Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications A Pacific marten has been recorded by a motion-triggered wildlife camera, marking the first time the species has been recorded by a camera survey in Olympic National Forest.  A Pacific marten visits a scent dispenser at Olympic National Forest in January 2022 As part of an ongoing collaboration, Woodland Park Zoo partnered with Olympic National Forest last summer to install six motion-triggered camera and scent dispenser stations in the National Forest in hopes of detecting martens, a rare native carnivore thought to be occurring there in only very sparse numbers. A month ago, the survey team returned to the station and discovered multiple photos of a single Pacific marten, which had visited the station in January 2022. Only two dozen marten sightings have been confirmed on the Olympic Peninsula in the last half century, with half of these attributed to surveys with remote cameras and scent dispensers over the last few years and all in Olymp...

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, Communications Both Papua New Guinea’s Matschie’s tree kangaroos and Nepal’s red pandas need healthy forests! An elusive kangaroo living in trees. A reddish-brown floof chilling atop the forest canopy. What do animals such as Papua New Guinea’s Matschie’s tree kangaroos and Nepal’s red pandas have in common? Both these red furry animals are the faces of forests where conservation has become a community movement. Why? Because we need forests and now, with the health of the world’s forests at risk, forests need us. Only when forests thrive can nature reach its full potential as a climate solution. Picture the stories of these animals and more in the new Forests for All exhibit experience coming to Woodland Park Zoo in 2026. Following a competitive process, the zoo has selected the Seattle-based LMN Architects as principal architects with CLR Design (Philadelphia and Capistrano Beach, Calif.) as habitat designers fo...

Posted by Elizabeth Bacher, Communications On the left is one of our snowy owlets a few weeks after hatching. On the right, one of those same youngsters now. Photos: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren (L) and Susan Burchardt (R)/Woodland Park Zoo  Oh what a difference four months can make! This past July, we welcomed a pair of snowy owl chicks to our zoo family—the first hatching of this species at Woodland Park Zoo in nine years. And these wide-eyed youngsters—a brother and sister—are already the same size as their parents!  Male snowy owl, Dusty, is the father of our four-month old pair. Photo: Susan Burchardt/Woodland Park Zoo Female, June, is a fierce first-time mama! Photo: Susan Burchardt/Woodland Park Zoo First-time parents, mom June and dad Dusty were paired under the Snowy Owl Species Survival Plan, which is a cooperative, conservation breeding program to help ensure a healthy, self-sustaining population for at-risk species. They live with their brood in the Northern Trail ha...

Posted by Peter Zahler, Vice President of Conservation Initiatives When I was in fourth grade, I frequently sat on the curb of our little street in upstate New York and discussed environmental destruction and the end of the world with my best friend Dave. Admittedly this probably means I was not the most fun fourth grader on the planet to be around, but interestingly I went on to a long conservation career helping to save wildlife around the world, while my friend Dave went into marine conservation, diving with the Cousteau Society among other impressive career notes. Great ambitions inspired by dreamy afternoon haunts. Photo by Sam Szapucki via Flickr I’ve been reminded of our curbside apocalypse sessions lately because of the recent UN environmental reports, first on climate change and more recently on the estimated one million species under threat of extinction in the next few decades. It’s a little hard not to be stunned by these reports into a sense of paralysis, i...

Posted by: Peter Zahler, Vice President of Conservation Initiatives Camera trap image of a snow leopard in Pamir Mountains, Central Asia. Photo credit: WCS Afghanistan. The names are so evocative that they feel fictional—the Himalayas, the Karakorams, the Hindu Kush, the Tien Shans, the Altais—the world’s greatest mountains, soaring above the clouds, blocking global weather patterns, and changing the very nature of the vast continent of Asia. In and among these enormous mountains, villagers have scratched out a living carving tiny farm plots out of the precipitous cliffs, moving their small herds of livestock up and down the steep slopes to find pasture. Traders have struggled to drag their goods through the high passes on the historic Silk Routes to sell spices, share ideas, and change the course of history. And of course men have fought wars and built kingdoms in these fearsome mountains, from Genghis and Kublai Khan’s great empires to Britain and Russia’s Great Game glob...

Posted by Alejandro Grajal, PhD, President and CEO When will we address climate change? Will it be when salmon can no longer spawn in Washington waters? Will we do something to curb carbon pollution once the orca has gone extinct? Or will we do nothing as wild species disappear one by one throughout the Pacific Northwest and the world? This November, Washington state must vote to protect wildlife for generations. If passed, Initiative 1631 would be the first Carbon Fee enacted by popular vote in the world. Woodland Park Zoo fully endorses Initiative 1631 because the health of the Puget Sound region, its people, and wildlife are impacted by climate change.   Initiative 1631 brings together a wide and deep coalition of citizens from agriculture, manufacturing, business, labor, Tribes, communities of color, environmentalists, and faith communities – Initiative 1631 is truly a citizen’s initiative. Democracy starts with those who participate in it. The broad and diverse coal...

Posted by Daphne Matter, ZooCorps Intern Get ready for a day at Woodland Park Zoo that’s packed with action... climate action! Climate Action Day is an awesome (and informative) event that will take place on July 19th from 3:00 p.m.- 8:00 p.m. at the zoo and will be led by the ZooCorps Climate Action Team, a branch of Woodland Park Zoo’s teen volunteer program dedicated to inspiring change in our community through focused actions combating climate change. It is a completely youth-led event, as teens and children are the future of our world. ZooCorps and the Otter Spotter project. Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, Woodland Park Zoo. This day will be an excellent opportunity for all ages to learn about specific and simple actions that can make change. Everyone can make an impact on the environment, no matter who you are, and we will focus on ensuring that impact is a positive one. We will work on how to build positive habits through realistic and sustainable practices tha...

Posted by: Eli Weiss, Community Engagement Among climate scientists and activists there is clear consensus that climate change is a global crisis and urgent action needs to be taken.   As the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report indicates, there is no time to waste if we hope to limit global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Given this urgency, we are confident that the Seattle Youth Climate Action Network is needed now more than ever. Since 2015, Woodland Park Zoo has focused our efforts to address climate change on working with youth and community partners through the Seattle Youth Climate Action Network (CAN). Seattle Youth CAN empowers teens to address climate change in their communities through education, leadership and action. Through this project, Woodland Park Zoo convenes community support for youth to gain the skills and confidence needed to become leaders in the continued fight for a better future for people, animals, and pl...