Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications Visayan warty pig at Oregon Zoo. This species of wild pig is coming to Woodland Park Zoo in May. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. This summer, two species of wild pig are arriving at the zoo—African warthogs and critically endangered Visayan warty pigs —so we’re gearing up for some majorly pig-worthy new exhibit spaces. The warthogs will move into the African Savanna biome in the former wild dogs exhibit, and the Visayan warty pigs will have a new home in the Elephant Forest exhibit near the elephant pool. Fencing surrounds the new Visayan warty pig space as the exhibit crew installs gates, watering holes and a mud pit for wallowing. That means a lot of grinding, buffing and roughing is needed to get these new spaces in order. You might not know it, but many of our exhibits are designed and built with our own in-house expertise right here at the zoo. The process starts with animal management and projects staff teaming up to d

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Those burlap bags you often see our orangutans with might seem out of place, but our orangutans use them as they might use leaves in the wild—as blankets, bedding, umbrellas, sun shields and even privacy curtains. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo.

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications What’s better than one joey? Two joeys! No, not those Joeys. We’re talking baby marsupials! We’re excited to have had two little joeys born at our Australasia exhibit . Our 5-month-old, red-necked wallaby joey is just starting to peek out of its mother’s pouch, and our newborn wallaroo joey has not been seen yet but will start to emerge in June or July. Wallaby joey in its mother’s pouch. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. This is especially exciting news for us as it marks the first wallaby joey born at Woodland Park Zoo, part of our work with the Association of Zoos & Aquariums’ collaborative Species Survival Plan breeding program. If you come by to look for the wallaby joey, you’ll want to have a bit of patience and a little luck on your side. You’ll be looking for the joey in the pouch of 3-year-old, first time mom Kiley. You can tell her apart by the orange tag on the front of her right ear. You can ide

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Komodo dragons have an excellent sense of smell enhanced by a long, forked tongue that helps them detect carrion up to 6 miles away.   They also use their tongue to investigate other Komodo defecation sites. That might sound gross to us, but it provides valuable information to them about another's sex, size and age. Photo by Mat Hayward/Woodland Park Zoo.

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Malayan tiger. Photo courtesy Fresno Chaffee Zoo. Serving on the exhibit design team for new Malayan tiger and sloth bear exhibits has been the highlight of my years at Woodland Park Zoo. Apologies in advance--you might see an extraordinary amount of exclamation points in this blog post because I am  so excited after all this time to unveil the cool features we’ve dreamed up for this new space! And with your support, we can make it a reality! An overview of the all new, 2-acre tiger and sloth bear exhibit complex. (Click to enlarge.) Artist rendering by Studio Hanson/Roberts. Our tigers and sloth bears currently live in 60-year-old exhibits, some of the last remaining old-school exhibits at the zoo. It’s time to transform this space into a state-of-the-art, naturalistic exhibit complex for these endangered species. We’re making it better for the animals, better for visitors, better for zoo staff and better for the environment

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications When the sunbittern unfolds its wings, a burst of color is revealed with a pattern that looks like two glaring eyes. The “eyes” can be used to frighten predators. Come see the sunbittern in the always warm Tropical Rain Forest building. It's the perfect escape on a rainy day. And now rainy days at the zoo might come with a little something extra--50% off zoo admission! With our new Rainy Day Discount , we'll activate a special coupon on select dreary days. Just visit our Rainy Day page to see if there's a coupon good for your next trip on a soggy day. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo.

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Enjoying the cold, wet snow mix this week? It’s nothing to our snow leopards . They come equipped for bundling up: snow leopards use their 3-foot-long tails as mufflers to protect their noses and lungs from freezing at night. Archive photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo.

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications Meet some of our newest frugivores! Our colony of Indian flying foxes perches under the roof of their house. They have long-toed feet with sharp claws enabling them to roost hanging upside down. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Six Indian flying foxes have settled in (under, actually) nicely at the Adaptations Building. While it may be hard to tell which creature the Indian flying fox resembles most, its large eyeballs, pointy ears, reddish brown fur, long snout, and wingspan of up to six feet, all belong to the megabat Pteropus giganteus . Not quite a fox, although certainly similar in the looks department, the Indian flying fox is one of the larger fruit bats in the world, weighing as much as 3.5 pounds. In the wild, the Indian flying fox is found on the Indian sub-continent that extends from Pakistan to Southeast Asia and China, and south to the Maldive Islands. Flying fox inhabit enormous trees such as banyan, tamarind a

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications These wolves are at play, but the sight of their opened mouths would certainly be less fun for a prey animal.  A wolf's powerful jaws can exert about 1,500 pounds per square inch, about twice that of a dog!  (Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo)

Posted by: John Samaras, Penguin Keeper This post is part three of a three-part series based on Woodland Park Zoo penguin keeper John Samaras’ work in Punta San Juan, Peru with a zoo conservation partner . As I look back on the time since my trip to participate in the Humboldt penguin health assessment in Peru, I feel fortunate to have been able to share my experiences with so many people.  From giving a slide presentation to zoo staff and volunteers, to including vivid details of the penguins’ native habitat in my public keeper talks and on special tours, I can draw on the memories of that incredible place and the time and experiences I had there. I began working with Humboldt penguins at the Akron Zoo in Ohio in 1998, and was immediately hooked!  I knew that these peculiar penguins were native to the desert coast of Peru and Northern Chile, they nested in burrows and their main prey was anchovies.  I learned about their behavior from a first-hand p