Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications There are 96 words in this paragraph. Each one represents an African elephant killed today for its ivory. It’s a grim figure, but there’s hope. Thanks to your support, rangers are on the ground deterring poachers and protecting populations. Now the work must continue at home with you. We need state by state ivory moratoria to close the legal loopholes that conceal black market ivory in the U.S. Take the pledge to let the elected leaders of Washington state know we will not stand for being a loophole. Join the herd to make your voice heard. Take the Pledge To stop the killing of elephants, we must stop the ivory trade. To stop the trade, we must end the demand. I pledge never to buy, sell or trade ivory, and I support a moratorium on ivory products in Washington state. Why does my signature matter? The United States has one of the largest markets for ivory in the world with legal markets providing a front for illegal

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor Like these? Blooming plants at Woodland Park Zoo. Photos by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo and Mat Hayward/Woodland Park Zoo. Then we need these: Photos from top, clockwise: Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo; Flickr user jeffreyww under Creative Commons License ; Flickr user leshoward under Creative Commons License .  At Woodland Park Zoo, we’re abuzz, aflutter and atwitter about the big news coming from the White House: the announcement of a new federal strategy for protecting pollinators . With a focus on honeybees and other essential pollinators like native butterflies, birds and bats, the strategy establishes a task force and goals for population restoration, habitat protection and public education to stem the losses from this blooming crisis. The White House makes a case for the economic importance of pollinators, which “ contribute substantially to the economy of the United States and are vital to keeping fruit, nuts, and veg

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications Last year, Day Exhibit keeper Alyssa Borek took this footage  of a black breasted leaf turtle tasting a hibiscus flower. It was pretty adorable. More recently, keeper Peter Miller captured this video of a very acrobatic black-breasted leaf turtle dining on an elusive meal worm. Go get ‘em! In the wild, black-breasted leaf turtles eat various invertebrates, such as insects, worms, and grubs. They also eat decaying fruit found on the forest floor and venture into streams to collect insect larvae. At the zoo, the turtles dine primarily on insects with occasional fruits, vegetables and sometimes flowers. The black-breasted leaf turtle is one of the smallest in the world, at about five inches long. They have a unique and beautiful shell with rough edges which resemble a leaf. Black-breasted leaf turtle are in danger, and you can help! They are listed as endangered due to habitat destruction and over collection. They are also used in trad

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications On this Endangered Species Day, we celebrate nature's latest gift to us—a critically endangered Indochinese box turtle baby, newly hatched before our eyes and thriving. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Our zookeepers put long hours into incubating eggs, maintaining a warm, safe environment for those about to hatch. When they are lucky, they get to see the big payoff happen before their eyes! Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. This month, we were there to greet an Indochinese box turtle as it hatched into the world. Using its egg tooth (the pointy tip you can see best in the photo below), it broke through the shell when it was ready to hatch after 78 days of incubation. At only about an inch and a half in length, the little fella is too small for any of the exhibit spaces we have in the Day Exhibit, so for now, it’s being reared behind the scenes. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Zookeepers are especiall

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications I watch her watch her “prey.” A young family walks the length of the snow leopard exhibit, failing to notice the sly cat prowling in the shadows, just a step behind their line of sight. They are about to walk away from the exhibit when the daughter, maybe 6 years old, turns around and finally spots the snow leopard, coiled up tight like a spring. There is just enough time for her to utter “She looks sleepy,” before the feline pounces toward the fence. Safe on the other side of the barrier, the little girl lets out a wild giggle, a sound mixed with surprise, thrill and then a little embarrassment once she realizes she’s clutching her mom. A young Asha and Shanti on the chase. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. That girl just learned what zoo staff learned long ago—never underestimate Asha and Shanti. Though both snow leopard sisters are blind in one eye, they have developed into playful huntresses. We have watched them overcome

Posted by: Bettina Woodford, Communications Video produced by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Peregrinations A delicate spring dew has settled on the shrub steppe of the Columbia Basin. Raptors, migrating through the Pacific flyway from distant wintering grounds, have alighted here, driven by eons of instinct to breeding areas where a potential buffet of small mammals, such as ground squirrels and pocket gophers, awaits. Heeding the juveniles’ endless squawks, for several weeks dutiful parents will bring meat, day after day, for gaping beaks to tear into. The raptors’ main business here is to raise healthy young and ready them to fledge, egging the species on one season at a time.  Fewer prey scurry about this landscape today, however. As ranches, farms, towns and paved roads have grown in number, more than 50% of previously undeveloped shrub-steppe habitat, a raptor haven, has disappeared. This hybrid environment makes survival harder for the large, long-lived bir

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Hello down there! A tree kangaroo climbs up high in Woodland Park Zoo's Day Exhibit. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Woodland Park Zoo is home to endangered Matschie’s tree kangaroos , native to the cloud forests of Papua New Guinea. From the trees, tree kangaroos can leap 60 feet to the ground without getting hurt. Don’t try this at home! Picking coffee in Papua New Guinea. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. You can help protect tree kangaroos and their tree-top homes by looking for PNG YUS coffee, now back in stock at Caffe Vita  thanks to a partnership with Woodland Park Zoo’s Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program . The conservation coffee supports eco-friendly livelihoods for the landowners that share tree ‘roo forests.

Posted by: Gigi Allianic with Rebecca Whitham, Communications We’re committed to putting an extinct snail species back on the map in its native Tahiti. But first, we’re putting it on the zoo map. What was once a behind-the-scenes conservation breeding program is now front and center for zoo visitors with the new snail lab on view near the zoo’s Bug World. VIDEO: Extinct species making a comeback in Seattle. Produced by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Around 100 different species of Partula once existed on islands stretching across the South Pacific from Palau to French Polynesia, but due to the introduction of an invasive and carnivorous snail, Partula were reduced to about five species in less than 10 years in the 1980s. Before they vanished completely, scientists stepped in and collected small remnant populations of snails on the islands and sent these precious few to zoos for captive breeding. However, a survey conducted in 1987 on the island of Moorea could not locate a s

Plus meet Dr. Robert Long, WPZ’s first Senior Conservation Fellow Posted by: Dr. Deborah B. Jensen, President and CEO President Jensen. Photo by Matt Hagen. December 2013 marked the 40th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, a successful, complex and at times controversial federal law that has protected many of our most prized wildlife species from extinction. As we enter the New Year, the future of two native Northwest species hangs in the balance. Currently, gray wolves are being considered for delisting from the Federal Endangered and Threatened Species protections, while Oregon spotted frogs are being considered for listing . Under other circumstances, it would be hard to find a stage, outside of a Grimm brothers’ fairytale perhaps, in which both of these species shared a national spotlight. At the zoo, kids are learning all about wild wolves and other carnivores, including humans’ misconceptions of them, in our Zoo Crew and new Coexisting with Carnivores educat

Posted by: Kate Neville, Corporate and Foundation Gifts Officer Photos by Kate Neville/Woodland Park Zoo I slouch lower in the boat and pull my hat further down over my face. It’s hot. The relentless tropical sun sends rivers of sweat down my neck…and we still have several hours to go before reaching our destination. This boat ride is the last leg of a two-day journey from Lae to the village of Ronji, a remote community in Papua New Guinea’s Morobe Province. My traveling companions are Woodland Park Zoo's  Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program Director Dr. Lisa Dabek, and TKCP staff members Benjamin Sipa, Karau Kuna and Mikal Nolan. We’re traveling to the coastal village of Ronji to participate in a ceremony celebrating the community’s new bridge and field office. TKCP helped construct the bridge and office at the community’s request, thanks to support from Conservation International, the German Development Bank and Woodland Park Zoo. I glance back to the stern, where the captain