Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications Roses are red, violets are blue…unless you’re a tetrachromat, it’s true. Apologies for the obvious segue to a post about color, but I couldn’t resist!  A blue bellied roller and a brightly colored orchid show us examples of some of the beautiful colors here at Woodland Park Zoo. Photos by Ryan Hawk and Kirsten Pisto/WPZ. Throughout the animal kingdom, there is enormous diversity in the structure and faculty of eyesight. Oftentimes, we relate our own human eyesight to the visual capabilities of animals, but most evidence points to the contrary: in fact, humans might be an underdog in visual perception. A rainbow sits over the North Meadow. Red has the longest wavelength and blue has the shortest. Photo by Dennis Conner/WPZ.   The human eye sees a wide range of what we call visual color, that is , measurable wavelengths in the range of about 390–700 nanometers. Our eyeballs have a ton of tiny little cones and rods in th

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications Unless you’ve been on a tropical getaway for the past month, you probably noticed that the Pacific Northwest welcomed in the coming winter season with regular drenchings of heavy rain. This is the time of year when leaves clog drainpipes, and puddles emerge on the streets, sometimes as big as ponds. Well, if you were a West African dwarf crocodile you would be very pleased! Woodland Park Zoo’s male dwarf crocodile almost fully submerged on exhibit. Photo by Alex Monopolis. Dwarf crocodiles ( Osteolaemus tetraspis ) are a special type of small crocodile species found in the tropical rivers and swamps of sub-Saharan West Africa and West Central Africa. They thrive in swamps and rainforest rivers, but have also been found in Savannah flood zones where they soak up the extra moisture during the wet season, and dig burrows in heavy mud to aestivate during the subsequent dry season. Dwarf crocodile camouflaged on exhibit at Woodland

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications Fall has arrived and the autumn equinox is September 23! This Friday, September 23, the autumn equinox will take place at precisely 9:04 a.m. The autumn equinox occurs once a year when the earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the sun. This means that the hours of daylight and night time are exactly the same: 12 hours of day, 12 hours of night. After September 23rd, the earth's axis, and the North Pole, will begin to tilt away from the sun. The sun rises lower and lower in the sky so the days start getting shorter until December's shortest day of the year. This creates wonderful long shadows that stretch across the ground during autumn and early winter. The zoo is a perfect place to watch these shadows move, since we have so many tall trees and open spaces. Artists and photographers should take advantage of this time of year. The light is softer in the fall, because the sun's rays are not as dir

Posted by: Janel Kempf, Education and Kirsten Pisto, Communications A few weeks ago, Woodland Park Zoo education specialist Janel Kempf and co-workers went to the West Seattle Library to present the zoo’s Little Critters animal encounter program to a group of children, as part of the zoo’s community outreach. Janel Kempf holding peregrine falcon D1. Photo by Kyle Doane/Woodland Park Zoo. Before the show started, a little girl and her mom came up to Janel, holding out a bundle of brightly wrapped tissue paper. Gifts for the raptors. Photo by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo. When the team opened the gifts they discovered that the package contained some very thoughtful items for our raptors! It turns out the four-year-old girl had come to the zoo’s raptor program at the Columbia Library a few weeks before, and had been very moved by the plight of our rescued raptors including Chouette, the northern saw-whet owl . Chouette came to us after she was struck by a vehicle while bug-hun

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications “There goes the barbecue…” Last week we shared some photos from our Bear Affair event held June 4. In our latest video, you can see 700-pound grizzly bear brothers, Keema and Denali, in action. Watch with your sound turned up to hear bear expert and zoo conservation partner Chris Morgan provide insight on bear safety as the grizzlies show us exactly how much damage they can do to our campsites and backyards. Always be bear aware. If we do our part to keep attractants like garbage, birdseed and barbecues contained when camping or living in bear country, practice bear safety and give these animals plenty of space, we can help protect not just bears but people too. And never keep marshmallows in your sleeping bag! For more info on grizzlies, how we're protecting them in Washington state and what you can do to be bear safe, visit: http://bearinfo.org/ . Video shot and edited by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo.