Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Gigi Allianic Hello, snowy owl chick! Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo We're so excited to welcome a pair of snowy owl chicks to our zoo family, and these youngsters are all eyes! The last hatching of the species at Woodland Park Zoo’s was nine years ago. These owlets join the host of animals born or hatched at the zoo since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic including: a tawny frogmouth chick, a tapir calf, a gorilla baby, agouti pups, penguin chicks, scaly-sided merganser ducklings, a pudu fawn, a mountain goat kid, and more!  I see you! Snowy owl chicks, known as owlets, are covered in greyish down. Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo First-time parents, mom June and dad Dusty, and their brood live in the Northern Trail habitat. “Mom sits on the nest most of the time, a sign of good maternal care. The owlets are beginning to venture outside the nest, so visitors may have the chance to see them on the ground,” said Kevin

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo This turtle-y awesome class of 2020 gets a head start on life! Washington state’s population of endangered western pond turtles will be bolstered when Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and Woodland Park Zoo release close to 29 turtles next month to the wild at local protected sites. The turtles are a part of the collaborative Western Pond Turtle Recovery Project , a head start program initiated in 1991. It is Washington state’s longest-running species reintroduction project. Juvenile western pond turtles at Woodland Park Zoo are prepared to be released to the wild in August.  Each spring, WDFW biologists go in the field to attach transmitters to adult female western pond turtles and monitor them every few hours during the nesting season to locate nesting sites; the nests are protected from predators with wire exclosure cages. A portion of the eggs are col

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications We've had a very productive spring and summer here at Woodland Park Zoo with the births and hatchings of so many little ones. The newest addition to our baby boom is a tawny frogmouth chick! The new chick represents the 38th frogmouth hatched at the zoo since the species’ first hatching in 2009. The zoo is currently home to seven adult tawny frogmouths. A newly hatched tawny frogmouth chick looks just like a white cotton ball.  Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Tawny frogmouths are nocturnal birds native to Australia. During the day, they perch on tree branches, using their cryptic camouflage to blend into their environment. The plumage of the tawny frogmouth is silver-gray, slightly paler below, streaked and mottled with black and rufous. Frogmouths are often mistaken as owls; although they have many habits similar to owls, they are actually more closely related to nightjars and whip-poor-wills, and do not have the s

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo The #SeattleWatermelon has arrived. On June 10 at approximately 9:30 p.m., our Malayan tapir Ulan, gave birth to her first baby, a girl. We are in love. The gestation period for tapirs is approximately 13 months, and for Ulan, her birth window was between April and June, since we weren't exactly sure when she conceived. The average weight for calves at birth is 22 pounds, and Ulan's baby is 18 pounds. Calves are born with their eyes open and can stand within one or two hours after birth—and as you can see from these photos—baby tapirs hit their adorable watermelon benchmark right away! The newborn calf gets a quick neonatal exam by the animal health team before being reunited with mom. “These ‘watermelons on four legs’ are irresistible,” says Kevin Murphy, animal curator. “It will be curiously fun to watch her explore the public habitat, which we did our best to tapi

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Woodland Park Zoo is pleased to announce that its 3-month-old male gorilla, Kitoko, is recovering and doing well. The baby western lowland gorilla sustained head injuries over Memorial Day weekend during a skirmish among his six-member family group. The infant sustained serious injuries to the head including a laceration from a bite wound, resulting in a bone fracture to the skull. Zoo animal health staff had to immobilize Uzumma, the mother of Kitoko, in order to separate the baby and take him to the zoo’s veterinary hospital. A team of pediatric neurosurgery consultants from Seattle Children’s Hospital joined the zoo’s animal health team for evaluation, to conduct the surgical exploration and to close the wound. To minimize the risk of infection, the baby had to spend a night at the zoo’s hospital for intravenous antibiotics and pain medications. He was reunited with his mom the nex

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Amanda in 2017, photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo We are mourning the great loss of Amanda, our 50-year-old female gorilla, who was humanely euthanized today due to a severe decline in health. During the last couple of weeks, the geriatric gorilla’s appetite and activity level were declining. Amanda was the grandmother of the zoo’s newest baby gorilla, Kitoko, born in March. She was the oldest western lowland gorilla living at the zoo and among the oldest in North America. At 50 years old, Amanda was well into advanced geriatric age, practically double in human years. In zoos, female gorillas can live in to their 40s and 50s. In the wild, the life expectancy is 30 to 35 years. Pictured here in 2008, Amanda carries baby Uzumma on her back. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Amanda was raised at Toronto Zoo. In 1994 she moved to Woodland Park Zoo where she successfully raised three daughters, including Uzumma, the mother of

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Editors note: UPDATE 5/25/20 Kitoko was returned to his mom the evening of May 24th. Uzumma picked him up right away and began nursing. Kwame, silverback and father of Kitoko, was also reunited with the pair that evening. As of May 25, Kitoko and Uzumma are doing well and under the watchful eye of the animal health team and their dedicated keepers who are showering them with lots of TLC. Woodland Park Zoo’s 2½-month-old male gorilla, Kitoko, sustained injuries yesterday, May 23, during a skirmish among his six-member family group. Zoo animal health staff immobilized Uzumma, the mother of Kitoko, in order to separate the baby and take him to the zoo’s veterinary hospital for an examination, including diagnostic radiographs and a surgical repair of the wound. Uzumma and Kitoko, photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. “The infant sustained serious injuries to the head including a laceration from a bite wound, resulting in a

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo We are teeming with new babies this spring! The newest members of the family are a male pudu fawn and a female mountain goat kid. The new babies join the burgeoning population of other babies born or hatched at the zoo since March including a gorilla, a pair of agoutis, a couple of penguins, two scaly-sided mergansers, and a wallaby and wallaroo. Pudu fawn peeking out from the spring grass. Pudus are the smallest deer species in the world and are native to South America. The new pudu fawn was born May 14 to first-time parents Maggie and Ted. The last pudu birth at the zoo was 10 years ago. “The new mom is providing good maternal care to her fawn. We’re pleased he’s nursing and mom and fawn are bonding,” says Mark Myers, an animal curator at Woodland Park Zoo. “We’ll continue to monitor the new family closely.” The pudus live in the zoo’s Temperate Forest habitat. The pudu parents

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Scaly-sided merganser ducklings at Woodland Park Zoo. Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo A precious pair of scaly-sided mergansers have hatched at Woodland Park Zoo. Also known as Chinese mergansers, this species of diving ducks is very rare in zoos and in the wild. This is the first time this type of duckling has hatched here, so experienced members of our animal care staff will be hand-rearing the pair. Animal keeper Joanna Klass tells us that this is a very sensitive and endangered species, so it's no wonder we’re taking every precaution necessary to give these ducklings the best possible start in life. By hand-rearing the chicks, Joanna and her colleagues can make sure each duckling gets all the food it needs without having to compete with other larger adult birds that share our wetlands habitat. Once the ducklings grow to adult size and their juvenile feathers grow in, they'll be introduced to the other birds in t

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Today in honor of Endangered Species Day, we are excited to announce the name of Uzumma's baby boy: Kitoko (ki-TOE-koh), which means beautiful or handsome in the African languages, Lingala /Kikongo. The opportunity to name the baby gorilla was given to Woodland Park Zoo Board member Rosemarie Havranek and her family, Nathan, Cameron, and Conor Myhrvold, as a small token of gratitude for their long-time, generous support of Woodland Park Zoo’s mission to save wildlife and inspire everyone to make conservation a priority in their lives. “Our family has supported the zoo for many decades and the opportunity to name the newest baby gorilla is an honor. We have spent many hours at the zoo as a family, observing the wildlife and teaching our sons about the important work of animal conservation,” says Rosemarie Havranek. “Woodland Park Zoo's mission of animal conservation locally and globally reminds us that we need to take care of t

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications It's hard to believe, but just one year ago, we celebrated the birth of our very special giraffe, Hasani.  Almost immediately after his birth, congenital abnormalities were diagnosed in the tiny giraffe's rear legs. Thanks to the dedicated care by our zoo veterinary and giraffe care teams, including consultation with a Kentucky-based equine veterinarian, Hasani was successfully outfitted with a series of customized therapeutic shoes which corrected his condition over several weeks. Hasani’s story of hope and triumph reached far and wide across the country and around the world. Many of you wrote to us to empathize with the hard work from our staff and to send love to the baby giraffe. We heard from thousands of individuals whose hearts, minds and spirits were touched and inspired by this remarkable story. Today, we celebrate his first trip around the sun and just how much our love continues to grow for him. Happy Birthday, Has