Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Gigi Allianic, Communications Our youngest African lion ambassador, Adia, turned 2 last week and showed just how frisky and fearless young cats are. The female South African lion dug into her birthday cake specially prepared by zookeeper Matt Mills: a gourmet round of ground turkey stuffed with a whole raw chicken and topped with a pair of drumstick candles. Since Adia scarfed up every morsel and bone, the cake obviously earned a five-drumstick rating. Next, Adia opened her gift box and out rolled a boomer ball, a favorite toy of the 240-pound lion. As kids and families squealed with wonder, Adia put on quite a show “dribbling” the ball throughout the exhibit. She had so much fun that at one moment the ball rolled into the moat filled with water and she dove straight into the water after it! Keep in mind that lions don’t swim and are averse to water. Adia was submerged to her shoulders before realizing she was in the water. She jumped out and, if she had a th

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Keema and Denali stop to sniff each other after rolling around in coffee grounds. Keema and Denali may not have known the world was watching, but they still put on quite the show Wednesday when we broadcast a special bear enrichment session through our newly relaunched Bear Cam . The 17-year-old grizzly bear brothers received beehive and hornet’s nest-shaped piñatas Wednesday. While it took staff almost a week to put the piñatas together, it took the bears just minutes to destroy them! Inside the beehive piñatas, the bears found some of their favorite fruit treats including honeydew, apples, grapes and pears. The hornet’s nest contained a pocket of honey that the bears lapped up. Coffee grounds : bears :: catnip : cats Scattered around the space were coffee grounds from Caffé Vita . Why coffee grounds? Since the bears have a strong sense of smell, such a pungent treat is extremely attractive and stimulating to them. The b

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Need a little more excitement in your afternoon? How about 1,350 pounds more excitement? Broadcasting live with Ustream Woodland Park Zoo's popular Bear Cam is back online and streaming live via Ustream . The cam, which has been gone for more than a year, is back by popular demand and bringing you incredible views into the zoo's grizzly bear exhibit in the award-winning Northern Trail. To celebrate the return of the cam, we're giving the bears a special enrichment treat this week: piñatas filled with coffee grounds (generously donated by our friends at Caffé Vita). Tune in on Wednesday, August 3 at 11:15 a.m. (PST) to watch the bears enjoy their stimulating enrichment treat. On a typical day, Woodland Park Zoo’s 17-year-old grizzly bear brothers Keema and Denali can be seen foraging for food, fishing for live trout, and exploring the stimulating sights and smells in the zoo’s award-winning Northern Trail e

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Even the animals will have a blast over the Fourth of July weekend with our annual Red, White & Zoo enrichment event, presented by Zookeeper and Columbia Pictures. Before you get your grill going, celebrate with us this Friday and Saturday, July 1 and 2, from 10:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. and see meerkats , grizzlies , orangutans , hippos and many more animals enjoying a Fourth of July picnic featuring a menu of star-shaped popsicles, watermelons and even corn on the cob! The Fourth of July-themed treats are part of the excellent animal care program at Woodland Park Zoo and the zookeepers’ ongoing efforts to help enrich the lives of the zoo’s animals, promote natural animal behavior, keep animals mentally stimulated and engage zoo visitors. Here’s the full schedule of activities for the two days: Willawong Station - 10am-2:30pm Sow bugs (Bug World) - morning/afternoon Anoas - 10am Hippos - 10:30 a.m. Tigers - 11 a.m. Golden li

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications A splash of fruit juice, a handful of smelt, and lotsa love are surefire ingredients to a river otter’s heart. Our annual Valentine’s Day enrichment event is coming up on Saturday, and we gave press a sneak peek of the action today when we let our river otters indulge in some fish-filled, heart-shaped ice pops. River otters Sunny, a 15-year-old female, and Duncan, a 13-year-old male, swam with amazing speed and agility to chase after the pops that were dropped into their pool in the award-winning Northern Trail exhibit . After munching their way through the ice pops, we gave the otters another enrichment opportunity—a heart-shaped wreath stuffed with frozen smelt. The wreath proved the perfect size for the otters to swim through as they picked off the frozen fish. Love will be in the air for the zoo’s other animal ambassadors as they celebrate Valentine’s Day with heart-shaped ice pops, herbal bouquets, heart-shaped steaks, and more on Satu

Posted by: Nicole Aragon, Education As the Child and Family Program Coordinator here at Woodland Park Zoo, I must admit that I do spend a fair amount of time at my desk. But every now and then, I get to take part in some amazing opportunities that could happen nowhere else. One of these amazing experiences was in a class for families that I taught recently, which will be offered again this spring, called Animal Enrichment . Enrichment is an important aspect of animal health here at Woodland Park Zoo. We provide enrichment that encourages animals’ natural behaviors like foraging, browsing, hunting, seeking out new scents and marking territories. The animals in our care are important ambassadors for their wild counterparts and we work very hard to ensure they lead healthy, enriched lives. During the class, we toured zoo grounds and I talked about many of the different enrichment items we offer to our animals—everything from Chanel No. 5 to paper bags. Tropical Rain Forest keepers even g

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Getting ready for Thanksgiving? Enjoy this clip of our Komodo dragons gulping down a turkey treat. The footage was featured nationwide on NBC's Today Show. Watch the video below or visit the Today website to view. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy The turkey treat was given to the Komodo dragons and other zoo carnivores at our annual Turkey Toss enrichment event, held last Saturday. Turkey Toss is part of the zoo’s ongoing enrichment program to help enrich the lives of the zoo’s animals, promote natural animal behavior, keep animals mentally and physically stimulated and engage zoo visitors. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Though the winter storm watch advisory caused the zoo to close early today for visitor and staff safety, the animals did quite well in the snow. They have indoor access and heated areas, but some chose to go out and explore in the snow anyway. It can be quite enriching for them! Here are some photos we took of the animals in the snow today, some a natural fit for the white-capped scenery, others a departure from the usual snowy scene: If the snow continues to impact zoo operations, we'll post updates to our website at www.zoo.org . Be safe out there, everyone! Photos by Ryan Hawk and Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo.

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications In anticipation of Pumpkin Bash , we gave meerkats and grizzlies a preview of the tasty snacks awaiting them this weekend. First up, the meerkats filled their bellies with pumpkin when we set out two jack o’ lanterns in their exhibit. They are always quick to investigate anything new, so they scrambled immediately to check out the large pumpkins. Some climbed right through the holes to get to the tasty inside, while others clawed and gnawed at the outer portion. After the meerkats stuffed themselves, the grizzlies got their turn. The pumpkins were tossed into the exhibit making an impressive splash. Our two grizzly bears, 16-year-old brothers Keema and Denali each grabbed a pumpkin and took them to their own spot. It didn’t take long for them to smash open their pumpkins and enjoy the innards, the evidence all over their faces. You can see elephants, gorillas, hippos and more enjoying pumpkin treats at this weekend’s Pumpkin Bash on Saturda

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications To get a powerful, independent-minded African lion to cooperate with its own daily care and veterinary check ups, keepers use ongoing training with positive reinforcement to make the animal a comfortable participant. In this video, lead keeper Anne Nichols takes 12-year-old African lion Kalisa through some standard training exercises behind-the-scenes at the zoo. Video produced by Ryan Hawk, voiced by Anne Nichols/Woodland Park Zoo.

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Lions sleep. A lot. But when not sleeping, their instinct is to stalk and hunt prey . To nurture those instincts and add some excitement to our lion exhibit—both for the lions and for visitors—our keepers recently experimented with the addition of an enrichment lure line. The lure line is basically a pully system stretching across the exhibit that allows the keepers to whiz a piece of meat or other tempting treat through the air, enticing the lions’ instincts and springing them into hunting action. We did the first test of the lure line last week and had surprising results. Keepers expected Kalisa, our female lion, to show the most interest, but it was in fact Hubert, our male, who had the biggest reaction. As the line whizzed past the pair, Kalisa cautiously observed, following its movement with her head. Hubert was the first to approach. Swinging with his paws, he got the chicken into the grip of his claws and mouth and ripped it off the li

Posted by: Martin Ramirez, Curator Lions, tigers and jaguars eating less red meat at the zoo? Who would have thought?! But if you think about it, carnivores in the wild will catch and eat the occasional fish or fowl to supplement their diet, so why not in a zoo? All of the zoo's carnivores receive a commercially prepared diet that meets their nutritional needs. These diets consist of red meat and are fed most of the week. However, there are some benefits to eating whole chickens or turkeys once a week. The bones in uncooked fowl help keep their teeth clean and the animals welcome the variety. Chickens can be offered to the animals in interesting ways. They can be hidden in the exhibit or hung from a spot where the animal has to reach for it. By reducing the red meat our carnivores eat we're not only improving their overall health, we’re also helping the environment. Researchers have determined that 2.5 times more oil is used in the production of red meat than with chicken. For

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications The endangered snow leopard is elusive and hard to study in the wild. So researchers with the Snow Leopard Trust , a Woodland Park Zoo conservation partner , are testing with us a new method of luring these felines to research sites—Calvin Klein Obsession for Men. Today, we tested the appeal of the cologne on our 1-year-old cubs Gobi and Batu, and their mom Helen. We installed a camera in the snow leopard exhibit and sprayed the cologne around the area of the camera in hopes of capturing stop-action images and measuring the reaction of the cats to the lavender, spice and woody elements of the cologne. The results? Well, we wouldn’t quite call it an obsession, but the cats are definitely interested in Obsession. The cologne proved to be a strong attractant…eventually. It just took the cats several minutes before they caught the scent and became interested in it, rubbing up to the areas where the scent was splashed. The novelty of the camera in

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications You cast the votes, we tallied (for hours and hours!), and it’s decided. Today we revealed the names you selected for our new mob of four female and four male meerkats—though the meerkats were far more interested in the watermelon enrichment they received as part of our Red, White & Zoo celebration! The winning names, in order of most votes received: ZIMBA (Zambian town) NATA (southern African river) MOLOPO (southern African river) KIWANO (Kalahari fruit) KALAHARI (African desert) DINAWA (“beans” in Tswana) ACACIA (African tree) NGAMI (lake in Botswana) We received more than 2,600 ballots through our naming contest presented by U.S. Bank and The Seattle Times that ran from June 1-June 15. You had the chance to select up to eight of your favorite names from 16 choices that reflected the meerkats’ native southern African habitat. We counted more than 16,600 individual votes in total for the different names! Big thanks to you all for voting

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Our not-so-tiny-anymore snow leopard cubs Gobi (now 65 lb) and Batu (now 56 lb) turned 1 year old this week! We celebrated their birthday with two incredible paper-mâché “cakes” for the cubs made by one of our very talented staff members (Thanks, Regina!). Keepers put the cakes out into the exhibit space while the cats were behind the scenes. But once the snow leopards came out, it took just seconds for them to spot and sniff the fun, new enrichment in their exhibit and pounce! The crowd of school kids and visitors encouraged them with chants, “Get it! Get it!” And they all thrilled to see mom Helen and the cubs stomp, bite, shred, and roll those cakes down the hill—leaving quite a mess behind! But what’s a birthday party without a little mess? We’ll continue celebrating Gobi, Batu and the majestic species they represent with our annual Snow Leopard Day event coming up on August 14. The cubs were born last year as part of the Species Surviva