Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Alyse Kennamer, Zoo Corps intern Oregon silverspot butterfly. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. This summer, I had the unforgettable opportunity to work with a threatened species, the Oregon silverspot butterfly . While I was working here, an amazing idea came to my head for a study that could help scientists better understand and protect this species. I wanted to observe a female butterfly, see where she lays her eggs, and how it’s done. Observing butterfly behavior in the silverspot lab at the zoo. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. It all started at the beginning of the summer when I joined the silverspot project as part of the zoo’s teen program, Zoo Corps . I joined Zoo Corps in my sophomore year of high school, and am now enrolled in my first year of college. In early spring, we got to pick from a list of about 10 areas we wanted to work in at the zoo. Working in the lab where the zoo rears silverspot caterpillars was my first choice. You w

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications The “red” in the red panda’s name is easy to understand—the animal’s fiery colored coat serves as camouflage to blend with reddish-brown moss on trees. Photo by Mat Hayward/Woodland Park Zoo. The “panda” part, well, despite the common bamboo diet, the red panda is more closely related to raccoons than it is to the giant panda.

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down... Upside down sloth. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. OK, maybe the Fresh Prince wasn’t rapping about sloths, but considering they spend the vast majority of their day turned upside down, he sure could have been. Snacking while upside down. Don’t try this at home. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Sloths eat, sleep, mate and even give birth upside down. If you were to hang upside down from your seat right now (use your imagination and spare yourself the pain of actually doing it, trust me), you’ll feel your head start to pound, gravity tugging at your hair, and honestly, I’m getting dizzy just writing about it. But none of that happens for the upside-down kings of the rain forest, because sloths are specially adapted to live life from their unique point of view. So how do sloths function upside down? Looking good: Sloth

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Meerkat pileup! Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Meerkats are the most social of all the mongooses and spend much of their time playing and grooming to maintain their tight bonds.

Posted by: Caileigh Robertson, Communications If you’re on the hunt for Prince Charming, I’m giving a fair warning to stay clear of Woodland Park Zoo’s frog friends on exhibit. These frogs may seem like prince potential, but don’t be so quick to give them a kiss! The frog collection in the Day Exhibit is rather unique and houses more than eight amphibian species. Of these amphibians, many are native to rain forest regions of the world. The hourglass tree frog, red-eyed tree frog and green-and-black poison dart frog are among many amphibians living in the wet forests of Central America. Yellow hourglass tree frog. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. A little, colorful frog that leaps along the Costa Rican and Colombian wetlands is the yellow hourglass tree frog. Throughout the dry season, this little frog lives among the trees of the towering forest canopy. The cool, wet rain forests provide constant moisture for its skin to absorb until the dry season ends. With the

Posted by: Laura Lockard, Communications/Public Affairs Come on. We know you do it. Cheat a little in the morning. Sneak in a little around lunch time. Get one more dose before you go home from work. It is worse than any addiction known to mankind… the cuteness craving. So strong it can take up an entire day if you aren’t careful. You nervously close your browser hiding the baby ocelot the minute someone walks by. Constantly dreading the inevitable question from your boss, “What have you been doing all day?” Ocelot kitten born at Woodland Park Zoo in 2008. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Now you can answer, “Strengthening my concentration.” All that time sneaking quick peeks at baby zoo animals, bear cams and those awesome miniature Egyptian tortoises is now justified! We need those daily doses of cuteness and it might even be making us more focused, enabling our concentration. Egyptian tortoises hatched at Woodland Park Zoo in 2011. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland P

Posted by: Laura Lockard, Communications/Public Affairs I overheard a visitor at the Humboldt penguin exhibit express concern over a “sick” penguin. I looked at the penguin, “Oh my, he is having a bad hair day for certain.” I immediately allayed her concerns by stating, “He is just blowing his coat.” I then quickly realized that only a large-breed dog lover would know what that is. I couldn’t think of the bird version word for “blowing his coat.” Wracking my brain it finally came to me. Molting! He is molting. Penguin molting is a perfectly normal, annual event during which they replace all of their feathers. Penguins have more feathers than most other birds, with about 70 per square inch. Their feathers are stiff and overlap to waterproof and insulate their body. Molting can appear patchy as they lose a large number of feathers in a short period of time throughout the body, with old feathers falling out before replacement feathers grow in, a process known as catastrophic

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications This is a conservation story about butterflies and beer. An Oregon silverspot butterfly lands on a beer bottle. It’ll all make sense by the end of the story, I promise.  Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Where to start? How about we take it back to biology class. Remember learning about generalists and specialists? Humans are the ultimate generalist—we’ll live in just about any habitat and eat just about any food. Then there are the specialists, like koalas and their eucalyptus-only diet. For specialists, survival depends on that one thing they specialize in. That one thing goes away, and they’re in big trouble. Oregon silverspot butterfly at Cascade Head in Oregon. Photo by Rachel Gray/Woodland Park Zoo. That’s what’s happening to the Oregon silverspot butterfly, a native of the Pacific Northwest and a specialist dependent on the early blue violet plant for survival. This threatened species once li

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Our Chilean flamingos may be pretty in pink, but three recently hatched chicks are wonderful in white as their downy feathers haven’t yet taken on that classic blushed shade. Flamingo chicks hatch with a whitish, gray down and start to acquire their pink feathering at about 1 year of age, though it can still be mixed with gray-brown contour feathers until they are 2 to 3 years old. The chicks hatched on exhibit between August 31 and September 5 following a 29-day incubation period. To ensure a higher chance of survival, the chicks and parents have been relocated behind the scenes to a quieter off-exhibit nursery for rearing. As they get bigger and hardier, we will reintroduce them back out on exhibit and back into the flock. Photos by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo.

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications Photo by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo. “We have some pretty cute violaceous turaco chicks in the Savanna Aviary ”, says excited zookeeper, Norah Farnham. “We have not hatched this species in quite a while!”   Photo by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo. The chicks, both boys, hatched a day apart on July 31 and August 1. Even though they have fledged the nest, these two stick together and follow each other from branch to branch. Photo by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo. As this little chick stretches out, you can see his soft down. They are just starting to get their primary feathers and coloring. Zookeeper Katie Ahl told us she can see their beaks beginning to change color already! Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Here is a photo of an adult violaceous turaco. They have a really beautiful dark violet plumage with striking crimson primary flight feathers. Their orange beaks, as you can see, are also