Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Kirsten Pisto, Communications On World Turtle Day 2020, we are more committed than ever to protecting vulnerable turtle, tortoise and terrapin species at home and around the world. #TurtlePower A western pond turtle about to be released into protected Washington wetlands. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. For western pond turtles, recovery is possible thanks to a collaborative effort between Pacific Northwest stakeholders determined to give these local gems a head start. Knocked out by predators, loss of habitat and invasive species, the western pond turtle population hit a devastating low of 150 turtles in Washington by 1990. But now, this native species is poised for a comeback. For more than two decades, Woodland Park Zoo has partnered with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Zoo and others to give these turtles a fighting chance. Today, successful reintroduction has brought that population up to more than 1,200. Without the collaborative ...

Posted by Elizabeth Bacher, Communications Photos by Ryan Hawk, Woodland Park Zoo A Western pond turtle that has grown up at Woodland Park Zoo is ready to return to the wetlands of Washington state. Woodland Park Zoo is proud to be part of the W estern Pond Turtle Recovery Project . Western pond turtles were once plentiful up and down the coast of Washington to northern California and down to Baja, Mexico. However, loss of habitat, commercial exploitation for food, disease, drought, and introduced predators, such as bullfrogs and large-mouth bass, have decimated populations of the species. More than 1,000 released pond turtles are thriving at protected sites in our state. By the early 1990s, only about 150 Western pond turtles remained in two populations in Washington state and the species was nearly extirpated from our region. In 1991, Woodland Park Zoo joined forces with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to recover Western pond turtles by initiat...