Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications This little turtle is about to be released into a protected pond site. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. From the parking lot you pull into off a suburban drag, you’d never guess you are about to enter a protected wetlands, where hope for an endangered turtle species hangs in the balance. Pull on your rubber boots, head through the reeds down a thin, winding path flattened by the steps of the biologists ahead of you, and as your feet start to sink into the softening ground, you know you are getting close to your destination—the edge of a small pond with a big story. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. It’s unassuming, but this spot—marked by nothing more than a temporary wooden plank for our safe balancing—is where hundreds of turtles have made the journey back into the wild over the past 20 years through an ambitious conservation effort to bring the native western pond turtle back from the brink of extinction in

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Many of you have met Kakuta Hamisi, and if you have, you won’t forget him or his incredible, inspirational stories. In his 12 years as cultural interpreter at the zoo, Kakuta has shared his stories of his life experiences growing up and engaging in conservation work in rural Kenya with nearly 100,000 zoo visitors! Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo You’ve probably taken a tour with him through our African Savanna exhibit, or heard him talking out by the hippo exhibit about his work restoring waterholes in his native Kenya. And if you have met Kakuta and been inspired by his experiences, you’ll understand why it’s now so hard for us to say goodbye as he prepares to head back to Kenya for a major new step in his life—running for the Minister of Parliament position for the newly created Kajiado East Constituency that stretches from Chyulu Hills National Park to the outskirts of Nairobi City. The constituency has an estimated

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Help us name our three new, female  Visayan warty pigs and you can win up to $500! With your votes, each pig will receive a name reflecting its native habitat in the Visayan Islands of central Philippines. The contest is easy to enter: Clip out an official ballot from any copy of  The Seattle Times  from  July 22 - August 3, 2012  and vote for your favorite three names. The names are: ADLAW (sun) BULAK (flower) LASANG (forest) MAGDULA (playful) BANHAAN (nosey) GUAPA (beautiful) All ballots must be dropped off at a  participating U.S. Bank location  by August 4, 2012 . The three names with the most votes will be chosen for our Visayan warty pigs! When you cast your vote, you’ll automatically be entered to win* in our random prize drawing. The grand prize is a $500 Visa gift card courtesy of U.S. Bank and a Visayan warty pig ZooParent adoption. Two runners up will each receive a $100 Visa

Posted by: Team Tiger You’ve shown your stripes and caused an uproar for tigers through our Give Ten for Tigers campaign. Thanks to you, we’ve gone over goal and raised an incredible $115,000 well before the deadline and we got the $100,000 match!!! We now have enough to start construction on the first phase of the incredible new tropical forest exhibit for tigers, sloth bears and otters! We can’t thank you enough for giving to the cause and spreading the word to your friends. Every dollar and every share helped get us here. YOU got us to this first critical milestone! Construction on this first phase, which includes the home of the new Asian small-clawed otters, will begin the day after Labor Day and open May 2013. In the meantime, everything that’s come in over the $100,000 goal, and every dollar raised from now on, will help build the second and final phase of the new home for our tigers and sloth bears , which will open in 2014. Thanks so much for givin

Posted by: Paul Balle, Development Officer I was very excited the day that Forterra, formerly Cascade Land Conservancy, invited Woodland Park Zoo to become a founding partner in their new Carbon Capturing Companies (C3) program. That partnership was announced today at Forterra’s annual breakfast. As a zoo employee and member of our Green Team, an active conservationist, and someone who’s been heavily involved with our WPZ Sustainability Plan and calculating the zoo’s annual carbon footprint, C3 seemed a natural way to partner with 14 businesses and organizations—INCLUDING a famous rock band (Pearl Jam!)—to help make our region greener while offsetting our annual carbon emissions by planting trees in our region. In a nutshell, here’s how C3 works:  Companies and organizations who want to reduce their carbon footprint—and its effects on our region—are encouraged to participate by joining the C3 program. What’s the carbon cost of doing business? Photo by Ryan Hawk/

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Stretch with us! Archive image of Hadiah, the last Sumatran tiger cub born at Woodland Park Zoo, seen here in 2006 at 16 days old. We'll have a breeding pair of Malayan tigers in our new exhibit, which means we may have more cubs in the near future! Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. It’s GiveBIG day in King County, which means your $10 gift to our Give Ten for Tigers campaign will get stretched by the partial matching funds from the Seattle Foundation today only when you make your gift at this link .   Even if you can’t make a gift, click the share buttons to spread this to your friends and help us get the word out across the community. Together, we’ll create an awesome new exhibit for tigers and sloth bears at the zoo.  Remember, GiveBIG is today only. Any gift you make through GiveBIG will go directly to our Give Ten for Tigers campaign. Tomorrow we'll return to our regularly scheduled programming of Give

Are you tired of our worn-out, 60-year-old tiger and sloth bear exhibits? So are we! That's why we're embarking on the biggest extreme makeover here at the zoo since the 1990s to build a new, state-of-the-art, 2-acre exhibit complex for Malayan tigers , sloth bears , small-clawed otters , tropical birds and so much more! Future plans for Woodland Park Zoo's all new, naturalistic tiger exhibit complex. If you love animals, you'll love the new experience we're designing. You should see the plans ! The exhibit complex will also play a crucial role in inspiring people to help save wild tigers  whose future is in serious jeopardy. Malayan tiger. Photo by Melinda Arnold/Dickerson Park Zoo. But we can't build it without you. Literally. If you've ever done any remodeling you know it's expensive. And we only have until May 25 to raise enough money to start construction on Phase One of the exhibit complex (which will include an exhibit

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications 4/27 UPDATE: If you are having trouble getting www.zoo.org to load, you can buy your tickets directly at this link .  BECU ZooTunes presented by Carter Subaru returns for its 29th season and another exciting line-up! The popular concerts are held outdoors on the vast, picturesque North Meadow of Woodland Park Zoo. The new season kicks off June 27:  June 27 - Leo Kottke / Jake Shimabukuro ($24)  July 3 - k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang ($38)  July 18 - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals ($22)  July 19 - Ziggy Marley ($28)  Aug 1 - Los Lobos / Steve Earle and the Dukes ($28) Aug 5 - The Johnny Clegg Band / Ladysmith Black Mambazo ($28) Aug 12 - An Evening With Melissa Etheridge ($39.50) Aug 15 & 16 - An Evening With Pink Martini ($34)   Aug 22 - Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue / Robert Randolph & the Family Band ($26)  Aug 29 - Rosanne Cash / Madeleine Peyroux ($26) BECU ZooTunes presented by Carter Subaru

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications A fuzzy Humboldt penguin chick stretches out during a check-up with keepers. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. What is more adorable than a penguin chick check-up? It’s tough to think of anything more wonderful to celebrate springtime than a couple of fuzzy, gray additions to our Humboldt penguin colony, especially the story behind one of these very lucky chicks! Up close with a penguin chick. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Two little penguin chicks received their first weigh-in and visual health assessment yesterday behind the scenes at our award-winning Humboldt penguin exhibit. Keepers John and Celine carefully weighed and checked each penguin chick, the first two of this year’s penguin breeding season. These desert penguin chicks weighed in yesterday at 9 oz. and 11 oz. Penguin chick on the scale! Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Here you can see a penguin egg being candled. Keepers

Posted by: Gigi Allianic, Communications Cold rain showers or accumulated snow in the suburban highlands didn’t deter 40 volunteers from trekking to Carkeek Park on Saturday for a training session on identifying eggs laid by local amphibian species. Volunteers inspect possible egg masses underwater at Carkeek Park. Photo by Stan Milkowski. Outfitted in knee-high boots or hip waders, the volunteers carefully treaded in Carkeek’s ponds under the guidance of biologists and naturalists from Woodland Park Zoo, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Seattle Parks and Recreation. The industrious scene was a practice session for a new amphibian program that teams ““ citizen scientists ” with Woodland Park Zoo, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, and Northwest Trek Wildlife Park to survey amphibian egg masses in ponds and wetlands in western Washington. Hand-held GPS units, digital cameras, field identification guides and, for som

Posted by: Jennifer Larsen, Tourism Marketing Did you ever visit a place when you were a child and think to yourself, “I want to work here when I’m big!” I think for many of us growing up in the Seattle area, that place was Woodland Park Zoo. In March of last year, that kid-sized dream became a reality when I became the zoo’s new Tourism Marketing Coordinator. What does that mean? It means that I am tasked with getting more Seattle visitors to come to the zoo. Bottom line, it’s up to me to let everyone who is visiting Seattle know how great Woodland Park Zoo is, and that it is a must see on their list of things to do here. Kids have been connecting with wildlife at Woodland Park Zoo for generations. (Archive photo of Monkey Island courtesy of the Knudson family. Penguin photo by Jennifer Svane.) A lot of what I talk about with visitors associations, hotel concierges, convention services and group operators comes from observing our exhibits, talking with keepers and ot

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications PNG YUS coffee is now available at Woodland Park Zoo ZooStores and Caffe Vita locations. Seattle is about to taste the first ever coffee made available in the U.S. from a remote part of Papua New Guinea—the Yopno Uruwa Som region of the Huon Peninsula—home to the endangered Matschie’s tree kangaroo, the little known animal that inspired this whole effort. So how did we get from ‘roo to brew?  Tree kangaroo joey Yawan in his mother's pouch, behind the scenes at Woodland Park Zoo. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. To protect an endangered species like the tree kangaroo, you need to protect its habitat. Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Woodland Park Zoo’s Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program helped make that possible in 2009 when we worked with Papua New Guinea villagers in the remote Huon Peninsula to protect 180,000 acres of their land in the nation’s first Conservation