Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Caileigh Robertson, Communications The Indianapolis Prize —the world’s leading award for animal conservation—has announced the 2014 nominees, and we are so proud to see Woodland Park Zoo’s Dr. Lisa Dabek named among some of the very best in the field. Dr. Lisa Dabek, center, works in Papua New Guinea’s YUS region, home to the endangered Matschie’s tree kangaroo . Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Lisa Dabek is the Director of Woodland Park Zoo’s flagship conservation program, Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program (TKCP), and it’s for her international work saving endangered Matschie’s tree kangaroos and their Papua New Guinea (PNG) habitat that she has been nominated. Photo: Bruce Beehler/Conservation International Thirty-nine conservationists who have dedicated their lives to saving the Earth’s endangered species have been nominated to receive the biennial Indianapolis Prize. The winner of the Prize will receive an unrestricted $250,000 cash award and the Li

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Photos by: Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo There are no caps and gowns, but this is most certainly a graduation. Today marks the first day of the rest of their lives for 31 graduates of Woodland Park Zoo’s Living Northwest conservation project, the Western Pond Turtle Recovery Project . After hatching and being raised at the zoo for the first ten months of their lives, these endangered native turtles are ready to move on and re-enter the wetlands of Washington to help rebuild the wild population. Each turtle is weighed, measured and notched for identification. To get here, the 31 turtles first had to pass their final exams, which included a weigh-in and measuring to ensure they’re big enough to survive on their own in the wild. You must be this long to ride. Those who didn’t make the grade have been left back—but they’ll have the chance to take the test again next year after they have done a bit more growing, with a g

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: 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: Caileigh Robertson, Communications A male red-crowned crane chick joined our baby boom May 13 and brought with it hope for the endangered species and its counterparts in the wild. The fluffy, brown chick is finding his way through the wetland exhibit with a little help from his parents, who are no strangers to rearing healthy chicks.  The chick’s 21-year-old parents, Niles and Maris, were donated to Woodland Park Zoo in 1992 from Japan’s Kobi Oji Zoo with hopes of bringing more red-crowned cranes into the world. Red-crowned cranes are severely endangered in their native habitat, with an estimated 2,700 cranes remaining in the Amur Basin of Northeast Asia and only 80 cranes in institutions accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums. Since the species joined Woodland Park Zoo more than two decades ago, the zoo has celebrated 13 successful hatchings from the pair. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo The new red-crowned crane chick is on a missi

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: 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