Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications The results of our Name the Cubs contest are in! More than 2,000 of you entered the contest for a chance to name one male and one female lion cub—and the winning names are: Male cub – Rudo (“love” in Zulu, pronounced ROO-doh ) Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo Female cub – Busela (“happy and independent” in Zulu, pronounced BOO-sayla ) Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo Two lucky winners— Tate and Ross MacDonald of Seattle and Pamela Garland of Olympia —are taking home the grand prizes for submitting these winning names, as selected by our panel of zoo judges. That grand prize includes a private viewing at the lion exhibit with a keeper! Rudo and Busela join their brother and sister, who also received names recently, this time with the help of zookeepers and donors who have helped bring big cats to Woodland Park Zoo. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. The other male is now known as Pelo (“heart” in Sot

Posted by: Gigi Allianic, Communications Thanks to the speedy efforts and smart diagnostics of hospitals in Canada and the U.S. and a poison control center, the life of a man bitten by a venomous viper was saved by antivenin supplied by Woodland Park Zoo. The life of Michael Lovatt of Roberts Creek, B.C. was saved thanks to the rescue of hospitals and Woodland Park Zoo. Photo courtesy of Vancouver Coastal Health. The 61-year-old Roberts Creek, B.C. man was bitten while vacationing in Costa Rica but didn’t know at the time it was a viper. On Monday when he returned to Vancouver, he immediately sought medical attention at Vancouver General Hospital where he was diagnosed with kidney failure, and suffering from bleeding and swelling from his foot to the mid-thigh.  Dr. Roy Purssell with the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) was brought in. Working around the clock, the medical team figured out the type of snake based on the patient’s symptoms, a Fer-de-lance Bothrops asper

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications Hey northwest green-thumbs, spring is just around the corner, which means it’s time for Woodland Park Zoo’s Spring Fecal Fest ! This beneficial pile of Zoo Doo will work wonders for a garden! Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Dr. Doo, also known as the “Prince of Poo,” the “GM of BM” or the “Grand Poopah,” has been collecting our highly coveted Zoo Doo or Bedspread all winter and now is your chance to enter a bid to purchase the gardener’s delight! Zoo Doo is the most exotic and highly prized compost in the Pacific Northwest. Composed of species' feces contributed by the zoo’s non-primate herbivores such as elephants, hippos, giraffes and more, Zoo Doo is perfect for growing veggies and annuals. Bedspread, the zoo’s premium composted mulch, is a combination of Zoo Doo, sawdust and large amounts of wood chips. Bedspread is used to cushion perennial beds and woody landscapes including rose beds, shrubs and pathways.

Posted by: Julie Webster, Zoo volunteer and Backyard Habitat class participant Editor’s note: Woodland Park Zoo is once again offering its popular Backyard Habitat classes to help you bring more wildlife to your yard. Former class participant and zoo volunteer, Julie Webster, shares how the lessons she learned have transformed her urban garden. When I first signed up for Woodland Park Zoo’s Backyard Habitat workshop, I was already mindful of the four basic needs I had to meet to support local wildlife in my yard: food, water, shelter and a place to raise young. But it was in the workshop that I really came to understand the importance of cover and plant layering—the essentials to diversifying a habitat—and how these principles could be applied even in a small, urban garden. Maple in my yard before I learned about layering through the Backyard Habitat classes. Photo courtesy of Julie Webster. Layering isn't specifically listed in the four basic needs, but go to the fores

Posted by: Jenny Mears, Education Interested in pursuing your degree through the Advanced Inquiry Program?  The application deadline is February 28! Woodland Park Zoo has teamed up with Project Dragonfly from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio to offer the Advanced Inquiry Program (AIP), an exciting Master’s program for a broad range of environmental and education professionals, including classroom teachers, zoo and aquarium professionals, and informal educators. The AIP offers a ground-breaking graduate degree focused on inquiry-driven learning as a powerful agent for social change, public engagement, and ecological stewardship. Woodland Park Zoo (WPZ) is one of seven institutions across the country that offers the AIP Master’s. The first AIP cohort at WPZ started in 2011 and students have already reported positive changes in their personal and professional lives. We asked Julia Ward, a Whittier Elementary fifth grade teacher and member of that cohort, to illustrate the impact

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications We’re on the lookout for the wetlands version of a needle in a haystack: small beads, clumped together in tiny masses, hanging to the sides of sticks and logs, submerged under dark, muddy water. But the dozen wader-wearing volunteers in Carkeek Park on a Saturday morning are up for the task.  A trained volunteer wades into the wetlands at Carkeek Park. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. These are citizen scientists and they have studied and practiced for this—the search for amphibian egg masses in our own parks and backyards. Amphibians once occupied pristine wetlands across the Pacific Northwest. But now their marshy homes often flow into or crash up against urban and developing areas. Amphibians are closer than we often realize, and our actions impact them deeply. The endangered Oregon spotted frog is one of eight species the citizen scientists are monitoring. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. With their perm

Guest post by Dave and Jacqui Kramer Editor’s note : Dave and Jacqui Kramer are Seattle writers who celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary with a vow renewal in front of some tuxedoed guests at Woodland Park Zoo —Humboldt penguins! In honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re sharing the love birds’ story, written in their own words. Twenty years ago, our wedding was a small affair conducted at the side of a small lake. We paid a little extra for the Justice of the Peace to come out of his office, where he joined a few of our friends, family members, and a pair of swans who appeared unprompted to attend our short ceremony. We were both underpaid, small-town newspaper reporters, so there was no reception and our honeymoon was one night away and then back to work on Monday. The happy couple on the night of their vow renewal at Woodland Park Zoo. Photo courtesy of Dave and Jacqui Kramer. For our 20th anniversary, Dave proposed renewing our vows and having a large recep

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Go paperless this Valentine’s Day. Send a free Woodland Park Zoo valentine e-card to show your sweetie you care about them…and the planet! Just head to www.zoo.org/valentine to pick your favorite design, customize your message, and send your free e-card today. (Images modified. Original peacock photo by Mat Hayward/Woodland Park Zoo, original meerkat photo by Dale Unruh/Woodland Park Zoo.)

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications/Public Affairs Photo provided by Somali Community Services Coalition We believe that every kid (and kid at heart) should have access to their local zoo. In 2012, Woodland Park Zoo’s Community Access Program (CAP) partnered with 700 local human service organizations who offered their clients more than 40,000 complimentary passes to Woodland Park Zoo.   Photo from Academy for Precision Learning with middle school students on a field trip at Woodland Park Zoo this past summer. Thanks to support from zoo visitors and zoo members, we are able to reach out to folks in our community who would not otherwise be able to visit. The partner organizations determine how passes are distributed, serving homeless shelters, food banks, senior centers and homes, refugee communities, minority programs, disabled and mental health facilities, low-income youth centers, education programs and more. We are extremely proud of this program and wa

Posted by: Steve Sullivan, Membership and New Ventures Asian small-clawed otters are coming to Woodland Park Zoo. Photo taken at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. On May 4, phase one of the Asian Tropical Forest initiative—Woodland Park Zoo’s most extreme makeover in the heart of the zoo since 1996—will be unveiled to the community. We’re so grateful to all of you who have made this major milestone in the More Wonder More Wild Campaign possible! Monica Lake, capital project manager and Erik McCormick, of Turnstone Construction express our zoo’s deepest gratitude for your support! (Turnstone is a rock work subcontractor of this project’s general contractor, Berschauer Philips.) Photo by Steve Sullivan/Woodland Park Zoo. Otterly awesome We broke ground on the new exhibit complex in September 2012, and hundreds of you joined us. Since then, construction crews, exhibit designer Studio Hanson/Roberts and the zoo’s exhibit team have made

Posted by: Lorna Chin, External Relations, with contributions from Dr. Darin Collins, Woodland Park Zoo Animal Health I have been involved with both Woodland Park Zoo and Make-A-Wish Alaska and Washington since 1998. It’s a joy to share the zoo with Make-A-Wish kids who are awaiting their wish experiences. A recent experience with a young girl named Nicole brought together the things I love most about both organizations. Nicole and her mother first came to visit in March. Her Make-A-Wish volunteers Audrey and Stephanie said she had a special request to see the elephants. Nicole was about to have major surgery for her bone cancer and this was going to be a fun day before she’d be laid up for several months. Nicole, Chai and zookeepers, March 2012. Photo courtesy of Audrey Seale. A typical experience involves the keepers sharing their vast knowledge of the animals, talking about their daily routines, and answering questions. Sometimes these visits are pretty quick, lasting