Woodland Park Zoo Blog

 Posted by Kirsten Pisto, Communications Royal ball python, Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren | Woodland Park Zoo Lunar New Year ushers in 2025 with intelligence,  resilience  and renewal as we celebrate year of the snake! The symbol of the snake in the Chinese zodiac is known to represent charm, intuition and deep thinking. This year is also an Earth snake, which means 2025 could be a year for growth and creativity.    As snake enthusiasts, we also want to take this opportunity to celebrate snakes as the ecological powerhouses that they are. Snakes encourage biodiversity and are often ecosystem stabilizers as both predator and prey. There are more than 3,000 species of snake worldwide and around 150 species native to North America. At Woodland Park Zoo, we have a long history of caring for snakes and educating guests about their role in the ecosystem. We want you to get to know a few of our snakes—and hopefully you can channel their cool, chill, ectothermic vibes into 2025...

Posted by Elizabeth Bacher, Communications Photos: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Hello Skookum! This young opossum has the cutest "blep" ever!  We’d like you to meet the newest member of our Ambassador Animal family—a young Virginia opossum named Skookum! Opossums are the only marsupials (mammals that carry their offspring in a pouch) native to North America. They are very misunderstood animals that are generally shy—avoiding confrontation with people—and they help keep the environment healthy and clean by eating bugs like ticks, rotting fruit and carcasses. Skookum, shortly after coming into Puget Sound WildCare where he received veterinary and nutritional care in a wildlife rehabilitation setting. THAT NOSE! Photo Klara Messersmith of Puget Sound WildCare Skookum is a rescue animal who came to us through Puget Sound WildCare in Kent, WA. He was found after his mother was hit by a car and he spent some time in a private home setting with well-meaning people who cle...

Posted by Hattie Potter, Development Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, Woodland Park Zoo As stars of the zoo's educational programs, ambassador animals help build guests' empathy for animals and inspire them to take action for wildlife. Pot-bellied pigs, Annabelle and Bailey, are two members of the zoo's ambassador animals team. Animal keeper, Bree, answers our questions about these sisters and helps us get to know these playful pigs. What are the names and ages of our pot-bellied pigs? Annabelle and Bailey are sisters who were born on July 19, 2016, making them 7 years old. Where were they born? Bailey and Annabelle were born at a local farm. They joined the zoo's Ambassador Animals team at only 5 months old! When they were weeeeee little pigs! And then a lot bigger! How do you tell them apart? Both pigs have distinct patterns of pink and gray colorations on their skin. Bailey has a lot more pink on her shoulders and head and that's how she's often distinguishe...

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Last week, we shared the poll results from a public naming of a Chilean flamingo chick at Woodland Park Zoo — Magdalena was the winner !  Read on for the rest of this "awww" inspiring story involving a resourceful Alaska Airlines Flight Attendant and a flamingo chick now called Sunny! The winning name, Magdalena, was chosen through an online poll of names representing national parks in Patagonia, a main region where Chilean flamingos live. The other choices in the naming poll were Torres, Lauca and Patagonia.  Magdalena was among six flamingo eggs from Zoo Atlanta that a Woodland Park Zoo animal keeper transported from Atlanta to Seattle via Alaska Airlines; however, the portable incubator protecting the eggs had stopped functioning. The eggs would have perished during the five-hour flight if not for the quick thinking by a flight attendant named Amber May.  Amber May meets the ...

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Photos: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Cisco was a much-loved member of our zoo family. A legendary raptor at Woodland Park Zoo, a 36-year-old Harris’s hawk named Cisco, has passed away. Harris’s hawks can live up to 20 to 25 years in human care and 10 to 12 years in the wild. Due to Cisco’s advanced age, the raptor keepers had been closely monitoring the hawk over the last couple of years through daily observations of his health and quality of life. As an exceptionally elderly hawk, Cisco was under treatment for age-related issues, like most geriatric animals and humans. “Because of arthritis, cataracts, declining body condition, and loss of vision in the right eye due to retinal degeneration, Cisco was no longer able to take part in free flights at the zoo; however, he was still being exercised and socialized regularly,” said Dr. Misty Garcia, associate veterinarian at Woodland Park Zoo. Cisco had been on a prescribed program of jo...

Posted by Kirsten Pisto, Communications Need an idea for that Valentine's date? Here are eight!  Lucy will definitely be your Valentine... as long as you have grapes! Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo 1. Get a zoo membership for your loves (or yourself!) and support conservation around the world. zoo.org/membership 2. A cuddly gift with conservation benefits! Give the gift of a ZooParent adoption to help fund the care of all the amazing animals at Woodland Park Zoo and make a difference for wildlife! zoo.org/zooparent/special 3. Cupid’s favorite. Did you know that more than 2 billion plastic cards end up in landfills each year? Opt for sustainable and prevent plastic waste by buying a Woodland Park Zoo e-gift card to treat your loved ones! zoo.org/giftcard 4. Love birds! Adopt a hornbill nest in their name. Endangered Asian hornbills need our help. Woodland Park Zoo works with the Thailand HornbillProject to help prevent trafficking of hornbill chicks and supports lo...

Posted by Elizabeth Bacher, Communications Jibini at 1 month old and already a big boy! Photo: Elizabeth Bacher/Woodland Park Zoo We’d love to introduce you to the newest, and youngest member of our Ambassador Team—although he is certainly not the smallest! At least not anymore. This is Jibini. He is a Verreaux eagle owl, more commonly known as a milky eagle owl—the first of his species at Woodland Park Zoo. Anytime you hear of a species that is called an ‘eagle owl,’ it immediately begs the question “is it an eagle or an owl”? The ‘eagle’ part is a size reference. This bird is technically a very large owl—one of the largest in the world actually! A tiny Jibini at 13 days old. Photo: Regina Smith/Woodland Park Zoo After arriving as an egg from Zoo Atlanta, where his parents live, Jibini hatched on January 28th under the watchful eye of our dedicated keepers. He was smaller than a tennis ball at the time and, like many bird species, he was mostly featherless except for so...

Posted by Kirsten Pisto, Communications Saying goodbye is never easy, especially to a bird as endearing as Blueberry the hornbill. Known to some as Blue for short, she was an especially flirtatious bird who had the uncanny ability to brighten days and produce smiles. Everyone who met Blue agreed, she brought an air of auspiciousness and her love of life was only matched by her love of blueberries. Thank you for being our very special hornbill, we will miss you. Sweetest Blueberry. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Blueberry, our female knobbed hornbill, passed away due to chronic advanced liver disease and other age-related concerns. Blueberry was 22 years old and was considered a geriatric bird. Blueberry hatched in May 1997 at Woodland Park Zoo and was named after her favorite treat, blueberries! The statuesque bird lived in the zoo’s Conservation Aviary where visitors could see her and learn about hornbills. In 2015, she transitioned to becoming an ambassador animal...