Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Janel Kempf, Early Childhood Photo by ardito ryan Harrisna on Unsplash When you’ve been in one place for a while, like we all have been as we stay home and stay healthy, it’s fun to start looking closely at things you may never have noticed. And now that you’ve found some new treasures in your neighborhood, why not make a nature map? Animals all over the world need to know where things are. Sometimes they need to know where to go to get a basic need met, like food, water, or shelter. Other times, they need to know where another animal’s territory begins, so they know where not to go! Different animals have different ways of marking the places and things they need to remember. And, yes, some of those ways involve pee and poop—but not all of them! Ring-tailed lemurs at Woodland Park Zoo. Photo: Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo Ring-tailed lemur males, like the zoo’s five boys, have a spur on each wrist next to a scent gland. To mark the edges of a ...

We're Going on a Bear Hike...! Did you know May 24th is National Scavenger Hunt Day? This long weekend, join us for a short virtual scavenger hunt with our Going on a Bear Hike singalong video! Look for the animals who sing, stretch, sneak, hop and swim along as we take you on a hike through the zoo in search of grizzly bear brothers Keema and Denali! Watch: Going on a bear hike:  https://youtu.be/NuK-w2DLUgM As you watch, practice stretching, sneaking and swimming with your young learners! You might even pause the video to ask them to show you their biggest hop and quietest sneak! Now that you've enjoyed a virtual bear trek at the zoo, it's time to get outdoors for your own neighborhood scavenger hunt! Zoomazium to You: Scavenger Hunt Weekend! Posted by Janel Kempf, Early Childhood It doesn’t matter where you look, there’s always something worth seeing. It’s easy to think of wildlife and habitats as living far away—a pride of lions on the African savanna, ...

Posted by Janel Kempf, Early Childhood When the month of May rolls around in the Pacific Northwest, the earth feels completely alive. Flowers are in full bloom, Douglas-fir trees are decked out in new light green branch tips, and some of those invasive weeds like Himalayan blackberry are growing like... well, weeds. As they do. We work hard on our gardens to get just what we want growing there, but there are lots of plants that grow just fine without our help. That doesn’t mean they don’t need any help from anyone, though. Plants all around the world rely on animals to help them thrive, whether by creating fertile soil, pollinating flowers, or even planting seeds. Planting seeds? Absolutely! Herbivores (plant-eaters) and omnivores (everything-eaters) eat a dizzying array of plants and plant parts. And some of those plant parts are there specifically to be eaten! Just as flowers are a plant’s way of attracting pollinators, fruits are a plant’s way of attracting seed dispersers—anima...

Posted by Janel Kempf, Early Childhood First, don’t worry—this does not involve butting heads with your kids. But it does give us all an excuse to think about some high-spirited zoo residents who arrived here as kids. Literally kids, in their case—mountain goats Zeus and Hera! You might remember these two arriving at the zoo in 2018 and 2019 as young kids who couldn’t be matched up with mothers during efforts to relocate the species from the Olympic Mountains to the North Cascades. Mountain goats are native to the Cascades, but were introduced to the Olympics in the 1920s to provide hunting opportunities. Zeus, Hera, and the 275 goats successfully relocated to the North Cascades over the past two and a half years are descendants of those goats. Mountain goats do a lot of scrambling, leaping, and bouncing—behaviors you might have also noticed in your early learners! Full-body, active play is vitally important for growing bodies. Equally so for growing minds, since a st...

Posted by Janel Kempf, Early Childhood Among the things our early learners are missing (for now) is close contact with their extended families. There’s nothing like a storybook read by Granddad or an outing with their coolest Auntie to make a youngster’s day special!  Our gorillas are a great example of the importance of extended family in the lives of little ones. New mom Uzumma is doing an incredible job with her newborn son, and that’s certainly thanks in part to the attentive care she had throughout her early life from her mother, Amanda. And when that little one gets a little older, he and his mom will have plenty of support from their extended, blended family—and will likely be providing support themselves!  Little Yola, exploring a spring day. Uzumma’s example of excellent infant care will benefit four-year-old Yola as she grows up. Her own mother, Nadiri, didn’t know what to do when Yola was first born, having been keeper-reared as a newborn due to ...

Posted by Janel Kempf, Early Childhood Music and dance are important to so many people, in cultures all around the world. We use it to express joy and sorrow, to deepen our connections to our culture and nature, and even to learn. Animals around the world and all over the zoo use music and dance in their daily lives as well—and at the zoo, some of them are hard not to notice! Siamang pair Bagus and Sam live in the Trail of Vines near the Malayan tapir and the orangutans, but can be heard well outside of zoo grounds when they really put their hearts into singing duets. Their complex song is an important pair-bonding activity for these small apes, and in their native habitat lets other siamang pairs know their territory is already taken.   Pair bonding is a common purpose in the animal world for dancing, too—just like it can be for people! Not far from Bagus and Sam, in the Assam Rhino Reserve, a beautiful bird couple may have caught your eye. They’re demoiselle cranes Louis and ...

Posted by Janel Kempf, Early Childhood Note: Now that Washington schools will be closed statewide for the rest of the year, each Zoomazium to You post will include School Connections—a note on the academic skills addressed by each activity. These may be school readiness skills for very young children, or connections to Next Generation Science Standards or other statewide standards for early learners. Out in the forests and up on the mountaintops, this is the time of year bears are waking up. Wherever it’s cold and snowy, brown and black bears (the two species native to Washington) den up for the winter, snoozing through the season. When the snow starts to melt and the tasty spring seedlings sprout, they emerge into the sunlight to feast!  Photo courtesy of Western Wildlife Outreach. At the zoo, you’ll notice our brown bear brothers, Keema and Denali, slow down a lot during the winter, but they don’t curl up in a den and sleep for months at a time. Down here in the ...

Posted by Janel Kempf, Early Childhood We’ve all been home for a while now, and some of us are starting to get a little antsy. For those of us with a houseful of early learners (and just one early learner can be a houseful!), getting a little antsy probably started around day two. Just like growing bodies need new clothes on a regular basis, growing brains need new experiences just as regularly.  We’re not the only smart species in need of lots and lots of sensory input! Ambassador Animal Lucy is a raccoon, a super-smart and curious critter. If you’ve ever had the good luck to see Lucy working with her keepers at the zoo’s Alvord Broadleaf Theater behind Zoomazium, you’ve probably seen her recycle—gathering up objects and putting them in a recycling bin. One of the most delightful things about this behavior is that she does it with her hands! A raccoon’s hands (okay, technically their front paws) are incredible tools, similar in many ways to our own hands. And they are v...