Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Paula MacKay, Living Northwest Conservation Photos by Paula MacKay As a child growing up in Boston, most of my wildlife sightings comprised gray squirrels and American robins—maybe the occasional urban raccoon. But on Sunday nights, a silver-haired zoologist named Marlin Perkins came into my family’s living room and transported me to a much bigger world of animals, where close encounters with species I’d never even heard of ignited my imagination and helped seed my future in carnivore conservation. That little girl in yellow feet pajamas, who sat mesmerized watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom while her animal-loving mom knit mittens and hats, could never have dreamed that one day she’d be featured on the program. And the wildlife she’d be studying? Wolverines! Photo by Mutual of Omaha Fast forward five decades, and I found myself on a flight to Billings, Montana, where my husband (WPZ’s Dr. Robert Long) and I were to be filmed for a future episode of the show’s new itera...

Posted by Craig Newberry, Communications Photos: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo We're pleased to announce the names of our new wolf pack members during Wolf Awareness Week! The four 6-year-old male wolves, all brothers, are named Tamaska (tuh-mah-skuh) Hayes, Lorenzo and Benito! The new family group represents a subspecies of the gray wolf, known as the Mexican gray wolf ( Canis lupus baileyi ), a relative of gray wolves found in the Pacific Northwest. The Mexican gray wolf is critically endangered, while the gray wolf ( Canis lupus ) is listed and protected as endangered under the Endangered Species Act and by the state of Washington. Tamaska is giving wolf vibes! This week, October 19 through 25, is Wolf Awareness Week, highlighting the critical role these canids play in maintaining healthy ecosystems. Wolf Awareness Week is celebrated each October, giving the world a chance to learn about wolf behavior, habitats, and the challenges they face, including habitat loss and ...

Posted by Hattie Potter, Development Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Juniper and Fern are beary best buddies! It's been a while since we last gave an update on our brown bear besties, Juniper and Fern, and we didn't want to let another month go by without catching up with these fluffy girls! It seems like just yesterday that the zoo first welcomed these rescued cubs , but these two are growing fast. Thanks to your support, we're able to continuously apply new strategies for leading edge animal care and wellness, ensuring that our urban forest provides animals like Fern and Juniper the best environment to learn and grow. Their animal care team took a little time to answer our questions and fill us in on what these two have been up to! The 2-year-old cubs spend lots of time swimming, chasing each other and napping together. What are the names and ages of our brown bears? It's estimated that Fern and Juniper were born in January of 2022. The zoo celebrate...

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications This female grizzly cub will be introduced to our other orphaned cub, a brown bear named Juniper. The two of them will live together in the Living Northwest Trail bear habitat. Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo  In mid-July, we welcomed a brown bear cub rescued in Anchorage, Alaska . Now, 3 months later, Woodland Park Zoo welcomes another cub: a female grizzly that was orphaned in Montana due to conflicts between her mom and humans. The cub currently weighs 95 pounds and arrived at the zoo October 3. She is currently in a 30-day quarantine at the zoo’s hospital—standard practice for new arrivals to ensure the wellness of all our animals. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) had recently responded to a wave of bear conflicts stemming from a combination of human safety concerns, habituated bear behavior, unsecured attractants and other issues. On Sept. 20, FWP bear specialists captured an adult female grizzly bear—the moth...

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 and video by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Woodland Park Zoo is beary excited to welcome an orphaned brown bear cub to its home and family. The female cub, who currently weighs 89 pounds, was found roaming alone on an air force base near Anchorage, Alaska. She traveled via Alaska Air Cargo and arrived at the zoo July 13. Hello, little sweetheart! We are so lucky to be able to give you a home in the Living Northwest Trail. The new cub, who has yet to be named, was born this past winter and is assumed to be a singleton. Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) had received multiple reports of sightings of the lone cub; once they confirmed the mom was nowhere to be found and the cub was too young to survive on her own, they moved forward to lure the bear to safety.  A culvert trap on a trailer bed was used. “Usually bears have a sweet tooth, so we tried drawing her in with glazed donuts. However, this cub showed no interest in ...

Posted by Paula MacKay, Conservation Associate, Woodland Park Zoo Photos by Woodland Park Zoo It's National Wildlife Week, the perfect time to celebrate our PNW wild cats! We're big fans of using motion-triggered cameras to help us learn more about the wildlife around us. Impassioned volunteers with the Seattle Urban Carnivore Project maintain dozens of cameras throughout greater Seattle, while researchers with the broader Northwest Carnivore Monitoring Program gather important camera data from the Cascades and the Olympics. And of the many amazing animals we observe with our remote cameras, perhaps none are more entertaining than the wild cats. If you’ve ever lived with a domestic cat, you’re already an expert in feline behavior—rubbing against your chair leg, clawing at your couch, rolling around in catnip with fervor and delight. Sometimes your cat just stares at you, as if to remind you they are a cat. Cats are our buddies, but they’re also the boss! Wild felids exhibit m...

Posted by Kirsten Pisto, Communications Photos by Jason Martin/Woodland Park Zoo In mid-May, I ditched my day job for the woods. I went to the Olympic National Forest to see what it’s like to shadow a crew of carnivore conservationists. We hiked around to check on remote cameras that were stationed in the forest since this same time last year—and we’d be the first to see what (if anything) this footage revealed. Camera traps allow researchers to determine the presence of rare species and sometimes reveal how we can better support their recovery. This is what it’s like to accompany a team of conservationists up a very steep mountain in search of a very elusive creature. After winding along the dirt road that skirts Lake Cushman—a jewel-colored swath of blue nestled into this morning’s foggy Olympic mountains—my husband Jason and I meet our hiking companions at the base of Mt. Rose. In the gravel Forest Service parking lot, we unload our packs and greet Robert Long, Betsy Howell...