Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Nora Venne, Education Our look at the life of 5-year-olds continues in honor of Zoomazium’s big 5th birthday . In this post, zookeepers shed some light on what life is like for a 5-year-old snow leopard . Q: Human children at age 5 are still very young and completely dependent on their families for care. Give us a brief description of what life looks like for a snow leopard. Is age 5 young or older for this animal? A: At 3 years of age, our male snow leopard Tom had all ready consummated a relationship and at 4 years of age he was a father of two! Next year at age 5 he will once again hopefully father more children. Cats mature very quickly. In captivity snow leopards can live to be 18, although some live longer and a very few live to 21. Scientists are still researching how long snow leopards live in the wild but a domestic housecat would be considered in its upper 30s in human years when it was 5. Q: For humans, kindergarten is just starting at age 5. Some

Posted by: Nora Venne, Education Happy 5th birthday, Zoomazium ! We’re celebrating 5 years of child’s play in Zoomazium with a look this week at what it means to be 5 for humans and different animals. Then the party continues this Saturday and Sunday , Nov. 5 and 6, with cupcakes, live entertainment and birthday-themed activities at Zoomazium including enrichment treats for some of the zoo’s notable 5-year-old residents. In this blog post, we spoke with penguin keepers at Woodland Park Zoo to learn more about what it is like to be 5 years old for a Humboldt penguin .   Q: Human children at age 5 are still very young and completely dependent on their families for care. Give us a brief description of what life looks like for a penguin. Is age 5 young or older for this animal?   A: Humboldt penguins are much further along in their maturity by age 5 than humans are. That’s because the average life span of a Humboldt penguin is around 20 – 25 years in the wild; 25 – 30 year

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Scarves up! Woodland Park Zoo’s animals put their soccer skills to work today as we rallied for the Seattle Sounders FC’s run for the MLS Cup playoffs. The soccer ball kicking exhibition started with Rico, a 4-year-old Sicilian miniature donkey who recently joined the zoo’s Family Farm. Donning a Sounders scarf, Rico skillfully pushed his Sounders soccer ball all around his exhibit using his nose. He used his mouth to get the ball out of the gutter and back onto the playing field. The ref is still out on whether that’s a legal move. Next up was our frisky 2-year-old lion Adia who chased her ball all around the exhibit and even went after it when it splashed into the moat filled with water. It didn’t take long for Adia to crush the ball with her bite and drag it back with her to her rock for safe keeping. Five-year-old snow leopard Tom spent a good 5 minutes first rubbing his fur all over his soccer ball, enticed by the ne

Posted by: Peter S. Miller, Zookeeper “Is it safe to come out yet? Not yet, maybe tomorrow.” These are the thoughts that might arise in the brain of a Louisiana pine snake hatchling. It is a chance decision that could mean your life or death in the wild. Such is the beginning of life for an endangered Louisiana pine snake. Next thoughts: hide or eat. When your serpentine undulations would signal a nearby predator that a tasty meal has just emerged from a clutch of eggs under the soil, stealth is critical…but so is breakfast! As the old adage goes, “eat or be eaten.” The Louisiana pine snake, Pituophis ruthveni , is a species under threat from habitat alteration of its native longleaf pine forest in the southeastern United States. This species has just increased its numbers on planet Earth by two, thanks to hatchlings that emerged late this summer at Woodland Park Zoo’s Day Exhibit. This accomplishment might not sound like much, but when your species is rare in the wild and

Posted by: Fred Koontz, Field Conservation; Sue Andersen and Amy Brandt, Zookeepers For Wolf Awareness Week, we’re giving you a glimpse into the fascinating dynamics within the zoo’s pack of wolves living in our award-winning Northern Trail exhibit. Did you know Woodland Park Zoo has had wolves in its collection for more than 60 years? The zoo’s wolves serve a critical role as ambassadors for their wild counterparts. The current pack consists of four female litter mates born at New York State Zoo in April 2010. They have four distinct personalities. When you next visit the zoo, see if you can identify them from their pack behavior: Doba is the pack's "alpha" or most dominant wolf. She is often visible in the front and center of the exhibit, where she can keep track of the other wolves. If you see a wolf gathering bones or toys that is likely to be Doba! Shila is the pack's most submissive member. She spends most of her time lying a bit distant from t

Posted by: Brad Rutherford, Snow Leopard Trust – a Woodland Park Zoo conservation partner Dear friends of Woodland Park Zoo and wildlife— One of our conservation partners , Seattle-based Snow Leopard Trust, has an opportunity to win $20,000 for conservation as a finalist in the BBC World Challenge. Your vote can help them win this incredible prize that will protect endangered snow leopards and improve the lives of the people who share snow leopard habitat throughout Central Asia. Here’s Snow Leopard Trust’s executive director, Brad Rutherford, with the story behind the Trust and this exciting opportunity for zoo fans to vote and make a difference… - Woodland Park Zoo Across the vast mountains of Mongolia, snow leopards have been seen as an enemy by herders for generations. However, this all started to change in 1998 when two researchers sat down with herders and really tried to understand their challenges. While drinking tea and listening, it became clear that as long as

Posted by: Carolyn Sellar, Zookeeper In February we blogged about the departure of gorilla Naku from Woodland Park Zoo to start a new family in Milwaukee. Here’s an update on how she’s transitioning! The entertaining and rambunctious Naku, a 10-year-old female western lowland gorilla , went to Milwaukee County Zoo at the end of June to begin a new family with Cassius, Milwaukee’s 25-year-old resident male. She had a very smooth flight there and after her standard quarantine at the zoo, she was transferred to their gorilla unit where introductions are now in progress. The introductions have been going very well and Naku is now part of a group with both Cassius (shown above) and another female named Femelle. She spends all day with both the other gorillas, and for now spends the night just with Femelle, but soon they will all be spending the night together. In fact, it is often difficult to separate Naku from Cassius! She must be smitten! If things progress the way they ha

Posted by: Gigi Allianic, Communications More than 1,000 endangered frogs started their journey back into the Washington wild yesterday. Populations of the native Oregon spotted frog have been decimated by 80 to 90 percent in our own backyard. But thanks to a multi-institutional recovery project , nearly 1,200 frogs were released yesterday into the wild at a protected site to help restore their populations in Washington state. These frogs start their lives as eggs collected from wetlands by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists. The biologists send the eggs to us and other rearing facilities including Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, Oregon Zoo, and Cedar Creek Corrections Center. Our role is to hatch and rear these frogs to give them a safe, predator-free home during those crucial first months when they transform from tadpole to full fledged frog. We’re essentially giving these frogs a head start on survival, allowing them to grow in safety until they are la

Posted by: Gigi Allianic, Communications Our youngest African lion ambassador, Adia, turned 2 last week and showed just how frisky and fearless young cats are. The female South African lion dug into her birthday cake specially prepared by zookeeper Matt Mills: a gourmet round of ground turkey stuffed with a whole raw chicken and topped with a pair of drumstick candles. Since Adia scarfed up every morsel and bone, the cake obviously earned a five-drumstick rating. Next, Adia opened her gift box and out rolled a boomer ball, a favorite toy of the 240-pound lion. As kids and families squealed with wonder, Adia put on quite a show “dribbling” the ball throughout the exhibit. She had so much fun that at one moment the ball rolled into the moat filled with water and she dove straight into the water after it! Keep in mind that lions don’t swim and are averse to water. Adia was submerged to her shoulders before realizing she was in the water. She jumped out and, if she had a th