Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Join us this Sat., August 10 for Asian Wildlife Conservation Day . Pick up your event passport and get stamped at activities throughout the day to learn all about the endangered wildlife of Asia and what you can do to help. Here are just some of the animals and conservation programs you’ll encounter. Tree kangaroo. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Tree Kangaroos Woodland Park Zoo’s Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program is empowering local people to protect an 187,000-acre forest sanctuary for this endangered species. The land also is the source of water, plants and animals that supply local people with their livelihoods and health. If we save the forests, we help them all. Take Action for Tree Kangaroos  Drink coffee, save tree kangaroos! Look for YUS PNG coffee at Woodland Park Zoo and Caffe Vita locations. Made by farmers who dedicated their land to tree kangaroo protection, the coffee represents an eco-friendly

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Photos by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. More than 1,000 animals call Woodland Park Zoo’s exhibits home, but let’s not forget about all the native and migratory wildlife that use the zoo for nesting, feeding and breeding grounds. One of those wild animals—the barn swallow—is featured on our newest web cam . A glimpse at the camera pointing at the nest in the Raptor Barn. A clutch of wild barn swallows hatched the week of June 17 in a nest tucked into the rafters of the zoo’s Raptor Barn—one of four active swallow nests in the building. The migratory birds return each spring to occupy the nests, as well as others around zoo grounds including the Family Farm, to hatch and raise their chicks before the fledglings are ready to head south in the fall. Close up of the newly hatched, hungry chicks in the nest. The web cam streams 24/7 so you can get a glimpse of this young, wild family as the chicks hit their major milestones—gr

Posted by: Terry Blumer, ZooStore This entry is part one in a three part series from ZooStore and retail manager Terry Blumer following his travels to Mongolia to help lead a conservation commerce workshop for local artisans, creating an eco-friendly income alternative to poaching in snow leopard habitat. How can you make a difference in the world of conservation? By doing what we all do every day—consume! Now you might be saying to yourself, “Did I just read that correctly? I thought that one of the problems with conservation is that consumers were buying too much stuff?” Well…it depends on what we buy. Knowing what we buy, where it comes from and how it is being made is to know a product’s supply chain and when we know that, we can make informed decisions on how we spend our money on the things we buy. Shopping for Conservation Commerce in the ZooStore. Here, a customer discovers PNG YUS coffee, grown by farmers participating in tree kangaroo conservation in Papua New Guin

Posted by: Dr. Deborah B. Jensen, President and CEO Dr. Deborah B. Jensen. Photo by Matt Hagen. We have less than 20 years to save the tiger, or say goodbye to it forever.  For millennia, the tiger has occupied a vibrant place in our collective consciousness—an icon revered in our mythology and folklore, enjoyed in our films and literature. Sadly, over the last century this magnificent animal has become one of the fastest-vanishing species on our planet. The decline owes to a lethal blend of high-class sport hunting; loss of forest habitat to logging, agriculture and growing urban areas; and a rampant increase in illegal poaching to supply tiger body parts for traditional medicine, ornamentation, and financing the black market drug trade. Numbering as many as 100,000 in the early 1900s, as few as 3,200 tigers are left on the planet. In fact, today more tigers live in captivity than in the wild. Isolation, habitat loss and poaching threaten all tiger subspecies in the w

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications The naming contest ends this Saturday, but for right now, we’re calling our new Asian small-clawed otter pair mom and dad. That’s because the pair delivered pups on Tuesday, June 11 behind the scenes of their Bamboo Forest Reserve exhibit! Mom and dad. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. In celebration of our new otter pop this Father’s Day, we’re giving away Otter Pops to zoo visitors on Sunday, June 16. Pick up a free Otter Pop while supplies last at the Rain Forest Food Pavilion. We’d love to be able to share photos of the new pups with you, but we haven’t seen much of them yet! The attentive parents are keeping them tucked away in their behind-the-scenes den. We can hear vocalizations and have an internal cam set up so keepers can keep a watchful eye on the family and hopefully get a pup count soon! While mom nurses the cubs, dad helps by gathering food and nesting material. He stands guard over the vulnerable pups, who a

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Grizzly brothers, Keema and Denali, demonstrated at Saturday’s Bear Affair: Pacific Northwest Conservation presented by Brown Bear Car Wash what bears can do to your campsite or backyard when you don’t store your garbage, food or gear properly.  See the damage they caused and learn bear safety tips to avoid these scenarios. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. If you are camping out in bear country, make sure to pitch your tents in a line or a semicircle facing your cooking area. With this set up, you will be more likely to spot a bear that wanders into your camp and the bear will have a clear escape route, according to our conservation collaborators over at  Western Wildlife Outreach . Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. When camping, remember the 100 yard rule. Locate your cook area and food cache at least 100 yards downwind from your tent when not in established campgrounds. Photo by Dennis Do

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications We are getting so excited for our ninth annual Bear Affair: Pacific Northwest Conservation day presented by Brown Bear Car Wash on June 8! At Woodland Park Zoo’s Bear Affair, 700-pound grizzly bear brothers, Keema and Denali, show us why it is important to be bear-safe in the Pacific Northwest. Whether you are hiking and camping in the mountains or simply spending the summer in your own backyard, being bear-safe can help protect you and your family as well as keep our Northwest wildlife safe. Woodland Park Zoo teamed up with local singer Star Anna to create a song about our favorite bear-safety tips. Rock out to the song this summer and remember the rules! Don’t leave those treats out: dog food, bird seed ( in the winter), barbecue scraps, camping dishes and snacks, anything that smells tasty such as toothpaste, deodorant, sunscreen and hairspray can be an attractant for bears. Clean it up! They sniff for garbage: A bear-

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications This season brings eight new additions to our endangered Humboldt penguin colony. The chicks will make their debut later this summer once they get a little bigger and become proficient swimmers. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. One of the youngest chicks, seen here at 10 days old, hatched on April 27 to 13-year-old father Pizarron and 3-year-old mother Maria, who herself was born at the zoo in 2010. That brings the total number of penguins hatched at the zoo since our award-winning exhibit opened in 2009 to 32! As Humboldt penguins are endangered, these hatchings--part of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums Species Survival Plan (SSP) conservation breeding program--add up to lots to celebrate. SSPs maximize genetic diversity, with the goal of ensuring the long-term survival of populations and the health of individual animals. These new generations of penguins help us continue to  tell the story of what is happen

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications One day old tawny frogmouth chick. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. The tawny frogmouths didn’t want to be left out of the zoo’s baby boom , so they hatched their first chick of the season last week. Adult frogmouths sport mottled, grayish feathers that let them camouflage themselves like a dead tree branch, but they start life as a little, white puffball, covered in downy feathers. What do you think the tawny frogmouth chick looks most like? At one day old, the chick weighed in at 16.5 g (0.58 ounces). Its parents are doing a good job caring for it in their nest. The chick is weighed daily to make sure its growing as expected, and we’ll offer some supplemental snacks (little bits of mice) if it needs help putting on weight. One day old. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. The chick’s parents have another fertile egg in their nest, so we may have a second hatching on our hands soon. The family lives behin

Posted by: Matt Mills, Zookeeper Were you aware that without serious action it is estimated that rhinos will disappear from the wild by 2030? Organized crime syndicates have spread into wildlife crime; bringing technological advancements, networks of smugglers, and high powered weaponry with them. Rhino horn is more valuable than gold in certain markert, and because of this an average of two rhinos are lost every day. White rhino at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Kenya. Photo by Matt Mills. Why is rhino horn so valuable? In parts of the world people have been lead to believe that rhino horn is a cure for everything from the common cold to cancer. Science has disproved this belief. In fact, rhino horn is made of tightly compacted hair. Does that sound like a cure-all to you?  It's not too late to stop the disappearance of these magnificent creatures from our planet. There are an estimated 30,000 rhinos still left in the wild, many of which live in conservancies ded

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Otter kisses. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. In just a few days, you’ll have the chance to meet the zoo’s new pair of Asian small-clawed otters when they make their debut in the Bamboo Forest Reserve exhibit opening May 4 . These are two tiny mustelids you won’t be able to resist. Kids test out the new play area in Bamboo Forest Reserve. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. The otters will debut alongside a tropical aviary and nature play area for kids—all part of phase one of the Bamboo Forest Reserve exhibit complex. Atop a rocky ledge, looking out over the exhibit. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. To get ready for their debut, the otters have been exploring their new home, investigating every ledge, stream and den to find all the best spots for lounging, swimming, eating and playing. Here you can catch a glimpse of the agile fingers small-clawed otters use for hunting. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodlan