Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Caileigh Robertson, Communications Photos by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo except where otherwise noted. The truth is, Junior buckled. Leading up to the naming ceremony, the communications and animal management teams prepared with hours of work: planning the press op, selecting culturally significant names, molding papier-mâché enrichment into maracas, and warming up Junior to practice piñatas for a successful ceremony. Three name options chosen by jaguar zookeepers—Cruz, Tlaloc and Kuwan—were individually paired with tasty, enticing piñatas and hung from a low tree branch for Junior in Jaguar Cove Friday morning. The goal was for Junior to bite into one of the named piñatas and thus ultimately decide the name of his first-born son. The three colorful piñatas tempted Junior toward his big decision with the scents of raw, juicy chicken, which was stuffed inside the maracas. With the lure of his favorite treat, there was no doubt Junior would be game to complete th

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Grizzly brothers, Keema and Denali, demonstrated at Saturday’s Bear Affair: Pacific Northwest Conservation presented by Brown Bear Car Wash what bears can do to your campsite or backyard when you don’t store your garbage, food or gear properly.  See the damage they caused and learn bear safety tips to avoid these scenarios. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. If you are camping out in bear country, make sure to pitch your tents in a line or a semicircle facing your cooking area. With this set up, you will be more likely to spot a bear that wanders into your camp and the bear will have a clear escape route, according to our conservation collaborators over at  Western Wildlife Outreach . Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. When camping, remember the 100 yard rule. Locate your cook area and food cache at least 100 yards downwind from your tent when not in established campgrounds. Photo by Dennis Do

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Photo by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo. Flippers aren’t designed to hold paint brushes, so when zookeepers wanted to give our Humboldt penguins the chance to paint, we had to go kindergarten style and just get messy. We held a painting session yesterday for penguin trio Mojito, Cortez and Ramón to produce artwork that will be available for purchase tomorrow at the Puget Sound - American Association of Zoo Keepers  annual holiday auction . Painting is a new form of enrichment for our penguins,though it is something we have done with other animals around the zoo for years. Asian elephant Chai has been painting for 13 years now, and her painting will also be available at the auction. Chai paints inside the Elephant Barn. Photo by Caileigh Robertson/Woodland Park Zoo. Follow @woodlandparkzoo on Instagram. Painting works as a great enrichment opportunity for animals like orangutans, bringing out their natural t

Posted by Caileigh Robertson and Kirsten Pisto, Communications Yesterday, animals across the zoo were given enrichment in honor of Sounders fever! The zoo’s own line-up of animals gave it their all at a kicking exhibition to cheer on the Sounders heading to the MLS Cup playoffs. Here’s the rundown… In a pre-game scrimmage, our colony of penguins had a ball with their Sounders gear! Back and forth across the pool, the penguins porpoised through the water and dribbled with their beaks. Along the Northern Trail, Denali and Keema defended their Sounders soccer balls in good old-fashioned bear-to-bear defense. There were no passes to be made.  Keema and Denali held the defensive and both earned yellow cards for carrying the ball! At the other end of the Northern Trail, our wolves chased the Sounders ball between the trees and down the slope of their exhibit. Now if we can just get them to pass the ball or do anything other than bite into

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications A lemur guards its pumpkin while snacking. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren.  At the annual Pumpkin Bash presented by Delta Dental/Washington Dental Service , there is pumpkin bashing, and also pumpkin smashing. There's pumpkin chomping and definitely some pumpkin stomping. This pumpkin came pre-pecked for the penguins. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. The fun continues this weekend with our final two days of the event, Sat. - Sun., Oct. 27 & 28 . See how each animal tears into its Halloween treats and get some treats of your own with trick-or-treating for the little ones. Plus, one child 12 years and under in costume is admitted FREE with a paid adult during Pumpkin Bash. A wolf delicately opens its jack-o-lantern. What happens next isn't so delicate. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. The pumpkins are part of the zoo’s excellent animal care program to help enrich the lives of the zoo’s animal

Posted by: Rob Goehrke, Education One of the goals of our ZooCrew education program for middle schoolers is to  connect youth to professionals  in the field in order to complement their classroom learning and pique their interest in various STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) careers. This summer, tablets generously donated by Washington STEM* helped us do just that. ZooCrew youth collaborate with zookeepers, giving them a positive exposure to careers in science. Photo by Jess Thomas . In August, ZooCrew partnered with a summer camp based in West Seattle, a good 30 minutes from Woodland Park Zoo. We were working on a project that connected the kids back to our animals on zoo grounds—developing enrichment devices to keep the animals stimulated and kickstart their natural instincts. A project like that needs lots of feedback from the zookeepers to make it work, but it would have been a big investment to ask zookeepers to drive out, stay for the program, and dri

Posted by: Pattie Beaven, Elephant Keeper Chai playfully balances a boat bumper on her head. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Our elephants have a number of toys, or, in zoo-speak, Environmental Enrichment Devices (EED) that are designed to bring out their instinctual behaviors, along with all the naturally enriching elements in their exhibit like trees, logs, leaf piles, water and different ground coverings. The elephants have quite an array of EEDs, and one of their favorites is a boomer ball, which we often fill with treats. But constantly purchasing more boomer balls (since the elephants can be a bit destructive with them) can be a little costly. So, what’s a zookeeper to do? We think outside the box, er, ball. With a background working with marine mammals, I thought back to my days of playing with dolphins. We would throw boat bumpers and buoys in with the 800-pound critters, and play endless games with them. So, how would an 8,000-pound animal react to one?