Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Two new bushbabies (also called lesser galagos) were born in the zoo's Night Exhibit on November 1. The lesser galago is one of the smallest primates, about the size of a squirrel and weighing in at less than half an ounce. Despite their size, they can be exceptionally vocal, producing loud, shrill cries surprisingly like those of a human baby. The plaintive cries and "cute" appearance may account for the name "bush baby." The lesser galago and its larger cousin, the greater galago, are both arboreal and nocturnal in their habits and are found in the woodlands of East Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. The tiny babies will probably not be visible for sometime as they are nurtured by their mother. (Photo by Helen Shewman)

Everyone was extremely happy when a brand new baby gorilla was born here this Saturday, October 20 at around 3:30 a.m. The baby, a female, is the 12th gorilla born at Woodland Park Zoo and the third for the parents, Amanda (37 years) and Vip (28 years). This morning, mother and baby were out in the public exhibit since temperatures were so balmy and mother and baby appeared to be bonding very well. All the gorillas in the group are very interested in the newborn, especially Amanda and Vip’s other two daughters, 9-year-old Ngozi and 5-year-old Calaya. As we are able to get more photos and video, we'll post them to the zoo's website, but here's a "teaser" shot for now! Photo by Ryan Hawk.

There is a disturbing article in the October issue of Smithsonian Magazine about recent incursions into mountain gorilla habitat in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The article details the account of three mountain gorillas were slaughtered by rebel forces for food. So called "bushmeat" continues to be a threat for many species, but is particularly detrimental to the tiny populations of mountain gorillas which number perhaps 800 total in their three range countries. Read the complete article: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/guerilla.html The online version doesn't contain the disturbing shots of villagers bringing the three gorillas' bodies out of the forest to be buried. Woodland Park Zoo supports two conservation programs focusing on gorillas: the Mbeli Bai Project that studies western lowland gorillas in the Congo and the Association of Zoos & Aquariums' Bushmeat Task Force which helps with programs to help curtail the bushmeat trade in Africa

We have many wonderful and extremely talented volunteer photographers who help us document the zoo and our animals. These folks include Brittney Bollay, Dennis Dow, Mat Hayward and Dale Unruh among our most prodigious and frequent shutterbugs. Mat recently created a slideshow on his blog that documents some of his recent shots. Visit him and tell him what you think? http://www.mathaywardphoto.com/Zoo.htm

People seem to notice the beautiful orb weaver spiders much more as the chilly fall weather begins. This is perhaps due mostly to the fact that the dew makes their elaborate web much more visible. Here's a great shot by our zoo photographer Ryan Hawk of an orb weaver with a "dangerous" meal---a hornet. It's amazing that the spiders are able to wrap-up these stinging critters safely. This photo is a great reminder of what a service spiders perform for us by gobbling up things that we consider pests! So even if spiders make you a bit edgy, remember they're out there working hard for you!

Sunday, September 30 is the last day for our Butterflies & Blooms exhibit for 2007. The butterfly exhibit is one of our most popula perennial exhibits. If you haven't gotten to see it yet this year, you've got until Sunday, otherwise it's a long wait until next May! Photo by Ryan Hawk

Staff and volunteers were saddened when Sukari , the elderly female giraffe on our African Savanna exhibit, had to be euthanized due to declining health because of age. At 25, she was extremely geriatric (giraffes in the wild usually live to be 10-15 years). Our expert Exhibits crew helped make her passing more comfortable by rigging a special platform for her to lay in. She had also had a custom-made waterbed for the last four years for her to lie down on. Keepers and the Animal Health team have been instrumental over the last few years to keep Sukari as comfortable as possible during her "golden years." Anyone with an old dog or cat knows how difficult it can be to care for an aging animal; just image when that animal is 18-feet tall! For zoo guests who grew up and remember visiting Sukari over the last 25 years, we've created a commemorative portrait, taken by our talented volunteer photographer Dennis Dow, available for purchase online through Pictopia . You can or

Woodland Park Zoo has participated in the Oregon silverspot butterfly breeding project for the last since 2000. These beautiful butterflies have not been seen in the wild, mostly the dunes and meadows along the Washington, Oregon and northern California coast, since 1990. Wanting to head off extinction, WPZ, along with Oregon Zoo and support from the Washington and U.S. Departments of Fish and Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Forest Service and Lewis and Clark College are "headstarting" silverspots for release at our two zoos. We bring in eggs and care for them over the winter until they pupate. Just last month, staff from WPZ took down 162 pupated silverspots for release into a protected area on the Oregon Coast. In total, we have produced 492 pupae for release. We're happy to be helping one of our native butterflies survive and eventually thrive once again in our region.

On August 18, the zoo is hosting the first Snow Leopard Appreciation Day from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. As you may know, snow leopards live in the mountainous areas in Central Asia and are increasingly endangered, with perhaps only about 3,000 or so left in the wild. Back in the 1980s, the zoo's former Education Curator, Helen Freeman, was particularly struck with these beautiful cats and formed the International Snow Leopard Trust, the oldest organization working to protect these cats. Over the years, the pressure on these animals has increased with people in snow leopard range areas poaching the animals for the illegal fur market or to protect their herds of goats and sheep that they rely on. What is now the Snow Leopard Trust, works with herding communities on anti-poaching programs and also has collaborated to create co-ops and other small businesses to help these people make a living from something other than poaching and to replace any income that may be lost from snow leopards

Due to her popularity (apparently her videos are a very popular discussion in the local clubs!), here are more photos of our new tapir calf. Right now, we are in contact with the zoo's Director of Animal Health, Dr. Darin Collins, who is in Indonesia working on the avian flu situation. He is going to hook the zoo up with a school in Sumatra to have the kids help us name the tapir. We hope to accomplish this in the next few months. - Photos by Ryan Hawk

The zoo is celebrating 25 years of partnership with the Snow Leopard Trust, the Seattle-based organization dedicated to the preservation of snow leopards and snow leopard habitat. By working with the people living in snow leopard areas, SLT has influenced a number of programs including anti-poaching initiatives and creating opportunities for indigenous people in Tibet and other countries in snow leopard range countries to earn money from sources other than poaching. Join us and the Snow Leopard Trust on Saturday, August 18 to celebrate Snow Leopard Day at the Zoo! Lots of crafts, entertainment and information on how you can help snow leopards.

Our little female tapir calf, born July 3, made her unofficial public debut with her mother today in the Tropical Asia exhibit. Now weighing in at a hefty 61 pounds, the baby stuck close to her mom, but soon ventured up to the glass viewing area to the delight of zoo visitors (and staff, too!). With the nice r weather, we hope to have her out daily (weather permitting, of course). Tomorrow she will hopefully be on public view with her mom beginning around noon. You'll notice the spots and stripes on her--very different from the black with white "belt" on the adults. This is used as camouflage---much like the spots on a deer fawn---until they start to fade and turn black and white similar to their parents. Malayan tapirs are endangered in their range due to hunting and habitat loss.

Butterflies & Blooms is one of the zoo's most popular exhibits. Because the butterflies are native species to the U.S., the exhibit is seasonal, operating in the summer months when these species would normally be breeding and flying. With several dozen species, from the striped zebra longwings to even an occasional dramatic-looking luna moth, the B&B tent is a nice respite from walking around the zoo's 92 acres!

The release of 50 western pond turtles went well into a protected pond in Pierce County. Due to our headstarting program, their population has grown from a low of around 150 to more than 1,500! Here, zoo staff member Walter English paints a tracking number on one of the juvenile turtles shells. Thanks for the zoo's curator of reptiles, Dana Payne, for sending this photo.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 17, the zoo will be releasing endangered western pond turtles (Clemmys marmorata), some with tiny radio transmitters glued to their shells, into the wild in Pierce County. A portion of the group of 50 turtles will be released in Mason County. The 10-month-old turtles were collected from the wild as hatchlings and “head started” at Woodland Park Zoo to improve their chance of survival in the wild. Invasive bull frogs often eat the young hatchlings, so the headstarting provides a way for the young turtles to grow to a size that is too large for the frogs to consume. The turtles currently weigh about 2 ounces. Woodland Park Zoo, along with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Oregon Zoo have collaborated for more than a decade, raising turtles and letting them loose in protected ponds in Washington. From an all-time low of only around 100 turtles left in the state, this headstarting has swelled their population to more than 1,200!

Today was the perfect day for Hadiah to make her first forays out into the outdoor tiger exhibit. She rambunctiously played, sniffed and rolled around in the bushes while visitors looked on. Only around 400 Sumatran tigers still exist in the wild; each birth is cause for celebration to help keep genetically viable populations intact. How can you help tigers? Watch what you buy (for example, plam oil, which is in thousands of products, comes primarily from Indonesia where forests are being destroyed to plant palm oil plantations, so look for foods and products that do not contain it); don't buy exotic wood products that aren't from certified sustainable forestry practices; donate to organizations helping to conserve tigers and their habitat.

Hadiah, our 7-month-old Sumatran tiger, will make her outdoor debut on Wednesday, July 11. She and her mother, Jo Jo, will romp and play (and probably do a lot of sleeping in our recent heatwave!). She will be out daily from around 11:00 a.m. to around 2:00 p.m. Come and visit them!

On July 4, the new tapir calf received her first neo-natal exam by associate veterinarian, Dr. John Ochensreiter. A quick weigh-in, a blood sample and some other tests and she's checks out well. Neo-natal exams are important in order to make sure that all the vital signs are normal and that the calf's overall health is good. Exams happen very quickly so that the calf can be returned to her mother. But mom received snacks while the baby was being looked over so she didn't even miss her!

After eagerly being anticipated for weeks, we were pleased when our female Malayan tapir, Kelang, gave birth to a healthy calf on July 3 at around 7:20 p.m. The 26-pound, female Malayan tapir calf marks the fourth birth for the 12-year-old parents. Striped and looking not unlike a four-legged watermelon, Malaysian tapirs only number somewhere between 900-3,000 in the wild. The calf will be off-view for awhile while the mother bonds with her, but a "tapir cam" is at the exhibit where zoo visitors can see them inside their indoor barn. Tapir gestation is approximately 13 months and an average birth weight is 22 pounds. A newborn tapir has a reddish-brown coat dappled with white and cream-colored spots and stripes. The unique coat pattern helps provide excellent camouflage in bamboo or reed jungles. The striped pattern begins fading after a few months and adult coloration appears by 5-8 months old. Tapirs are among the most primitive large mammals in the world, changing little

There will soon be a pair of new roars at the zoo. A new male lion, 8 years old, has arrived at the zoo and will live in the lion exhibit. The 424-pound African feline arrived in April from Knoxville Zoo. A new 8-year-old female arrived at the end of May from the Virginia Zoo. The lions belong to the South African subspecies, Panthera leo krugeri , and will be paired for breeding in the future. They will be introduced to their grassy new exhibit later this year. Photo by Ryan Hawk