Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Craig Newberry, Communications Ahhhh ... a fresh and delicious cup of conservation coffee! Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo You can sip a world of good with this conservation coffee! Beginning tomorrow, September 6, a limited offering of Tree Kangaroo Conservation Coffee is available for purchase at Woodland Park Zoo and Caffe Vita! The delicious brew is a collaboration between Woodland Park Zoo’s Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program (TKCP) and Caffe Vita. Sourced directly from farmers in Papua New Guinea (PNG), these 100% Arabica varietal beans, roasted by Caffe Vita, are grown under the shade of tree canopy in village gardens across 400,000 acres of protected forest in the YUS Conservation Area, named for the Yopno, Uruwa and Som rivers that flow through it. This special coffee from PNG helps protect endangered Matschie's tree kangaroos and the forests they live in. Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo “This coffee is fully traceable; we know the f...

Posted by Craig Newberry, Communications Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Construction ramps up on new Forest Trailhead exhibit! Hello Forest Trailhead! It's build time. Woodland Park Zoo is home to many birds and cranes, but guests will now notice a very different type of crane at the zoo as construction on the new Forest Trailhead exhibit ramps up.  Zoo guests can see a 125-foot-tall, blue crane rising above the treetops. The crane is a crucial part of the construction work on the zoo’s new immersive, best-in-class Forest Trailhead exhibit that will be home to Matschie’s tree kangaroos, red pandas, keas and forest reptiles. The crane weighs a whopping 350,000 pounds and can lift up to 44,000 pounds or about twice the weight of a school bus! The crane's arrival is a sign that construction on the new Forest Trailhead exhibit is ramping up and guests can expect to see it in action into late winter 2025 when it will be dismantled, pending any delays. The new exhi...

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Woodland Park Zoo is home to five Matschie’s tree kangaroos, currently living behind the scenes while their new state-of-the-art exhibit is being built. Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Imagine a world without digital technology. It would be nearly impossible to track a mysterious animal that has exceptional climbing and jumping skills…an animal that lives high in the dense canopy of the tropical cloud forest… a forest that flourishes in the remote, rugged mountains of the Huon Peninsula in Papua New Guinea. If not for the ever-evolving digital assets of today, little would be known about this stealthy animal, the Matschie’s tree kangaroo, found only in Papua New Guinea. March 3, is World Wildlife Day, a day the United Nations designated a decade ago to celebrate Earth’s precious wild animals and plants. The theme for 2024 is Connecting People and Planet: Exploring Digital Innovation in Wildlife Conservation. Adorable Matschie’s tre...

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Rhinoceros ratsnake by Cezary Borysiuk  via Flickr. New species of snakes, lizards, amphibians and other reptiles will make Woodland Park Zoo their new home in fall 2024. The zoo’s Adaptations Building is currently closed until a major refresh is made to bring in and share these new animals with zoo guests. The Adaptations Building will be transformed into a new Indo-Pacific Islands forest and will showcase endangered and threatened species that range from the forest floors to the verdant treetops of Southeast Asia and Oceania. In addition, the new gallery of exhibits will offer a more complete story about the biodiversity in Southeast Asia’s and Oceania’s tropical conservation hotspots. The exhibit will feature a diversity of species including Asian box turtle and rhinoceros ratsnake. The new reptile and amphibian exhibit will take visitors through the diverse habitats of Southeast Asia and...

Posted by Craig Newberry, Communications Hello Finni! Photo by Craig Newberry/Woodland Park Zoo Woodland Park Zoo is excited to announce the names of our newest endangered Matschie’s tree kangaroo joeys! The female joey is named Finni, and the male will be known as Soya—both were named by good friends of the zoo, Patti Savoy, and Linda and Harmut Peters.    Soya, photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo The name Finni was inspired by the Finisterre Mountain range in the YUS Conservation Area in Papua New Guinea. Soya was named to honor a ranger who passed away this year and worked with the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program. Female tree kangaroos Elanna, 15, and Omari, 14, gave birth to the joeys in August 2022—the zoo’s male tree kangaroo Rocket, 9, fathered both. Finni, photo by Craig Newberry/Woodland Park Zoo The personalities of the joeys are beginning to shine through, and both are very unique! Soya, born to Omari, is cautious but curious. He likes to hang out c...

Posted by Elizabeth Bacher, Communications Photo: Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo Keas are native to the forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand, making them the world’s only Alpine parrots. Keas are known for their intelligence, curiosity, mischief and loud, squealing vocalizations! As a matter of fact, their name is believed to come from the Māori people, mimicking the sounds of the birds’ vocalizations—and if you’ve heard it before you’ll recognize that almost ear-splitting “KEEEEE-AAAAHHHH” call! Keas are very hardy birds, well adapted to a cold alpine climate. They are mostly olive-green in color with bright orange feathers on the undersides of their wings and they have a long, narrow, curved, gray beak—great for manipulating things, digging through bark and plucking insects out of crevasses. Woodland Park Zoo is currently home to four of these feisty birds: males Squint, Mahoihoi and Jean Luc and female Teptep. Keas are mostly olive-green with bright orange ...

Posted by Craig Newberry, Communications Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, Woodland Park Zoo Get excited! This Sunday, May 21, is World Tree Kangaroo Day and Woodland Park Zoo is celebrating by announcing two new endangered Matschie’s tree kangaroo joeys at the zoo.  Female tree kangaroos Elanna, 15, and Omari, 14, gave birth to the unnamed pair of joeys—the zoo’s male tree kangaroo Rocket, 9, fathered both. These joeys were actually born in August 2022 but have recently become large enough to be visible in their mother’s pouches. The arrival of these marvelous marsupials is particularly exciting because the zoo broke ground earlier this month on their future home. The new immersive, best-in-class exhibit will be home to Matschie’s tree kangaroos, red pandas, keas and forest reptiles. The exhibit, scheduled to open in 2026, will mark the first time visitors at Woodland Park Zoo will have an opportunity to see the tree kangaroos in a decade! Please note, tree kangaroos live in a be...

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, Communications Both Papua New Guinea’s Matschie’s tree kangaroos and Nepal’s red pandas need healthy forests! An elusive kangaroo living in trees. A reddish-brown floof chilling atop the forest canopy. What do animals such as Papua New Guinea’s Matschie’s tree kangaroos and Nepal’s red pandas have in common? Both these red furry animals are the faces of forests where conservation has become a community movement. Why? Because we need forests and now, with the health of the world’s forests at risk, forests need us. Only when forests thrive can nature reach its full potential as a climate solution. Picture the stories of these animals and more in the new Forests for All exhibit experience coming to Woodland Park Zoo in 2026. Following a competitive process, the zoo has selected the Seattle-based LMN Architects as principal architects with CLR Design (Philadelphia and Capistrano Beach, Calif.) as habitat designers fo...