Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Craig Newberry, Communications Photos: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Hello, Fezzik! We're already in love with this Hoffmann's two-toed sloth. Some news to keep you on your toes! For the first time in five years, a new sloth is calling Woodland Park Zoo home. The sloth, named Fezzik after a character in The Princess Bride, is 10 years old and recently arrived from Milwaukee County Zoo. Fezzik is a Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth—Choloepus hoffmanni—they are solitary, tree-dwelling mammals named for their two long, curved claws on each of their front feet. These slow-moving nocturnal creatures spend the majority of their time hanging upside down in forest canopies where fruit, leaves and flowers are plentiful for munching. From every angle, Fezzik is perfection! Sloths, all of which are found in Central and South America, generally have very gentle dispositions and Fezzik is no exception! “We’re thrilled to bring a sloth species back to the zoo and Fezzik is busy l...

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Photos: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Pudu Maggie with the fawn she had in 2022 Woodland Park Zoo is mourning the loss of its female pudu, Maggie. The 7-year-old animal passed away while recovering from anesthesia following a routine tooth extraction at the zoo’s veterinary hospital. Pudu are the smallest deer species in the world and are native to South America. The small deer stands only 14 to 18 inches high at the shoulder and weighs between 14 and 30 pounds. The median life expectancy for pudus in zoos is 8 years old; pudus can live 8 to 10 years old in the wild. Maggie was barely bigger than a pumpkin. Adult pudu are only 12" - 18" high at the shoulder and weigh between 14 - 30lbs. “The tooth was extracted without complications and Maggie did well under anesthesia. She was being closely monitored as she began to recover,” said Dr. Yousuf Jafarey, an associate veterinarian at Woodland Park Zoo. “As her recovery progressed,...

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Photos: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Meet the newest members of our Woodland Park Zoo family—a pair of nene (pronounced nay-nay) also known as the Hawaiian goose. This species is the rarest goose in the world and it's the first time we've had them here in the zoo’s 123-year-old history. The male, 11 years old, and female, 5 years old, can be seen in the zoo’s Conservation Aviary walk-through along with other bird species including tawny frogmouths and Nicobar pigeons. Found only in Hawaii, the nene is the largest native land animal in the state. With a current population of approximately 3,800 nene in its native range, it is the sixth most endangered waterfowl species worldwide. Once numbering in the thousands, the population dropped to only 30 birds by the early 1950s due to predation by invasive species such as feral dogs, cats, rats, and mongoose in addition to hunting. For the past six decades, breeding and reintroduc...

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Photos: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo These Humboldt Penguin chicks hatched on March 1 and March 17 to two different sets of parents. World Penguin Day is today, April 25, a special day to celebrate all 18 species of penguins on the planet and the recent hatching of two Humboldt penguins at Woodland Park Zoo. Two chicks, both females, hatched March 1 and March 17 to two different sets of parents. Incubation for penguins takes 39 to 41 days, with both parents sharing incubation duties in the nest and day-to-day care for their chicks. The parents of the oldest chick are mother Merlin and father Groucho. This is Merlin’s first chick while Groucho has had several offspring with his previous mate, now deceased. The parents of the second chick are mother Rosalita and father Leonardo; this prolific pair has had 13 chicks together since 2014. Most penguins mate for life. Penguin keeper, Celine holds one of the young chicks. The chicks are off e...

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo One of the three adorable Humboldt penguin chicks to recently hatch at Woodland Park Zoo.  World Penguin Day is today, April 25, a special day to celebrate all penguins on the planet and the recent hatching of three Humboldt penguins at Woodland Park Zoo. The three chicks hatched to three different sets of parents at the end of March and the first week in April. Most penguins mate for life. Incubation for penguins takes 40 to 42 days, with both parents sharing incubation duties in the nest and day-to-day care for their chicks. Penguin keeper Celine Pardo checks on the health of each Humboldt penguin chick before returning it to its parents in their cozy burrow. Woodland Park Zoo has one of the most successful Humboldt penguin breeding programs in North America with its new hatchlings bringing the total number of successful hatchings to 80 since the zoo’s first breeding season in 2010, a year a...

Posted by Meghan Sawyer, Communications Welcome to the world, little one. Photo: John Loughlin/Woodland Park Zoo Say hello to the newest member of our zoo family! Born July 11, this male pudu fawn weighed just 1½ pounds at birth. The yet-to-be-named baby and his parents, Ted and Maggie, are all happy and healthy. This adorable species is native to South America, and they are the world’s smallest deer. Even when fully grown, they only reach about 15 inches tall! Photo: Megan Blandford/Woodland Park Zoo “This is the second fawn for mom and dad, and as expected, everyone is doing well,” said Shawn Pedersen, an animal care manager at Woodland Park Zoo. “Baby is nursing and bonding with mom, and the fawn has met all of the healthy benchmarks at its neonatal exam. We’ll continue to keep an eye on the new family, but everything is going great.” The pudu parents were paired under the Pudu Species Survival Plan , a cooperative, conservation breeding program across accredited zoos to help ensure...

Posted by Kirsten Pisto, Communications Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo We have some red panda updates for you! Over the past year, you’ve been watching Hazel and her joyful cubs Tián and Zan learn and grow. Now, the cubs are as big as mom and are ready to have some more time on their own. Hazel, who has been an absolute gem of a red panda, will be moving on to her new home at Memphis Zoo for breeding with a new male. Hazel is leaving Woodland Park Zoo at the end of March. She arrived at Woodland Park Zoo in 2017 to be paired with Yukiko under the Red Panda Species Survival Plan (SSP), a conservation breeding program across accredited zoos to help ensure a healthy, self-sustaining population of red pandas. Hazel has had two pairs of cubs with Yukiko, the most recent cubs (born May 25, 2020) Tián and Zan will remain here together until fall 2021 when they will leave for their new homes according to the Species Survival Plan (SSP). Until then, the almost-fully-grown cu...

Posted by: Shawn Pedersen, Animal Collection Manager Penguin fans—we’ve got some exciting news for you! Over the last few weeks, three pairs of Humboldt penguins have been busy incubating two eggs each in the burrows we’ve constructed for them in their new exhibit . This is great progress for our birds and shows us they are comfortable in the exhibit we’ve built for them . These are the first eggs at Woodland Park Zoo to come from this flock of penguins that debuted last May, and we’ve been tracking the development of the eggs around every two weeks with a process called candling. With candling, you use a high powered and focused light for just a few quick seconds to see if the egg is fertile, alive and developing as it should be. You can see some photos of the process below: Depending on how far along in the incubation process the egg is, you should be able to see veins after about a week’s time, and should be able to see movement in the egg about half way through the incuba...

Posted by Collection Manager Shawn Pedersen Well, yes, the nine penguins that will soon call the new Humboldt penguin exhibit home did fly here, but by way of airplanes, not their own power. Five females and two males arrived yesterday afternoon from SeaWorld San Diego and St. Louis Zoo. They join a pair from Aquarium of Niagara that arrived earlier this week and 11 more penguins arrive later last night from Brookfield Zoo and Rosamond Gifford Zoo. The 10 penguin pairs will be quarantined for 30 days before they waddle out into their brand new exhibit for the first time. The penguins arrived at the airport in “kennel cab” style dog crates, safely screened to keep them calm. Zookeeper Celine Pardo and I loaded the crates into the zoo’s van and whisked them to the zoo and the off-exhibit area constructed for them behind the new exhibit. One-by-one we opened each kennel at which time a penguin head poked out, wondering where they were. Like the penguins, we didn’t know quite what to expec...