Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor Photos by: Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo At just about two weeks old, a typical day for our triplet lion cubs includes filling their bellies with mom’s milk and figuring out how to get their limbs to cooperate with their will to explore. The boys have doubled their birth weight, now weighing between 6.7 and 7.9 pounds. Looks like we’ve got one milk hog in the litter, but don’t worry—all are within a healthy weight range. To make it easier for keepers to tell the cubs apart at a quick glance, each boy has been shaved in a unique spot. When they are all squirming around mom, wrestling for a cuddle or a spot to nurse, sometimes a quick glance is all you get! Video: Lion Triplets Grooming Mom Adia and the cubs are spending quality time together in a behind-the-scenes nursing den where they can have quiet and minimal disturbance. Keepers watch them via an internal video monitor to keep an eye on the family. So far, we only h

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor The lion cubs, seen here at three days old, are doing well behind the scenes with mom Adia. Watch them wrestle and roll around as they position themselves for nursing in this new video: Video: Baby Lion Cub Sweetness In case you missed it, find the first photos and video of the cubs  in the birth announcement from last week. We'll continue to provide updates on the three boys from behind the scenes. It'll be some time before we see the family out on exhibit. For now, they need to focus on nursing, bonding with mom, developing their motor skills and getting big and strong!

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor Just back from Kyrgyzstan’s Tien Shan mountain range—“God’s Mountains” in Kyrgyz—Woodland Park Zoo VP of Field Conservation, Dr. Fred Koontz, is preparing a field report to share with you the highlights from his trek in the shadow of the snow leopard. Here’s a sneak peek of his travels with zoo conservation partner, Snow Leopard Trust , in honor of today's International Snow Leopard Day. As seen on Facebook: Post by Woodland Park Zoo . For more posts like this, be sure to like Woodland Park Zoo on Facebook.

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor The handsome Pete. Photo: Dennis Dow/WPZ. Thank you all for your well wishes for gorilla Pete, whose dental surgery to remove a premolar was a success! The 46-year-old silverback is already back in his exhibit and doing well. While he was under anesthesia, our animal health experts had a chance to give him a close exam and found Pete to be in good physical condition with no signs of significant cardiac disease—great news for our oldest gorilla. Big thanks to our zookeepers and veterinary team for keeping Pete in great health for his old age—now if they can just figure out what to do about that growing bald spot of his! ICYMI: See how keepers provide special TLC for aging Pete and his mate Nina in their golden gorilla years. 

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor What do elephants need ivory for?  Digging, lifting, pushing and defending. What do people need ivory for? Nothing. African elephants. Photo by Julie Larsen Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society. Today is Elephant Appreciation Day and already 5,200+ of you have shown your support by taking the pledge to end the ivory trade in Washington state . With 3,000 additional signatures coming in from our friends at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, together we’re reaching out again to elected officials to ask them to consider sponsoring legislation. The herd is being heard and we have the proclamation to show it! Governor Jay Inslee has proclaimed today Elephant Appreciation Day in Washington state: What a way to celebrate how far we have come in raising our voices for elephants! Let's keep the momentum going. Please share this post to your networks and encourage your friends to sign the pledge at www.zoo.org/96elephants . On behalf of the

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor On this World Orangutan Day, we shout out to all the kids who left their handprints at the orangutan exhibit earlier this month as a pledge to save these endangered primates. Photo by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo. The activity, part of our Asian Wildlife Conservation Day celebrations, helped the next generation realize that the fate of orangutans is in their hands. Photo by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo. Orangutans are struggling to survive in the wild, their populations under threat by the loss of forests in Asia. We work with the  Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program (GPOCP), a Woodland Park Zoo  Partner for Wildlife , to address the conservation crisis in the field. Wild orangutan. Photo by Tim Laman. The main goal of GPOCP is to work with the communities surrounding Borneo’s Gunung Palung National Park to foster sustainable stewardship of the area’s natural resources and build a future where orangutans and ot

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor If Hollywood got its hands on the story of the endangered western pond turtle, we’d recognize all the tropes of a classic under dog turtle story, filled with struggle, redemption and hope. Woodland Park Zoo presents: The Underturtle . Because sometimes the underdog is a turtle. Photo by John Loughlin/Woodland Park Zoo. Knocked out by predators, loss of habitat and invasive species, the western pond turtle population hit a devastating low of 150 turtles in Washington in 1990. But now, this native species is poised for a comeback. For more than two decades, Woodland Park Zoo has partnered with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Zoo and others to give these turtles a fighting chance. As part of our Living Northwest conservation program , we collect their eggs from the wild, hatch and raise them in the safety of the zoo until they are large enough to avoid invasive predators, and release the turtles into local waterways to rebui

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor Would you describe yourself as sweet or commanding? Do you prefer Jell-O to peanuts? Take the “Which Orangutan Am I?” quiz to see which one of Woodland Park Zoo’s five orangutans you are most like—Towan, Heran, Melati, Chinta or Belawan. Then post your results here and share with your friends! (Me? I’m such a Chinta.) Come meet your orangutan at Asian Wildlife Conservation Day on Sat., August 9, 2014  to learn all about these amazing apes and what you can do to protect them in the wild. At the special event, free with zoo admission or membership, you’ll enjoy keeper talks and activities for the family at the orangutan exhibit, where you can take a pledge to protect this endangered species. You’ll even have the chance to enter a raffle to win a painting made by one of our very own orangutans! Towan creates a work of art. Photo by Carolyn Sellar/Woodland Park Zoo. The activities continue across the zoo spotlighting conservation for

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor As giraffe calf Misawa nears his first birthday, coming up on August 6, we look back at a year of firsts for our not-so-little guy. The first look  Misawa at one day old. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Everyone remembers the first photo we shared of Seattle’s tallest baby—the infamous “grumpy” look on his face turned Misawa into a viral sensation. But in truth, the very first look at Misawa we got was in the incredible footage of his birth! Mom Olivia gave birth to the 6-foot-tall giraffe on August 6 at 7:03 p.m. The labor lasted about 1.5 hours and the video shows little Misawa finding his feet and standing for the first time just 1.5 hours after he was born! Video: Tallest baby in Seattle.  The first day outside  The first few days were spent nursing and bonding with mom inside the Giraffe Barn, but it wasn’t long before Misawa ventured into the outdoor area of the barn. Mom Olivia and Aunt Tufani were never too far fro

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor End the ivory trade before it ends elephants. To stop the slaughter of elephants, we must stop the trade. To stop the trade, we must end the demand. Watch this video to see what's at stake: Click to play video. It's time to raise your voice and let Washington state leaders know you pledge never to buy, sell or trade ivory, and you want a moratorium on ivory sales here. Add your name to the list of thousands speaking up for wild elephants. Then on August 12—World Elephant Day—we'll deliver your pledges to our state leaders to make a big impression. Thank you! Video produced by Rebecca Whitham, elephant photo courtesy of Mustafa Hassanali/Tarangire Elephant Project, music by Tchakare Kanyembe.

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor Photos by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. You saw him arrive at the zoo in an exclusive behind-the-scenes video , then watched him hanging out in the barn during his standard quarantine. Now that quarantine is over for our newest arrival, Dave the giraffe, we’re giving you an inside look at how his first day out on the savanna went with his new herd mates! Introducing new animals to each other takes a lot of careful planning from zookeepers, and in the case of giraffes, it’s extra complicated. That’s because the giraffes not only live together as a herd, but they also share a mixed species exhibit with zebra, ostrich, gazelle and oryx. Up until now, adult female giraffes Tufani and Olivia, and nearly one-year-old male calf Misawa have been able to see, hear and smell Dave in the barn. But these intros marked the first time they shared space together. Taking it slow, we started introductions between the giraffes in the barn, first by allow