Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications This season brings eight new additions to our endangered Humboldt penguin colony. The chicks will make their debut later this summer once they get a little bigger and become proficient swimmers. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. One of the youngest chicks, seen here at 10 days old, hatched on April 27 to 13-year-old father Pizarron and 3-year-old mother Maria, who herself was born at the zoo in 2010. That brings the total number of penguins hatched at the zoo since our award-winning exhibit opened in 2009 to 32! As Humboldt penguins are endangered, these hatchings--part of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums Species Survival Plan (SSP) conservation breeding program--add up to lots to celebrate. SSPs maximize genetic diversity, with the goal of ensuring the long-term survival of populations and the health of individual animals. These new generations of penguins help us continue to  tell the story of what is happen

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications One day old tawny frogmouth chick. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. The tawny frogmouths didn’t want to be left out of the zoo’s baby boom , so they hatched their first chick of the season last week. Adult frogmouths sport mottled, grayish feathers that let them camouflage themselves like a dead tree branch, but they start life as a little, white puffball, covered in downy feathers. What do you think the tawny frogmouth chick looks most like? At one day old, the chick weighed in at 16.5 g (0.58 ounces). Its parents are doing a good job caring for it in their nest. The chick is weighed daily to make sure its growing as expected, and we’ll offer some supplemental snacks (little bits of mice) if it needs help putting on weight. One day old. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. The chick’s parents have another fertile egg in their nest, so we may have a second hatching on our hands soon. The family lives behin

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications When you enter the new Bamboo Forest Reserve exhibit , your eyes might go directly to the otters , but it won’t be long before your ears pick up one of the other highlights of the exhibit—a sonorous aviary filled with the chirps, warbles and songs of five Asian tropical bird species. Nicobar pigeon. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. To find the birds, you’ll want to look up, down and all around the aviary, as the birds will be everywhere from high in the trees to low in the bushes. You’ll encounter the collared finchbill, white-rumped shama thrush, great argus, red-billed leiothrix and Nicobar pigeon. Great argus. Photo by Mat Hayward/Woodland Park Zoo. The five bird species are a loquacious crew and are host to an array of flamboyant plumage. From the call of the great argus as he prepares a spectacular dance for his mate to the sparkling metallic green feathers of the Nicobar pigeon, from the delicate porcelain songs of t

Posted by: Sergei M.Smirenski, Woodland Park Zoo Partner for Wildlife Photos by Vasili Dugintsov, courtesy of Cranes of Asia Editor note: This update just came in from Woodland Park Zoo’s Partner for Wildlife, Cranes of Asia: Muraviovka Park . The conservation project’s director, Sergei Smirenski, shares how his crew and community came together to help endangered cranes get through some hard times this spring. Cranes salute the coming of spring. Now that it’s spring, cranes and storks are trying to make their way back to Muraviovka Park quickly from their migration routes in order to occupy and defend their nest sites from other cranes. However, due to the unusually cold and snowy mid-spring, the southern part of the Zeya-Bureya plain in the park is still covered by more than 20 inches of snow, and lakes are frozen. The cranes and storks are arriving to find that there is no food available. Cranes search for food in the snow. Cranes can dig through the snow cover and

Posted by: Caileigh Robertson, Communications Although toucans and hornbills look very similar, they are from two completely different families of birds. This is a great example of what is called convergent evolution. Toucans and hornbills are beautiful, fascinating creatures and throughout time, they have both adapted similarly to survive in similar ecological niches, despite the great geographical divide between them. Toucans reside in Central and South America, while hornbills are found only in Africa and Asia. Toucan (left) and hornbill (right) look similar though they are unrelated. Photos by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. They both play the role of forest omnivore, feeding on fruits, insects and small creatures, including bird eggs, lizards and young mice. Their similar bills come in handy when foraging for food. Both groups of birds nest in cavities. These large bills also play a part in protecting eggs and nestlings from potential predators. So how do you tell the

Posted by: Caileigh Robertson, Communications With this weekend’s Hawks vs. Falcons game rapidly approaching, let’s take a look at some of the strengths of each opponent. Red-tailed hawk (left, photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo) and peregrine falcon (right, photo by Dennis Conner/Woodland Park Zoo) 1. Hawks capture and kill their prey with their feet, yet falcons rely on the tomial tooth of their beaks to break the necks of their prey. (I wouldn’t want to be that unlucky fellow…) 2. Hawks are known for their slow glides in the sky, while falcons are known for their incredible soaring speeds.  Falcons have produced speeds clocking in at 200 miles per hour! 3.Hawks have broad, wide wings that are perfect for soaring. Falcons have long, slender wings that are pointed at the tip, which give them greater agility in the air. Both hawks and falcons are strong and powerful creatures, but we’ll let the playoffs determine which of the two is best on the field. Is i

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications With its long neck, trilling whistle, and stunning feather display that looks like eyes peering through the night, the sunbittern is one of the most elegant birds to call Woodland Park Zoo home. So picture that elegance-to-be when you see how it all starts: Top: Sunbittern chick at one day old. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. | Bottom: An adult sunbittern displays its eye-like feathers at Woodland Park Zoo. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. This little sunbittern hatched on November 20, the first sunbittern hatchling at Woodland Park Zoo in close to 15 years. At one day old, the chick is covered in fluffy down feathers not unlike the texture of the towel it sits on here. Adult feathers begin to grow in after 3 weeks. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Sunbittern babies at zoos are fairly rare, with probably only around 10 new hatchings a year at best. The hatchings are carefully planned as part of the Spec

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 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

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Emu feathers are designed to hang loosely, which helps keep them cool but also gives them an appearance of having hair rather than the tightly barbed feathers we’re used to seeing on most birds . Photo by Mat Hayward/Woodland Park Zoo.

Posted by: Gretchen Albrecht, Raptor Keeper It’s me, Squeaky. Photo by Gretchen Albrecht/Woodland Park Zoo. Hi, I’m Squeaky the squirrel. I work at Woodland Park Zoo’s Raptor Center as a hawk lure. It’s been a busy summer for me. I thought you might enjoy hearing about my job. 8:00 a.m. - Time to get up. I rest with two other lures, the “dummy bunny” used for the ferruginous hawk and golden eagle, and a swing lure used for the Aplomado falcon (it is supposed to look like a bird).  Obviously I am the cutest! Chillin’ with the dummy bunny and swing lure. Photo by Gretchen Albrecht/Woodland Park Zoo. Lures are an important part of training a raptor to safely free fly. The lure usually represents the raptor’s natural prey. After getting a meal or two on the lure a raptor is generally pretty keen to fly to it since the lure means food. Flying to a lure is a lot more fun than flying to a trainer’s glove so a lure is often used when a raptor has gone off cours