Woodland Park Zoo Blog

The baby gorilla now has a name, thanks to 3-1/2-year-old Rhys Olson of Seattle (o.k., he had a bit of help from his dad, Rick!). Uzumma is an Igbo-langugage word that means "bearer of joy to the family". Rhys wins a year-long membership to the zoo, a $150 Ivar's gift card, a gorilla "adoption" through our ZooParent program, a large plush gorilla toy and a framed print of the baby and her handprint. Ivar's CEO Bob Donegan announced the winning name today at 10:00 a.m. at the gorilla exhibit with Rhys and his dad in attendance, along with five other top contests. Some of the other suggested names were Ekemma, Igbo for "beautiful Eke Market day"; Abeni, a Yoruba word for "one who you must beg for to have". The zoo's gorilla keeper staff and volunteers served as judges. We thank everyone who entered (nearly 1,000 entries overall) and we congratulate Rhys and his family on their achievement! (Photo of Rick Olson and gorilla naming winner

The contest has ended, the names researched and checked and on April 4, the baby western lowland gorilla female born last October will finally receive her new name which is...ah, of course you'll have to wait! In association with Ivar's and Kidd Valley restaurants, we asked the community to find an appropriate name for the baby. We generally try to use names from the languages found in their original range countries so contest participants were able to choose from Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa or Swahili. We had lots of great suggestions until it was narrowed down to just seven and then the winner randomly drawn from those. The winner will be announced during the Primetime Primates day which takes place during our inaugural EcoWeekend event. At 10:00 a.m. on April 4, representatives from the zoo and Ivar's CEO will announce the name and zoo visitors will be treated to delicious "babycake" cupcakes from Cupcake Royale (while supplies last, of course!). Meanwhile, here are a

We were fortunate to recently have Thomas Breuer join us to discuss his project focusing on the use of "bais" --the swampy clearings in the forest---located in central Africa. These bais are havens for native wildlife including forest elephants and western lowland gorillas. Much of Breuer's work is tracking the demographics of the gorilla groups that come to feed on the rich plant life in the bais. During his six years, they have identified and observed several groups and individually identified gorillas, tracking their individual life histories. In the process, they've learned a tremendous amount about gorilla behavior and helped conserve the populations utilizing the bais. As part of his visit, we taped a segment with Breuer as he talks about the project. Woodland Park Zoo is one of the proud funders of this project. Take a look at the video in the Video Bar on the right. Also included is an excellent piece by National Geographic showing recent discoveries about gor

Twin orangutans Towan and Chinta seemed to have ball celebrating their 40th birthday. Nice weather brought out hundreds of people to the zoo to help in the event. While the orangutans received wrapped gifts filled with treats and "orang cupcakes", visitors received tasty cupcakes from Cupcake Royale. Zookeepers shared stories about the orangutans, reminiscing about their antics over the past four decades. In this photo, male orangutan Towan tore up a gift-wrapped package to discover his treats inside. (Photo by Dennis Dow)

If it weren't thrilling enough when our latest western lowland gorilla was born in October, now the entire community gets the opportunity to help name her! The now 4-month-old gorilla has been through quite a bit, when a congenital defect called for surgery to correct. Thanks to a team of physicians from Seattle's Children Hospital, she's now right as rain and ready for a name. In cooperation with Ivar's and Kidd Valley restaurants, we're looking for a name that derives from the languages of their origin countries. In this case, names of Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa and Swahili languages are the suggested sources. It's not too hard to discover appropriate names: simply go online and type in "Yoruba language", etc., in any search engine, or visit your local library and find dictionaries for those languages. Then visit any Western Washington Ivar's or Kidd Valley restaurant to pick up and fill in an entry form. The contest runs from March 2 through March 23.

Turning 40 isn't going to be traumatic for Towan and his twin sister Chinta on Saturday. The party starts at 11:00 a.m. and runs to 12:30 p.m. The orangutans will receive wrapped "presents" that they enjoy tearing into, special treats and our human guests will receive tasty gourmet cupcakes courtesy of Cupcake Royale (while supplies last!) and everyone is welcome to enter into a free raffle to win one of Towan's increasingly famous works of art (see below to the entry that offered two of his paintings for auction on eBay). Our February entry showed Towan and Chinta as infants, so we thought it only fair that we post photos of them now (That's Towan , the male on the left, and Chinta , the female, on the right). They would also like to say hello to Hannah, Mark and Conni up in Vancouver, B.C. Hannah was looking forward to coming to the birthday party, but unfortunately she's not feeling well so the orangutans hope this finds her on the mend!

Turning 40 is a milestone for humans…and for non-human animals too! Join Woodland Park Zoo at a birthday party for its twin orangutans turning the big 4-0. Towan (toe-WAHN) and Chinta (CHEEN-tuh), brother and sister, respectively, will open gift-wrapped presents with their favorite treats and indulge in special “orangutan” birthday cupcakes. All five of the zoo’s orangutans will join in the celebration. Birthday festivities include: complimentary cupcakes for visitors (while supplies last), an opportunity to meet the keepers and hear about the day-to-day quality care provided for the great apes, a photo collage of the twins, an orangutan discovery box with fascinating facts and items, and a free raffle for a commemorative art piece hand painted by orangutan Towan. The birthday party is free with zoo admission. Born at Woodland Park Zoo in February 1968, the twin orangutans gained instant national celebrity status as the first-known twin orangutans born in a zoo. Photos of the pair in d

39-year-old orangutan Towan enjoys painting. He's become a "master" artist it seems and two of his paintings are now being offered in an eBay auction in order to raise funds for the 2009 International Congress of Zookeepers/American Association of Zoo Keepers conference that will be held at Woodland Park Zoo in September 2009. Painting is one of the activities that several animals at the zoo take part in that helps stimulate them physically and mentally. The orangutans are offered non-toxic paints and canvas in order to provide them an activity, much like kids in pre-school will enjoy dabbling in the "fine arts" with finger painting. The ICZ/AAZK conference is a great way that zookeepers from around the world get to meet, interact, and network new ideas for animal husbandry, enrichment, and other topics related to improving and increasing the quality and depth of care they give to the animals. Bidding on Towan's two original paintings goes until February 8,

The baby gorilla is doing very well and the doctors from Children's Hospital were extremely pleased at how well the surgical incision is healing. She's using her arms and legs normally and is picking up weight. She and mother Amanda are out in the exhibit intermittently most days that it's warmer (anything under 45 degrees and they stay in where it's toasty!). Photo by Ryan Hawk

The baby is doing very well and was reunited with her mother shortly after she recovered from the anesthetic. The doctors say that her prognosis for a full recovery is very good and mother Amanda readily accepted her back. One recent comment asked about vitamin supplements for the animals. All animals at the zoo have diets that are constantly examined not only by our staff, but animal nutritionists who are tops in the field. Each diet is formulated not only for that particular species, but the needs of the individual animal. Although each diet is nutritionally complete, some of the animals are given supplements, particularly in cases such as pregnancy or in circumstances where they made need additional care. We've posted a video of the day of the baby gorilla's surgery at the top right of this blog. Special note: although we've tried not too make it too graphic, there are a couple seconds that may be too much for sensitive folks!

The western lowland gorilla born at the zoo on October 20, 2007, got some "out of this world" help for a congenital spine abnormality discovered a couple weeks after her birth. Woodland Park Zoo's crack Animal Health Care Team first examined the baby and ran tests to determine the diagnosis. Once it was found that the problem was a congenital problem that could be rectified with surgery, a team of neurosurgeons and a neonatologist from Seattle's Children's Hospital volunteered their services, along with special state-of-the-art neurospinal instruments donated by New Jersey-based Integra LifeSciences Corporation. Dr. Rob Liddell of Radiology Consultants Washington provided consultation and MRI diagnostics in December. Neurosurgeon Dr. Richard Ellenbogen called it a "Star Trek-type experience" for he and his team which included Dr. Craig Jackson, Dr. Sam Browd from Children's. "(We) were proud to help with an endangered species such as the baby g

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