Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo This turtle-y awesome class of 2020 gets a head start on life! Washington state’s population of endangered western pond turtles will be bolstered when Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and Woodland Park Zoo release close to 29 turtles next month to the wild at local protected sites. The turtles are a part of the collaborative Western Pond Turtle Recovery Project , a head start program initiated in 1991. It is Washington state’s longest-running species reintroduction project. Juvenile western pond turtles at Woodland Park Zoo are prepared to be released to the wild in August.  Each spring, WDFW biologists go in the field to attach transmitters to adult female western pond turtles and monitor them every few hours during the nesting season to locate nesting sites; the nests are protected from predators with wire exclosure cages. A portion of the eggs are...

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Silverspot butterfly. Photo by Mike Patterson Woodland Park Zoo is part of a team that released 500 Oregon silverspot butterfly caterpillars last week on the slopes of Saddle Mountain located in Oregon.   A team from Woodland Park Zoo, Oregon Zoo, Oregon Parks and Recreation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service work together to save butterflies. Photo by Trevor Taylor More than 200 of the released caterpillars were raised this summer at the zoo’s butterfly conservation lab. The reintroduction to the habitat is part of a collaborative, ongoing effort to stabilize the declining population of Oregon silverspot butterflies. Caterpillars were raised in a conservation lab over the winter. Photo by Mike Patterson Other team members joining the caterpillar release were Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Oregon Zoo.   It's a team effort! Photo by Michael Cash/Woodlan...