Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Daphne Matter, ZooCorps Intern Photos by Daphne Matter, Woodland Park Zoo. Woodland Park Zoo staff pledged to reduce or refuse single-use plastics during Plastic Free July! With support from Seattle Public Utilities, we then invited you to join us by taking the Plastic Free for Me pledge . Here is a recap of what we learned, what we found difficult to give up and a few surprising plastic confessions. Participants will receive a #PlasticFreeForMe water bottle sticker. Thank you to all those who participated in our Plastic Free for Me campaign! 236 of you joined us in our collective effort to lessen our impact on the environment during the month of July. By reducing your consumption of single-use plastics and taking this pledge, you have done your part to save wildlife from the great threat that plastic pollution poses. Why is it so important to keep plastic waste out of our oceans? Plastic presents a grave issue in our world today, especially for marine lif...

Posted by Daphne Matter, ZooCorps Intern Woodland Park Zoo staff are pledging to reduce or refuse single-use plastics during Plastic Free July! With support from Seattle Public Utilities, we are inviting you to join us by taking the Plastic Free for Me pledge.  Already ditched plastic bottles, straws and plastic bags? Think you are already single-use plastic free as can be? We bet there are ways you can do even more this month. We challenge you to confess to your single-use plastic habit and pledge to do one more thing during July: www.zoo.org/plasticfreeforme Every action, no matter how small, adds up to a huge impact when we all do our part. We think it's amazing how you are making a difference for wildlife! Photo of river otter by John Loughlin/Woodland Park Zoo. We all have a less-than-awesome history when it comes to single-use plastics. Confess one way you have used plastics unsustainably or a single-use plastic habit that's especially hard for ...

Every single day, we work to protect wild animals and wild places.  This week, and on Endangered Species Day, May 18, we can celebrate many conservation success stories, but there is more work to do. Taj wading into Assam Rhino Reserve. Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. Thanks to the Endangered Species Act and the hard work of conservationists and activists, the bald eagle, green sea turtle, American alligator, peregrine falcon, and many other species were kept from disappearing forever. Your zoo has given Western pond turtles a head start and helped protect thousands of acres of pristine cloud forests. We would do anything for animals, and with your support, we can. Getting ready to release a pond turtle into a protected Washington wetland. Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. Working with conservationists and researchers, Woodland Park Zoo focuses on a conservation strategy that includes: habitat and species conservation,...

Posted by Zosia Brown, Resource Conservation and Sustainability As plastic waste in our environment becomes an increasingly important global topic, Woodland Park Zoo is celebrating a milestone in our own resource conservation journey with the announcement that we are no longer selling beverages in single-use plastic bottles. Refill, please! Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/ Woodland Park Zoo. Woodland Park Zoo is committed to protecting and preserving wildlife and habitat for generations to come. It is our role to inspire our zoo guests and communities across our region to meaningfully reduce their own impact on the planet. Our Sustainable Zoo Plan guides our own operations following a Natural Step model that aims to: take no more from the earth that it can sustainably provide; provide no more to the earth more than it can sustainably absorb; and eliminate "waste" of all kinds from our operations, instead viewing waste as a resource. The zoo as a green oas...