Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Did you have an experience as a teen that had a lasting impact on your life? Something that changed your worldview or influenced your career? Now you can create life-changing experiences for middle school and high school students! That’s one example of what you can accomplish by making a gift to Woodland Park Zoo through GiveBIG Day on May 15 ! Each donation made through GiveBIG Day will be stretched based on the amount of money raised, thanks to The Seattle Foundation's stretch pool of funds.   Hosted by the Seattle Foundation, GiveBIG Day is King County’s biggest day of online giving. It’s your chance to join people from all around the region to help change the world and change lives. You can make your gift today through this link . The zoo’s ZooCrew and ZooCorps programs are two programs that your gift would help support. They introduce middle school and high school students to brand new career paths, take them out of their comfort zone and teach them real-world skil

Posted by: Dr. Deborah B. Jensen, President & CEO Dr. Deborah B. Jensen. Photo by Matt Hagen. One of the perks of my job is the daily reminder of the many pathways to science and discovery at the zoo. Each of our 300 animal species, and thousands of plant species, has a unique biology and story reflecting the way it, like millions of other creatures, has found to survive on Earth. Likewise, I’m reminded of how zoo visitors’ journeys of discovery can lead to personal insights or new knowledge, or even open pathways to careers or timely innovations. Every day, I get to watch thousands of young people, teachers and families begin this wondrous trek. As a leader and as a scientist, I am privileged to engage our community in building pathways to a sustainable future. In many ways, today’s youth are ahead of the rest of us in recognizing the challenges our world faces, and they are looking for ways to begin designing lasting solutions. Of the 15 global challenges identified

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications Everyone has heard of an army of ants or a flock of birds, but how about a pounce of cats? A business of ferrets, a bloat of hippopotamuses, and my favorite, a float of crocodiles! A company of budgies hangs out at Willawong Station. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. It seems as if there are as many bizarre collective nouns as there are animals to describe. An ambush of tigers, a tower of giraffes, a gam of whales, a charm of magpies! So, why do we have so many unique collective names for animals? I mean, do we really need to say “There was a gaze of raccoons on my porch this morning”? And is there anything scientific about these terms? A mob of meerkats! Photo by Ryan Hawk/ Woodland Park Zoo. Giving groups of animals a special name has been a tradition since the late Middle Ages. (Might explain dray of squirrels). A lot of the blame for these bizarre words was given to prioress Dame Juliana Berners, a nun and writer, w

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: Rob Goehrke, Education When you were 13, what did you want to be when you grew up? Did a career in science, technology, engineering or math (also known as STEM) appeal to you? How about a career that helped animals? With ZooCrew , we work with middle school students through after-school programs to introduce them to the varied STEM and conservation careers that are possible. They work with zoo advisors who represent different jobs across the zoo—from animal care to science writing—to get first-hand experience in how fun and rewarding these jobs can be. By working with professionals, our students can create meaningful, high-quality projects. Here are a few careers they explored and the projects they created last semester: Events ZooCrew students learned that events are crucial in raising funds and awareness for our conservation mission. Those who chose this career had the option of working with zoo Events Manager Toni Radonich to generate ideas to expand WildLights

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

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Want to see what the tree kangaroo joey is up to? Now you can watch joey and mom through a limited-engagement web cam , streaming live from the family’s behind-the-scenes maternity den! Screenshot taken from the live web cam (you can stare at it, but it won’t move in this pic!). Watch the tree kangaroos live at www.zoo.org/animalcam Born the size of a lima bean in June 2012, this tree kangaroo baby is just starting to emerge from its mother’s pouch. Through the video monitor, you can see the joey and its mom, Elanna, in a behind-the-scenes maternity enclosure. The cam is streaming live from one of their rooms, but the family has access to an adjacent room, so there may be times when they are not visible on camera. When's the best time to watch? Tree kangaroos are crepuscular, which means they are most active in the morning and at dusk.  Tree kangaroo joey emerging from pouch. Photo by Ryan Hawk/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: Rob Goehrke, Education Partners One of my favorite things about working at Woodland Park Zoo is bringing amazing partnerships into the classroom. This season, our ZooCrew middle school program partnered with the Snow Leopard Trust (SLT)--a Woodland Park Zoo Partner for Wildlife conservation partner --in some exciting ways. Curriculum While deciding which animal to focus on this season, we came across a new curriculum guide that SLT put together in partnership with Facing the Future. With our snow leopard cubs just born months earlier, it seemed like a great fit. Curriculum from http://www.facingthefuture.org/ During our first lesson, the ZooCrew students learned that snow leopards are a top predator and a keystone species—they have a much larger impact on their ecosystem than some other species, which makes their protection even more important. During the next few weeks, the students learned about different types of people involved in protecting snow le

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications We’re counting down the zoo stories that made us smile, made us care, and made us take action this year. From fuzzy new faces at the zoo, to scaly new additions to the wild, all of these stories have been made possible because of your support. Thanks for an amazing 2012, and here’s to going wild in 2013! 12. Snowpocalypse Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Remember Snowpocalypse 2012 ? The year got off to a snowy start, and—despite having to close the zoo for safety—we caught a number of zoo animals having fun romping around in the snow. 11. Turtles take a wild journey Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. When we released 90 native western pond turtles to a South Puget Sound protected habitat, it was the story of turtle "2"  that brought home the big hope riding on these tiny turtles. Hope for an endangered species, hope for a recovering habitat, and hope for people finding a way to live sustainab