Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor Would you describe yourself as sweet or commanding? Do you prefer Jell-O to peanuts? Take the “Which Orangutan Am I?” quiz to see which one of Woodland Park Zoo’s five orangutans you are most like—Towan, Heran, Melati, Chinta or Belawan. Then post your results here and share with your friends! (Me? I’m such a Chinta.) Come meet your orangutan at Asian Wildlife Conservation Day on Sat., August 9, 2014  to learn all about these amazing apes and what you can do to protect them in the wild. At the special event, free with zoo admission or membership, you’ll enjoy keeper talks and activities for the family at the orangutan exhibit, where you can take a pledge to protect this endangered species. You’ll even have the chance to enter a raffle to win a painting made by one of our very own orangutans! Towan creates a work of art. Photo by Carolyn Sellar/Woodland Park Zoo. The activities continue across the zoo spotlighting conservation for

Posted by: Stephanie Payne, Zookeeper With 10 gorillas making up three social groups living in two on-view exhibits, it can be challenging for visitors to keep up with the gorillas at Woodland Park Zoo—especially with all the moves and changes over the last few years. Several of the changes were influenced by recommendations from the national gorilla Species Survival Plan (SSP), a group of gorilla specialists that makes breeding recommendations and gorilla transfers based on the genetic diversity and wellbeing of the approximately 340 gorillas in accredited North American zoos. Let’s explore the dynamics of each of the gorilla groups to help you understand which gorilla is where and why. Then we’ll share tips on when and where to look for the gorillas to make the most of your visit. We start with Group 1’s Nina and Pete—the bedrocks of Woodland Park Zoo’s gorilla program. Nina. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Silverback Pete (right). Photos by Dennis Dow/W

Posted by: Andy Antilla, Zookeeper Woodland Park Zoo’s Towan inspired much of the orangutan character, Maurice, in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. For those of us who work with Towan, the oldest male orangutan in North America, we've always known that he's a special guy. Now, people all around the world will see much of his personality come to life on the big screen when “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” hits theaters this month. That’s because Karin Konoval, the actor who plays Maurice the orangutan in the new Planet of the Apes films, studied and drew her inspiration from our big guy. Maurice the orangutan in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox. At 46 years old, Towan and his twin sister Chinta have lived their entire lives at Woodland Park Zoo. They were both hand-raised by humans and show great interest in people, especially the regular visitors that come t

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Roses may symbolize love and beauty to us, but to our gorillas, they symbolize snack time! Thanks to the organic methods our gardeners use in the Woodland Park Rose Garden , any trimmings of our blooms are perfectly edible and safe to eat for our gorillas . Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. In the summer, as the more than 3,000 rose plants in the nearly 90-year-old Rose Garden bloom, the zoo’s gardeners deadhead the plants, which means they remove old, spent blooms to keep the overall plant blooming longer. That waste could be composted, but zookeepers love to get their hands on the blooms to use as enrichment with our plant-eaters, most especially the gorillas! Photo by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo. The petals make their way into the gorilla exhibit two or three times a week in the summer at various hours to keep it interesting and unexpected for the apes. This week, we visited the gorillas on a Monday morning a

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Early in the morning, the tropical rain forest usually resonates with "singing" siamangs whose call is so loud it can be heard for up to 3 miles.  How can they project so far? That hairless throat pouch blows up to act as a resonator that enhances the carrying of their call. Photo by Dennis Conner/Woodland Park Zoo.

Posted by: Carolyn Austin Sellar, Zookeeper This is the second installment of our new series: Animal Spotlight . Everybody knows Nina… if not by name then by sight. Yes, she has wrinkles (we call them her “distinguishing character lines”). Yes, she is a little bit round (hey, she’s short for her weight). She often holds a stick (every 43-year-old female should have a scepter or staff). Her favorite colors are red and pink, and yes, her tongue does stick out when she is relaxed! At the gorilla unit we can all tell Nina’s mood by what we call the “tongue gauge.” When annoyed, her lips purse tightly and her tongue is completely in her mouth. But when relaxed and happy, out comes the tongue! This year Nina turned 43. She is our oldest female western lowland gorilla here at Woodland Park Zoo. Now a great grandmother, Nina has seen a lot of changes at the zoo. She is very relaxed and unfazed when the younger female gorillas act up and is considered the solid rock in the group. She keeps eve

Posted by: Carolyn Sellar, Zookeeper Introducing a new series to the blog... Who is: a rowdy 10-year-old gorilla ; with ears that stick out; a female in silverback Pete’s troop ; who is leaving soon to start a new family? Our girl Naku (aka Nakunator or Naki, as her keepers sometimes call her)! This spring Naku will fly to Milwaukee, the land of cheese, breweries, and Laverne and Shirley. There she’ll be introduced to some new gorillas in hopes of starting a brand new family, including handsome resident male gorilla, Cassius, and female Shalia, who is also arriving new to Milwaukee, coming from Toronto. Naku’s 10th birthday was a very significant gorilla birthday. Her first double-digit birthday is a milestone that means she is mature enough physically and emotionally to become part of the cooperative breeding effort known as the Gorillas Species Survival Plan . This timing corresponds to the age at which wild gorillas begin to venture off to look for a new group to belong to, or begin