Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Joanna Klass, Woodland Park Zoo Animal Care Manager Editor's Note: In addition to being an Animal Care Manager at Woodland Park Zoo, Joanna serves as Vice Chair for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Anseriformes Taxon Advisory Group. She also volunteers with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which heads up the research project she writes about here. Emperor geese at Woodland Park Zoo. Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo If anyone saw me walking through the airport last June, they would’ve thought ‘TSA is going to love her!’. The item in question was a portable incubator, which on the outside looks like a hard, black briefcase with wires and a temperature readout on the front. In other words, not your typical roller-bag luggage. So, why was I taking this unusual item through the TSA gauntlet? It had a very important place to be—the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in southwestern Alaska. I was invited by Tasha DiMarzio, a waterfowl biologist for the Alaska D...

Posted by Elizabeth Bacher, Communications with Joanna Klass, Lead Animal Keeper Red-breasted goose at Woodland Park Zoo. Photo: Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo You may already know that Woodland Park Zoo’s animal keepers are extraordinary! They’re passionate about what they do, they tend to the needs of all the different species in our care, and they have individual relationships with their animals based on a foundation of trust. But did you know that many of them are also deeply involved in conservation efforts for some of those animals’ wild cousins? Such is the case for Lead Animal Keeper, Joanna Klass. Joanna has worked with a lot of the zoo’s waterfowl species (different types of ducks, geese and swans) and she has a particular interest in red-breasted geese—one of the most threatened goose species in the world. Red-breasted geese are a smaller species (relative to other geese) with very distinct red, black and white blocks of color. Lead animal keeper Joanna Klass, seen here with...