Woodland Park Zoo Blog

 Posted by Elizabeth Bacher, Communications and Susan Burchardt, Animal Keeper We'd like to introduce you to a few of Woodland Park Zoo’s own Superheroes. No capes needed here because these particular heroes are already expert fliers. We’ll take a closer look and examine some of their unique superpowers, investigate what threats they face in nature—their “Kryptonite” so to speak—and fill you in on how you can visit with them at Woodland Park Zoo or in some cases, see their cousins around the wild spaces of our Pacific Northwest! Read all about them, then take our raptor quiz and find out which Superhero you are most like!  Modoc, the handsome turkey vulture. Photo: Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo Superhero: Modoc the Turkey vulture Superpower: Iron stomach! Vultures have strong stomachs that can neutralize all kinds of dangerous germs and bacteria—which helps minimize the spread of disease to other animals and to people. Kryptonite/Threats: Toxins in their (and our) environme...

Posted by: Elizabeth Bacher, Staff Writer Meet Papú, our newest and smallest ambassador-in-training.  Hello Papú! Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/ Woodland Park Zoo Ambassador animals have an important role at Woodland Park Zoo—they allow visitors to have up-close experiences and serve as catalysts for educating about their species. By interacting with them, we learn more about their wild cousins. We learn more about ourselves and our impacts on the ecosystem. We are moved to protect them and the wild spaces they represent. Simply put, we love them and they inspire us to make conservation a priority in our lives. It’s a big responsibility. What does it take to become an ambassador—to fulfill such an important role connecting people to wildlife? The answers to these big questions can often be found in the littlest places—and in this case, an egg barely the size of a ping-pong ball. The tiny egg came to Woodland Park Zoo from Sacramento Zoo, where its parents were not ...

Posted by: Susan Burchardt, Zookeeper Turkey vulture Modoc at Woodland Park Zoo. Photo by Dennis Dow/WPZ. Vultures are common—found all over the world except Antarctica and Australia—and yet are frequently overlooked or misunderstood. Here in the United States we are lucky to have three species of these beautiful scavengers: the black vulture, the turkey vulture and the critically endangered California condor. Condor numbers are slowly creeping back up. Once down to 22 individuals there are now about 430 condors. The picture is a little darker in other parts of the world. Asian vulture populations are beginning to stabilize after dramatic losses in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In Africa, carcasses are being poisoned to prevent soaring vultures from alerting rangers to the presence of poachers. This with other issues has caused several species to drop to near critically endangered levels. Vultures are nature’s recyclers. Modoc takes that job quite seriously. Pho...

By Kirsten Pisto, Communications Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, unless otherwise noted If you’ve visited the zoo during our Raptor Flight Program , you’ve seen our raptors demonstrate their skillful aerial maneuvers. Experts at flying over the crowd and returning safely to their trainer’s glove, the raptors are used to the oohs and ahhs of a large audience in the flight yard. These birds know the subtle signals of their flight trainers and are practiced at staying on task, even when the peskiest neighborhood crows taunt them from the treetops. Lola gracefully glides between the trees, perfectly suited for quick maneuvering.  As proficient as these raptors are, once in a while keepers put them to the test and try out fresh scenarios. This allows the birds to learn new skills as well as strengthen their instinct to return to their handlers during the free flights. By introducing new terrain, keepers have a good idea of how tuned in the birds are. A quiet Frid...

Posted by: Karen Stevenson, docent; Susan Burchardt, raptor keeper; and Anna Martin, docent When you saw “Vulture” in the title, what came to mind? Did you think of the Marvel® comic book character? Of big, red-headed black birds pecking around fresh road kill? Important members of almost every continent’s cleaning crew? A featured friend of raptor fans at the zoo? How about “all of the above”? Vulture in flight. Photo: Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. The cartoon version is property of Marvel comics and we’ll let Marvel speak for him, but living, breathing, feathered vultures are represented at Woodland Park Zoo by Modoc, the zoo’s turkey vulture ( Cathartes aura ). Mo is a member of the Raptor Center’s educational team. He is the zoo’s ambassador for all vultures around the Old World (Europe, Asia and Africa) and the New World (the Americas). Susan Burchardt, one of the zoo’s raptor keepers says, “Vultures are easy to ignore or vilify, but they are a cornerstone in so many ...

Posted by: Susan Burchardt, Zookeeper A raptor flies over a wind turbine. Photo by Gretchen Albrecht/Woodland Park Zoo. As part of our wildlife conservation efforts in the Pacific Northwest , Woodland Park Zoo collaborates with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife on the Raptor Ecology of the Shrub-Steppe conservation program. This spring, zookeepers Gretchen Albrecht, Ros Bass-Fournier, Jean Ragland and I returned to eastern Oregon for three weeks to continue research begun last year . We recorded data on how nesting hawks interact with wind turbines. Hours of observation gives us important insight into how raptors are adapting to this new change to the shrub-steppe habitat. Lupine in a field of turbines. Photo by Gretchen Albrecht/Woodland Park Zoo. Shrub-steppe is a grassland habitat that occurs in western North America. Grasses and shrubs make up the shrub-steppe landscape. The most common shrub, or woody plant, is sage brush. There are many birds,...

Posted by: Susan Burchardt, Raptor Keeper Turkey vulture Modoc in flight at Woodland Park Zoo. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Vultures are often depicted as harbingers of death, yet many vulture populations face threats of their own with some species facing extinction. We’re celebrating International Vulture Awareness Day on September 3 to help zoo visitors look past the vultures’ bad reputation and highlight their vital ecological niche as nature’s clean-up crew. California condor at San Diego Zoo. Photo by Wikimedia Commons user Snowmanradio. Vultures are scavenging birds that help recycle and prevent the spread of disease. But serving as a clean-up crew by feeding on carrion was partially what led to the California condor (Gymnogyps californianus)—a New World vulture—dipping down to a dismally low population of just 22 birds in the 1980s. The condors were dying from feeding on lead-poisoned carcasses, and poaching and habitat destruction compounded the problem. Zoos ...