the birth, she built two large mounds of hay in the

Posted by: Monica Lake, Capital Projects Our sloth bears Randy and Tasha were out in full regalia Tuesday, sniffing, scratching, balancing on logs and slurping their favorite foods—all to greet 200+ zoo lovers and advocates who gathered to help us celebrate a major milestone:  breaking ground on the new Asian Tropical Forest exhibit complex! Assisted by sloth bear Randy, President and CEO Deborah Jensen spoke about design and animal care innovations at the Asian Tropical Forest groundbreaking ceremony Sept. 18, 2012. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Nearly 100 additional zoo fans of the smaller variety “dug in” to make way for new homes for Asian small-clawed otters, sloth bears and Malayan tigers. Kids from Orca Children’s Center, North Seattle Fives Cooperative and West Woodland Elementary School joined the ceremony. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. The kids also did a great job of overseeing the work of several leaders of the Asian Tropical Fo

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications We’re about to break ground on phase one of our all new tiger, sloth bear and otter exhibit complex , and that means we’re coming up on the final weekend—Sept. 15 – 16—to view sloth bears Randy and Tasha at the zoo before construction begins. Sloth bear at Woodland Park Zoo. Construction for a new exhibit complex begins Sept. 17, 2012. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Once construction begins the week of Sept. 17, we’ll be closing off the area where the sloth bears live now and they will remain off public view until both phases of the construction project are complete, which we anticipate will be in 2014. The new exhibit complex will transform a 60-year-old portion of the zoo into a state-of-the-art, 2-acre complex with dynamic new homes for several species of the Asian tropical forest—Asian small-clawed otters, sloth bears, tropical birds and Malayan tigers. Asian small-clawed otters. Photo courtesy of Santa Bar

Posted by: Team Tiger You’ve shown your stripes and caused an uproar for tigers through our Give Ten for Tigers campaign. Thanks to you, we’ve gone over goal and raised an incredible $115,000 well before the deadline and we got the $100,000 match!!! We now have enough to start construction on the first phase of the incredible new tropical forest exhibit for tigers, sloth bears and otters! We can’t thank you enough for giving to the cause and spreading the word to your friends. Every dollar and every share helped get us here. YOU got us to this first critical milestone! Construction on this first phase, which includes the home of the new Asian small-clawed otters, will begin the day after Labor Day and open May 2013. In the meantime, everything that’s come in over the $100,000 goal, and every dollar raised from now on, will help build the second and final phase of the new home for our tigers and sloth bears , which will open in 2014. Thanks so much for givin

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Keepers train our tigers and sloth bears behind the scenes to get them to cooperate with their daily care. But in our new exhibits , we’re bringing the behind the scenes front and center with special training areas in the exhibit. You’ll get to watch keepers interact with the animals up close as they train right in front of you! Training is an essential part of providing excellent care for these intelligent, powerful animals. It's a lot easier to give medicine to or examine a body part of a massive tiger when it is cooperating! When you Give Ten for Tigers , you help us bring this and other cool features to the zoo! Thank you.

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications We reveal a secret of zoo exhibit design in this latest video.  Help us make our design plans for a new exhibit for tigers and sloth bears a reality through our Give Ten for Tigers campaign . We're 25% to our fundraising goal and we're hoping to raise another $75,000 before May 25 in order to raise enough funds to begin on construction for Phase One of this major new exhibit project. We've been asking you to give, but we're also prepared to give back. Anyone who makes a gift is automatically entered into our Give Ten, Win Ten giveaway for a chance to win a prize pack of 10 zoo admission passes and a tiger ZooParent adoption. You can also enter to win here .  Thanks for your continued support!

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Can you guess which zoo animal these claws belong to?  We'll give you time to think. . . . . . . Did you get it?  . . . . . . Got it? It's the sloth bear! Those sharp, 3-inch-long claws belong to the sloth bear and they are used to dig out insect mounds. After digging, sloth bears  blow away the dirt with their long, mobile lips and with a huge breath, suck up the termites like a high-powered vacuum. You’ll see these adaptations up close when we transform our sloth bears’ and tigers’ 60-year-old exhibits into state-of-the-art, naturalistic homes coming in 2014.  Help us get started on the transformation : Give Ten for Tigers today at http://bit.ly/GiveTen Thanks! (Photos by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo.)

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Stretch with us! Archive image of Hadiah, the last Sumatran tiger cub born at Woodland Park Zoo, seen here in 2006 at 16 days old. We'll have a breeding pair of Malayan tigers in our new exhibit, which means we may have more cubs in the near future! Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. It’s GiveBIG day in King County, which means your $10 gift to our Give Ten for Tigers campaign will get stretched by the partial matching funds from the Seattle Foundation today only when you make your gift at this link .   Even if you can’t make a gift, click the share buttons to spread this to your friends and help us get the word out across the community. Together, we’ll create an awesome new exhibit for tigers and sloth bears at the zoo.  Remember, GiveBIG is today only. Any gift you make through GiveBIG will go directly to our Give Ten for Tigers campaign. Tomorrow we'll return to our regularly scheduled programming of Give

Are you tired of our worn-out, 60-year-old tiger and sloth bear exhibits? So are we! That's why we're embarking on the biggest extreme makeover here at the zoo since the 1990s to build a new, state-of-the-art, 2-acre exhibit complex for Malayan tigers , sloth bears , small-clawed otters , tropical birds and so much more! Future plans for Woodland Park Zoo's all new, naturalistic tiger exhibit complex. If you love animals, you'll love the new experience we're designing. You should see the plans ! The exhibit complex will also play a crucial role in inspiring people to help save wild tigers  whose future is in serious jeopardy. Malayan tiger. Photo by Melinda Arnold/Dickerson Park Zoo. But we can't build it without you. Literally. If you've ever done any remodeling you know it's expensive. And we only have until May 25 to raise enough money to start construction on Phase One of the exhibit complex (which will include an exhibit

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Malayan tiger. Photo courtesy Fresno Chaffee Zoo. Serving on the exhibit design team for new Malayan tiger and sloth bear exhibits has been the highlight of my years at Woodland Park Zoo. Apologies in advance--you might see an extraordinary amount of exclamation points in this blog post because I am  so excited after all this time to unveil the cool features we’ve dreamed up for this new space! And with your support, we can make it a reality! An overview of the all new, 2-acre tiger and sloth bear exhibit complex. (Click to enlarge.) Artist rendering by Studio Hanson/Roberts. Our tigers and sloth bears currently live in 60-year-old exhibits, some of the last remaining old-school exhibits at the zoo. It’s time to transform this space into a state-of-the-art, naturalistic exhibit complex for these endangered species. We’re making it better for the animals, better for visitors, better for zoo staff and better for the environment