Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Lavaniadevi Gopalakrishnan, Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (MYCAT), a grantee of Woodland Park Zoo's Wildlife Survival Fund Editor’s Note: Adapted from an article originally published in MYCAT Tracks: The Malaysian Tiger’s Struggle for Existence, Vol  5 2014. Woodland Park Zoo and MYCAT collaborate to enhance tiger and rain forest conservation in Peninsular Malaysia. In June 2016,  14 Association of Zoos & Aquariums tiger keepers, including WPZ’s Christine Anne, will travel to Malaysia to participate in a special CAT Walk designed for zoo professionals. CAT Walk volunteers supplement official anti-poaching patrols. Photo: Fred Koontz/Woodland Park Zoo.  Footsteps echo in the forest. A group of people hike in a single line along a logging road, their eyes scrutinising the trail for something. They are seen almost every weekend here, in a relatively unknown part of the Malaysian forest, occasionally even spending the night in the forest. Who are t

Posted by: Fred Koontz, Ph.D., Vice President of Field Conservation Here’s your chance to tell the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) how much you care about our local animals and habitats. Jim Unsworth, WDFW Director, has announced an exciting new multi-year initiative, Washington’s Wild Future: A Partnership for Fish and Wildlife . The idea is to seek public comments and ideas to strengthen the department’s relationships with communities, increase support for conservation and outdoor recreation, and help ensure the department meets the public’s needs. Woodland Park Zoo has partnered with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for nearly 25 years, including on the recovery of the endangered western pond turtle. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Four regional public forums have been scheduled for October.  Each meeting will begin with a presentation about the importance of fish and wildlife to Washington’s quality of life and the economies of its local

Posted by: Daniel Solomon Okena, Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program , a Woodland Park Zoo Partner for Wildlife YUS Rangers conducting monthly patrol of the densely forested YUS Conservation Area. Photo: TKCP-WPZ. Steep mountainous terrains, thick dense forest, and narrow walking tracks shifting due to landslides and floods. The environment I live in is extremely harsh and unforgiving, and may seem uninhabitable. But our people have been living here for many generations. TKCP Research and Monitoring Coordinator Daniel Okena conducting survey of plant species in tree kangaroo ecological research site in YUS Conservation Area. Photo: Lisa Dabek/TKCP-WPZ Here, we build a hut, plant a garden and hunt for our food. We collect our water, firewood, building materials and food from the surrounding land. We teach our children how to do the same. A great thing about living in this environment – everything is free! We pay no rent or water bills, we do not have to buy our land, and ou

Posted by: Keith Thompson, Colobus Conservation Ltd., a Woodland Park Zoo Wildlife Survival Fund project For field conservationists dedicated to protecting colobus monkeys , file this one under “Other Duties as Needed.” Photo courtesy of Colobus Conservation, Ltd. Colobus Conservation was called about a sea bird that had washed up on the beach of a nearby hotel. On arrival, I was handed a large cardboard box by the manager and told in no uncertain terms to be careful. Upon opening the box I realized why I was getting the warning as I was face-to-face with the razor sharp bill of what we later determined was a masked booby, which is a pelagic diving bird similar to a gannet. After assessing the bird back at our vet clinic, we observed that there was nothing broken but the bird was severely underweight, exhausted and dehydrated. After a few days of assisted feeding, the bird regained a little of its strength and started to eat on its own. We outfitted one of our rehab enclosu

Posted by: Laura McComesky, Zookeeper Today is World Orangutan Day and in honor of our fab five, we know you'll love seeing how we celebrated orangutan awareness—and how you can take a role in helping save endangered Sumatran and Bornean orangutans—during our Asian Wildlife Conservation Day earlier this month. Tropical fruit generously provided to the orangutans by Uwajimaya. Photo by Laura McComesky/Woodland Park Zoo. KIND Snacks was our official sponsor for the day and we thank and applaud them for their commitment to sourcing and using only certified sustainable palm oil. Family-owned Asian grocery Uwajimaya generously contributed a cornucopia of exotic tropical fruits for our orangutans. Melati delights in the durian and other tropical fruits. Photos by Carolyn Sellar/Woodland Park Zoo. Not everyone finds the treats as tempting as the orangutans. Photo by Laura McComesky/Woodland Park Zoo. During our keeper talk, our orangutans enjoyed durian, jackfruit,

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. The future weighs 2 ounces. We’re at the edge of the pond, and there are leaves scattered in the water that are bigger than the turtle in my hands. Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. But now that it’s large enough to avoid the mouths of predators such as invasive bullfrogs, this turtle has a big role to play. After hatching and getting a head start at life behind the scenes at Woodland Park Zoo, turtle #5 and 24 others are off to their next great adventure: rebuilding the wild population of native western pond turtles in Washington state. Photo by John Loughlin/Woodland Park Zoo. Western pond turtles were once common from Baja California to Puget Sound, including the Columbia River Gorge. However, loss of habitat, commercial exploitation for food, disease and introduced predators, such as bullfrogs and large-mouth bass, decimated their numbers. Photo by Jer

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications Conservationists and rangers are real heroes working to protect tigers and their habitat. In May, we asked young MyZoo magazine readers to create their own thank you posters and we’d send them straight to our colleagues in the tropical forests of Malaysia. Drum roll please… Suhyeon Choi, age 8, won the Grand prize (ages 7-10) which includes a zoo Overnight Adventure on August 15, 2015. Congratulations Suhyeon! This is what Suhyeon had to say about tigers, "I love tigers because they are cute yet fierce and I love animals all the same". We couldn’t agree more. Suhyeon’s creativity and her rainbow palette really stood out to the judges. Ella Gruner, age 6, won the Grand prize (ages 3-6) which includes a tiger ZooParent adoption and plush! When asked why she loves tigers, Ella said, “I love tigers because they live in one of my favorite places, the jungle.” We really loved her delicate tiger drawing as well

Posted by: Dr. Fred Koontz and Bobbi Miller, Conservation Team Tigers have always been around, right? Who didn’t grow up seeing Tony the Tiger hawking breakfast cereal, watching Tigger bounce (“Bouncing is what Tiggers do best”) across the pages of  Winnie the Pooh , or hearing the story of How the Tiger Got His Stripes? The fictional tigers that brought us a happy childhood are still around, and will be for generations to come, but can the same be said for the real deal—tigers in the wild? Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Today we focus on those real-life wild tigers, and what can be done to ensure that they too remain for generations to come. Global Tiger Day was set aside to promote the protection of wild tigers and their habitat, and to further awareness and support for their conservation. If there was ever an animal that needed our protection, it’s the majestic tiger. Photo courtesy of  Reuben Clements Just over 100 years ago there were as many a