Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Even dragons start out small. Have you seen the two Komodo dragon juveniles now living at the Adaptations Building at the zoo? Born in January at the Memphis Zoo as part of the Species Survival Plan for this endangered species, the duo moved here this summer to be raised in our ample dragon digs. Hard to imagine these tiny critters, who each weigh in at about one-and-a-half pounds (650 grams), will one day be as big as our 15-year-old male Selat, who is 110 pounds (50 kilograms). Though, they won’t reach adult size until they're about 7 to 10 years old! Once these dragons mature, they’ll continue to participate in the Species Survival Plan and may move on to other zoos if they are matched up with a partner for breeding. It’ll be some time before they are ready for that next step. For now, the juveniles are on view next door to Selat. We've built a little apartment for them inside one of the Komodo dragon exhibits th

This Elephant Appreciation Day, we check in with Woodland Park Zoo Partner for Wildlife , the Tarangire Elephant Project  on news from the conservation frontlines. Here they report in from the field on their growing involvement in elephant territories beyond the borders of Tarangire National Park: In the past year we have become more involved in new territory: the Makame Wildlife Management Area (WMA), to the southeast of Tarangire National Park. This is a vast area, nearly 1.2 million acres in size (almost two times larger than Tarangire National Park), which is arid, hot, and sparsely populated. Wildlife Management Areas are community lands that have been set aside for wildlife conservation and tourism, in order to encourage communities to promote conservation and benefit from the natural resources on their land. Makame is of particular interest to us because it harbors an elephant population that migrates to Tarangire National Park in the dry season. However, unlike the other el

Posted by: Caileigh Robertson, Communications Photos by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo With a combined diet of nearly 300 lb. of food per day, it’s a little surprising that our three female elephants produce about 900 lb. of waste daily! And what better is there to do with 900 lb. of poo than make paper? In the Banda Hut of the zoo’s African Village, visitors are transforming elephant dung into one-of-a-kind stationery. Beginning with the raw product of elephant poo, zoo staff steam-clean the fibrous poo balls at 160 degrees to eliminate all bacteria. Once cleaned, the poo greatly resembles hay. You see, although each elephant intakes 100 lb. of food daily, only about 40 percent of it is digested for energy. As for the rest, well, it comes back out the other end… The steamed poo is mixed with a gray, paper pulp, an important ingredient in poo paper-making created by mixing old, shredded zoo maps with water. The old maps are shredded, stripped and soaked in water to break down.

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Looks like our baby giraffe spotted the web cam in his barn. His curious licks were caught in extreme close up on the cam—check out that tongue! Video: Baby giraffe webcam taste-a-thon The cam was always safely secured, but it sure did take a licking! The camera sits securely inside a cutout in the wall just below the giraffe feeder. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Some of our dedicated giraffe cam viewers even caught him in the act while watching live: We'd love to know what you see when you tune into the giraffe baby cam . Send your best screenshots and observations to webkeeper@zoo.org , tweet or Instagram to @woodlandparkzoo (#giraffecam), or post to our Facebook timeline .  And of course, don't miss the chance to see the calf in person! He has access to the outdoor area of the giraffe barn daily, and tends to head out there mid-mornings through afternoons. We know the next big piece of news you

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications There’s been a break in the sea of pink over at the flamingo exhibit. In the past week, we've had six tiny, white puffs in the form of flamingo chicks hatch out on exhibit. Generally, we let the chicks stay on the nest for the first five days, where they are well looked after by their parents. But once they become a bit more mobile and are ready to head out of the nest, we bring the chicks and their parents behind the scenes where they can get through the first few weeks of rearing together in a more protected environment. Newly hatched chick in nest. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Ideally the flamingo parents will feed and raise the chicks on their own. Some are first time parents and others are experienced. Zookeepers watch over the young families very closely, and are ready to step in to incubate eggs or rear chicks if it looks like any of the families are in need of a little help. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Pa

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications This might be the first time our four male otter pups have done something that can be classified as “swimming” outside. A tiny pup goes for a swim. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. We've seen them dip into the smaller pools in their exhibit, as well as one we keep for them behind the scenes, and they've flopped into the running water outside a few times, not always intentionally. But on Tuesday morning, we watched the family of Asian small-clawed otters head into the large pool in their exhibit and splash around outside for their first real swim together. A parent is always watching over the pups. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. The pups pushed out into the pool with mom Teratai and dad Guntur joining them, watching intently. The boys stuck close to the pool’s edge near the reeds, which offered them something to grab onto and a way to pull themselves out if swim time got too overwhelming for them. Kee

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications The giraffe calf has grown nearly a foot since his birth 3 weeks ago, towering in at just about 7 feet tall now. But there’s another tell-tale sign of growth to look for: the formation of the calf’s ossicones. Notice mom’s fully formed ossicones and the little ones just starting to take shape on baby’s head. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Ossicones are the horn-like protuberances giraffes sport on their heads. They are formed from ossified cartilage (cartilage that has transformed into bone) and covered in skin and fur. Remember what looked like a little tuft of hair on baby when he was first born? One-day-old giraffe with flat ossicones. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Those were his little ossicones, all flat and barely developed. But over the weeks they have begun to harden. You can see in these pictures at one-week-old how the ossicones are beginning to take shape. One-week-old ossicones, the profile v

Posted by: Dr. Deborah B. Jensen, President and CEO African elephant Watoto watches Asian elephant Chai at play. Photo by Ryan Hawk/WPZ. As our dear friends and supporters of the zoo, I wanted to share with you the latest news from the Elephant Task Force . This group of community leaders was recently charged with providing an objective evaluation of the health and social well-being of Woodland Park Zoo’s elephants, and an assessment of the zoo’s elephant breeding program. Read the full report. Last night, the task force released a report from its Expert Review Panel comprised of six internationally recognized scientific experts in elephant care and behavioral health. The panel included respected scientific leaders from academic veterinary research and medicine, as well as animal science sectors. The Expert Review Panel reaffirmed that Woodland Park Zoo’s elephants Watoto, Chai and Bamboo are in good medical health and the behavioral and social well-being of all three e

Posted by: Dr. Deborah B. Jensen, President and CEO Mother Nature isn’t always kind. Just as some human babies are born with congenital conditions that throw their parents for a loop, leading them to make extraordinary commitments to their children’s special needs, the same can be true for animals. As you recall from last year’s stories , our endangered snow leopard cubs, Asha and Shanti, now 15 months old, were born with multiple ocular coloboma. This relatively rare congenital eye anomaly affects both human and non-human animals including Bengal tigers, Florida panthers, snow leopards, horses, and certain breeds of domestic cats and dogs. In Greek, coloboma means “unfinished.” The eye stops growing before it is fully developed. Ultimately, Asha and Shanti would develop functional vision only in their left eyes. Many of you wrote to us with outpourings of encouragement and hope for the cubs’ struggle, and for the expert staff caring for them. So I’d like to update you since th

Posted by: Caileigh Robertson, Communications Photos by: Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo Visitors catch a glimpse of Gavin in the zoo's Raptor Yard. Gavin, our youngest porcupine, is stretching his legs and catching some rays in a spacious zoo yard, giving guests an up-close visit with—quite possibly—our cutest quilled creature. Gavin on the run in the Raptor Yard.  While Gavin’s parents, Molly and Oliver, occupy the Northern Trail porcupine exhibit, Gavin takes to the zoo’s Raptor Center yard on weekdays for regular exercise and explorations under the supervision of zookeepers and staff. His visits to the Raptor Center yard are not formally scheduled, but you might catch a closer look at the pint-sized porcupine during your afternoon visits to the zoo! Notice the thick gloves required when holding Gavin and his quills. At 2 months of age, keepers began to notice a decrease in his weight, which for a young growing porcupine is a cause for concern. Upon examin

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Photos by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Two pups follow mom outside for the very first time. Everyone is busy getting the Asian small-clawed otter pups ready for their outdoor debut. Mom and dad have been teaching the pups how to swim in a shallow, indoor pool in their behind-the-scenes den. Zookeepers have been baby-proofing the outdoor exhibit—adding ramps made from branches to the water and slowing the stream and waterfall down to a trickle so the pups don’t wipe out. The pups followed mom onto exhibit briefly. All is set. Now we just need to get the pups to come outside for a little practice time. That’s proving to be the hardest part. Taking a peek at the waterfall on exhibit.  Last Tuesday morning, mom Teratai guided her pups out onto exhibit to give them a chance to explore the outdoors for the first time. Notice the little patch on the pup's side? Each pup has a unique shaved patch to help keepers tell t