Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Photos: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo Cisco was a much-loved member of our zoo family. A legendary raptor at Woodland Park Zoo, a 36-year-old Harris’s hawk named Cisco, has passed away. Harris’s hawks can live up to 20 to 25 years in human care and 10 to 12 years in the wild. Due to Cisco’s advanced age, the raptor keepers had been closely monitoring the hawk over the last couple of years through daily observations of his health and quality of life. As an exceptionally elderly hawk, Cisco was under treatment for age-related issues, like most geriatric animals and humans. “Because of arthritis, cataracts, declining body condition, and loss of vision in the right eye due to retinal degeneration, Cisco was no longer able to take part in free flights at the zoo; however, he was still being exercised and socialized regularly,” said Dr. Misty Garcia, associate veterinarian at Woodland Park Zoo. Cisco had been on a prescribed program of jo...

Posted by Jim Watson, Wildlife Research Scientist, Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Jim Watson is a friend of the zoo and works with our Living Northwest Conservation Program's Raptor Ecology of the Shrub-Steppe Project. Jim has partnered with us for years and we are excited to share his most recent adventures in raptor research: When Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Woodland Park zoo started our cooperative raptor studies in the shrub-steppe of the Pacific Northwest 20 years ago we probably didn’t envision we were embarking on such a long-term journey. This productive relationship has delved into important projects including migration studies of ferruginous hawks and golden eagles, and how human activities like construction of wind turbines and lead contamination in prey are affecting these iconic raptors. We took advantage of a recent opportunity to look in a little different direction for our cooperative studies within the shrub-steppe raptor commu...