Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, Woodland Park Zoo Hello Taj! The first of two rhinos has arrived safely at Woodland Park Zoo. After a road trip from San Diego, Taj, a 17-month-old male greater one-horned rhino, arrived last Friday in healthy condition. Trained in preparation for the move, Taj traveled in a custom-made trailer driven by an expert who specializes in moving rhinos. Taj will live at Assam Rhino Reserve which opens May 5! Pronounced like Taj Mahal, Taj means “crown” or “jewel” in Hindi. He was born Nov. 10, 2016 at San Diego Zoo Safari Park and is the 70th greater one-horned rhino born at the Safari Park since 1972, making the Park the foremost breeding facility in the world for this rhino species.  Taj is already settling in and getting to know his animal keepers. “Taj has spent his first few days inside the barn settling in and becoming familiar with his new surroundings and rhino care keepers. Starting this w

Posted by Kirsten Pisto, Communications As you all have been patiently waiting, we’d like to give you a little update on our newest arrival. It’s a girl! Hello, beautiful! Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, Woodland Park Zoo.  A beautiful, 5’9”, 149 lbs. bundle of joy. She is already bonding with mom and curious about all of the keepers and animal health staff who have been visiting her barn. The sweet new calf is dry, meaning her soft fur is now clean and dry from the birth.  Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, Woodland Park Zoo. After a 4:03 a.m. birth on June 20, 2017 , our sweet mama Tufani began nursing her baby in the late afternoon. Nursing is a huge milestone for any new mother, but especially for Tufani who is a first time mom. Nursing is incredibly important for the health of the baby, and another sign that mom and baby are bonding.  In other good news, the calf received good scores on her first neonatal exam with our dedicated animal health team. Dr.

Posted by: Gigi Allianic, Communications Photos by: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, Woodland Park Zoo We have a little update on our gorilla Nadiri and her newborn baby. Attempts to introduce the first-time mother gorilla to her new baby continue every day. For now, the plan for the next three months will be to keep on providing hands-on care for the female gorilla infant before evaluating next steps. The baby western lowland gorilla was born November 20 to 19-year-old Nadiri. After giving birth naturally, Nadiri did not pick up her baby and, instead, walked away. Staff immediately stepped in for the safety and welfare of the baby and to allow the new mom to rest. Because Nadiri does not have experience with motherhood, the zoo prepared for different eventualities while Nadiri was pregnant, including human intervention. Zoo gorilla and veterinary staff are providing 24/7 care for the baby gorilla behind the scenes in the gorillas’ sleeping quarters in a den next to Nadi

Posted by: Martin Ramirez, Mammal Curator A month after arriving to Woodland Park Zoo via FedEx from Little Rock Zoo in Arkansas, 7-year-old, female sloth bear , Tasha, underwent her quarantine exam on Tuesday. At Woodland Park Zoo, the quarantine exam is the last major step in the process to clear a newly arrived animal out of standard 30-day quarantine and prepare them to move into their exhibit. Dr. Darin Collins, the zoo’s director of Animal Health, inspects Tasha's teeth. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Tasha received a full physical examination by our expert Animal Health staff that included blood work, radiographs and weight—essential baseline data that we keep on file to reference as we track an animal’s health over their lifetime. Close up of Tasha's claws. Sloth bears dig out insect mounds with their long, sharp claws. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Weighing in at 215 pounds, Tasha received a clean bill of health and has been approved to

Posted by: Martin Ramirez, Animal Curator Kyle in his exhibit after surgery. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo.  If you have been out to the African Savanna exhibit recently, you may have noticed a change—one of our patas monkeys now has only one arm. We thought you might have some questions about what happened to him, so we’d like to share with you his story. Kyle, a 6-year-old, male patas monkey, was recently being treated for a severe infection in the bones around his right shoulder. After the usual antibiotic treatments failed to stop the spread of the infection—jeopardizing his overall health—our keeper staff, animal health team and consulting veterinarians from the Animal Surgical Clinic determined the best course of action would be to amputate Kyle’s right limb. Kyle (left) with partner Alexa. Photo by Anne Nichols/Woodland Park Zoo. Why amputation? Not only would it rid Kyle’s body of the infection quickly, but it would also prevent the return of the life-threatening bloo

Posted by: Martin Ramirez, Curator Lions, tigers and jaguars eating less red meat at the zoo? Who would have thought?! But if you think about it, carnivores in the wild will catch and eat the occasional fish or fowl to supplement their diet, so why not in a zoo? All of the zoo's carnivores receive a commercially prepared diet that meets their nutritional needs. These diets consist of red meat and are fed most of the week. However, there are some benefits to eating whole chickens or turkeys once a week. The bones in uncooked fowl help keep their teeth clean and the animals welcome the variety. Chickens can be offered to the animals in interesting ways. They can be hidden in the exhibit or hung from a spot where the animal has to reach for it. By reducing the red meat our carnivores eat we're not only improving their overall health, we’re also helping the environment. Researchers have determined that 2.5 times more oil is used in the production of red meat than with chicken. For

Posted by: Martin Ramirez, Curator It's been a very busy time for our new meerkats. Their first visitors, in the form of zoo staff, got a sneak peek of them a few days before the meerkats were set to debut to the public. The meerkats took well to the crowd and spent just as much time looking back at all of us as we spent watching them. The other fun, new feature is a faux wildebeest skull. The first day they got it they completely excavated it and explored every nook and cranny. I just hope our young visitors understand that it is an artificial skull and that the meerkats had nothing to do with its demise! Over this past weekend, the exhibit was officially opened to zoo guests. As crowds gathered around the window, the one word I could hear over and over again was “CUTE!” I reminded many of the visitors I encountered that the meerkats are not just cute, but meerkute —and all the fascinating things that make them amazing to watch, like their social structure, and their burrowing an

Posted by: Martin Ramirez, Curator This week all eight meerkats were given access to one of the two rooms in their exhibit. In preparation, keepers coated the guest viewing window with wax. This is typically done so that animals see that there is a barrier there and don't run into it. After we let these little guys out they explored the entire exhibit from top to bottom. When they finally found the window they actually seemed annoyed that they couldn't see out! So we cleaned off a small section about 8 inches in diameter. All eight tried to peek through the small opening so we had to make it bigger. While we cleaned off the wax with a towel, one of the meerkats stood on the other side of the glass and seemed mesmerized by the circular motions of the towel. It was really cute to watch! At this point we decided to remove most of the wax to allow them to watch some of the last minute preparations taking place outside their exhibit. Later this week we will introduce the group

Posted by: Martin Ramirez, Curator Finally, the day is here. After months of preparation, Woodland Park Zoo has meerkats again—behind the scenes at the moment and getting ready to debut to public on May 1. At 10:20 a.m. today, the zoo’s eight new meerkats arrived after a long and arduous road trip of about 1 hour from our neighbors at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma. Actually, this is one of the shortest trips that an animal has taken to get to our zoo!   They arrived sporting their own fingerpaint markings on their heads and backs to help keepers identify them more easily during their first few days here. The colors chosen are combinations of pink, green, yellow and red, and will fade in a day or two. Eventually we will be able to tell them apart by just looking at their faces, but for now they all look the same! Keepers will monitor them very closely for the rest of the day and possibly into the night just to make sure they settle in okay. They will be intro