Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Elizabeth Bacher These Goliath beetles are ... well ... Goliath! Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo They’re big! They’re super cool! They’re the current rockstars of Bug World—the BEETLES! Goliath beetles ( Goliathus goliatus ) are among the largest and heaviest of all insects with some mature males measuring in at more than 4 inches long! These gentle giants (males can be aggressive towards rival male beetles but are generally harmless to humans) are native to central and west Africa. Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo These beetles spend much of their short lives as a larva then a pupa before finally emerging as adults with the entire life cycle lasting up to a year or so.  Dedicated Bug World keeper, Maria, gently holds the Goliath beetle larva —and YES, it is bigger than her finger! Photo: Courtesy of Maria Buckner/Woodland Park Zoo Check our the hand-sized clay/sand pupal structure from which an adult Goliath beetle will emerge!  Photo: C...

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Photos: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Two brilliantly colored flamboyant flower beetles in Bug World.  After being closed for several months, Woodland Park Zoo's popular Bug World building has reopened with upgrades and the reintroduction of arthropods—the largest group of invertebrates. Admission to Bug World is included with general zoo admission. A garden fruit chafer insect. From the temperate forest and desert to the savanna and tropics, Bug World unleashes the world of 16 species of arthropods. Discover the Mexican red-knee tarantula, western horse lubber, two-spotted assassin bug, Peruvian fire walking stick, flamboyant flower beetle, fierce waterbug, emperor scorpion and many more, and develop a new appreciation for these animals. A new kind of lighting in this revamped space more closely replicates what all the species in Bug World would experience in their natural habitats—all the better for their care! One of the new feat...

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Not all babies born or hatched at Woodland Park Zoo are warm, cuddly, furry and feathered. Adding to this year's baby boom, the zoo is proud to announce its newest hatching: approximately 30 medicinal leeches (they’re very difficult to count!)! It will take about two to three years for the new leeches to reach their adult size of approximately 6 inches. The leech hatchlings are the offspring of multiple adults the zoo rescued four years ago. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service confiscated the adult leeches from an individual traveling from Russia to the U.S. who attempted to smuggle more than 40 adult leeches in water bottles. Woodland Park Zoo accepted all the leeches into its care. Watch: Leeches are babies too!  https://youtu.be/LxMT0SRXehU Earlier this year, the zoo received 22 more adult leeches from a U.S. breeder; the adult leeches from Russia immediately started breeding with the new additions. “Woodland Park Zoo works closely with wildl...

Posted by Kirsten Pisto, Communications This summer we asked kids to show us what kinds of creatures might be hiding in their backyard — the results were some very creative and rare species indeed. The MyZoo Kids' Backyard Creatures contest invited kids ages 3-5 and 6-10 to design their own inspired creatures, whether real or imagined and after sorting through a stack of over 100 entries we have the winners! Grand Prize: Age 6-10 Artist: Lauren Orrison , age 7 Name of creature: Lady Lizard Nocturnal, eats pollen, lives underground and likes to dance. We loved Lauren's wild use of mark making and a creature that reminds us of something we have seen before, but can't quite place. Lauren will receive an overnight experience at the zoo in August. Great work Lauren! Grand Prize: Age 3-5 Artist: Carly Rodgers , age 5 Name of creature: Sazzy Nocturnal, eats reptiles, lives in a swamp and likes to hide. There was something a little...

Posted by Kirsten Pisto, Communications Spiders are sort of the worst best. Homes and backyards in the Pacific Northwest seem to be teeming with spiders during the fall season and dewy-dropped webs float oh so delicately between the sidewalk and your face. But don’t get all antsy (ahem… spidery), we spoke with Sue Andersen, zookeeper at the Bug World exhibit, to learn more about these incredible eight-legged beauties. Video: A colorful look at spiders. Produced by Kirsten Pisto/WPZ. Volunteer Jordan asks zookeeper Sue Andersen about her love of spiders and why everybody should appreciate them! Sue, you have to work with spiders every day at Bug World. Were you always at ease around arachnids? To tell you the truth, no. When I first started volunteering at Woodland Park Zoo, all I knew was that I wanted to become a keeper. My very first assignment was to help feed the golden orb weaver. They are long legged and they are web-builders, meaning they like to hang o...

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications, with Sue Andersen, Zookeeper It seems like every time we do a spider story, someone gets mad at us for having to see these creatures on their screen. But we’re going to help you learn to love spiders, starting with these baby golden orb weavers seen here at just one hour old! Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Spiders are good people. We talked with zookeeper, Sue Andersen, to get the scoop on these amazing critters on the occasion of the third egg case hatching in Bug World in the past two weeks. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Seen here are golden orb weaver spiderlings, fresh out of their egg case. According to Sue, “spiders actually develop from eggs into what is termed post-embryos (affectionately called ‘eggs with legs’ by arachnologists!) within the safety of their egg case. By the time they emerge from their egg case, they are first instar (or stage) as these guys and gals are. At this stage they are looking ...

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications When we say the Partula snail is tiny, we really mean it. Photo by Emily Schumacher/WPZ. If you’ve been to Bug World lately, you may have noticed a very cool addition across the path! Our tiny Tahitian Partula snails have a teensy, new lab! Look for the conservation lab in the Temperate Forest zone of the zoo. Photo by Kirsten Pisto/WPZ. The rout of tiny endangered tree snails has moved out of Bug World and across the path to their brand new lab. The snail lab was completed this summer, and all of the residents seem quite at home in their new digs. You can see animal care and conservation at work when you visit the lab. Photo by Kirsten Pisto/WPZ. Erin Sullivan, collection manager, tells us a little more about the new lab. Why do the snails need their own space? The Partula snails living at Woodland Park Zoo’s lab are very special—they are extinct in the wild. Our zoo is one of the zoo’s participating in the captive bree...

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications Photos by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo. Kids love bugs. There is just something irresistible about the creepy crawlies that slither, march and fly around us. Maybe it is their intriguing size or perhaps their alien form. Either way, I've seen a group of kids snub a jaguar for a trail of ants, seriously. We have plenty of bugs at the zoo, inside and out. Our Bug World exhibit is brimming with roaches, gigantic spiders and the coolest looking leaf insects you’ll ever see. We also happen to live in a region that is teeming with insects that can be found in our own backyards. Connecting kids to the insects in their backyard is a big part of connecting them to the idea of living landscapes . Every organism is a player, and if you start with the little guys, it is easy to get kids on board with that concept. We hung with Zoomazium interns Brianna Morley and Saritha Beauchamp as they led a group of youngsters and their parents to Zo...

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications Fall is here! Crispy leaves, football, presidential debates, pumpkin spice lattes and… spidies! This orb weaver is decorating for fall! Photo by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo. Spider webs appear everywhere; draped across your porch, athwart your front door, and if you happen to be tall, most likely dangling in your hair. Despite the unpleasantness of being greeted each morning with a silky web stuck to your face, orb weaver spiders are pretty incredible. Dancing in the morning fog, an orb weaver constructs her web. Woodland Park Zoo archive photo. There are more than 3,000 different species of orb weavers around the world, but the most common species in Western Washington is the cross spider ( Araneus diadematus ) . These tiny architects are unbelievable weavers. A female spider suns herself in the middle of her web. Photo by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo. Orb weavers construct their webs by first flinging...