Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Mark Myers, Curator What looks like an oversized cottonball with a beak is actually Woodland Park Zoo's first ever Tawny frogmouth hatchling! Keepers had been artificially incubating the egg for about 25 days (shorter than the usual 28-30 day incubation period), and within an hour of hatching Thursday morning, returned it to the nest where the parents have now taken over care. The parents, who came to us earlier this year from the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, are very attentive and defensive of the chick so far. Based on the chick’s weight gain, they also seem to be doing a good job of feeding their new hatchling. Woodland Park Zoo is one of only four zoos to have successfully bred this species in the last six years. As Population Management Plan coordinator for this species across all Association of Zoos & Aquariums institutions, I can say that this hatching represents a very significant achievement for the North American zoo population. Native to Australia, t

Posted by Zookeeper Eric Kowalczyk Video by Natalia Balodis Photo by Dennis Dow 7 May 2009, 1445hrs: Zoo visitor Natalia Balodis of Washougal, W A, was lucky enough to be at the right spot at the right time. Prior to this short video taken in the walk-thru of the Conservation Aviary, the brown female Cabot’s tragopan ( Tragopan caboti ) was observed crouched low in the grass, pumping her wings (“wing whirring”); she was facing one of the large boulders in the center of the enclosure. The colorful male was on the other side of this boulder and began his frontal courtship display. This begins with the distending of his throat wattle until it hangs like a fleshy bib in front of his breast. Then he began pumping his wings up and down along the sides of his body. Bright blue fleshy “horns” emerged from the top of his head. As the wing flapping increased in speed, he stood as tall as possible and then charged around the boulder towards the female. This can be viewed in this 21 second clip. C