Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Gigi Allianic, Communications They may not be as well-known by the 180 million people who visit Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)-accredited zoos and aquariums each year, but desert pupfish , freshwater mussels , and Polynesian tree snails play important roles in their respective ecosystems. If not for the hard work of AZA-accredited institutions and their conservation partners, some of these and many other animals would already have vanished from the planet. With a growing number of human-influenced threats threatening animals around the world, including poaching, deforestation, and an expanding population that already exceeds 7 billion people, we are facing what some scientists call the “Sixth Extinction.” The 228 accredited members of AZA continue to build upon their history and expertise of saving endangered species such as breeding programs that coordinate across many institutions to ensure healthy genetic and demographic diversity and partnerships with loc...

Posted by: Gigi Allianic with Rebecca Whitham, Communications We’re committed to putting an extinct snail species back on the map in its native Tahiti. But first, we’re putting it on the zoo map. What was once a behind-the-scenes conservation breeding program is now front and center for zoo visitors with the new snail lab on view near the zoo’s Bug World. VIDEO: Extinct species making a comeback in Seattle. Produced by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Around 100 different species of Partula once existed on islands stretching across the South Pacific from Palau to French Polynesia, but due to the introduction of an invasive and carnivorous snail, Partula were reduced to about five species in less than 10 years in the 1980s. Before they vanished completely, scientists stepped in and collected small remnant populations of snails on the islands and sent these precious few to zoos for captive breeding. However, a survey conducted in 1987 on the island of Moorea could not locate a s...

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications When we say the Partula snail is tiny, we really mean it. Photo by Emily Schumacher/WPZ. If you’ve been to Bug World lately, you may have noticed a very cool addition across the path! Our tiny Tahitian Partula snails have a teensy, new lab! Look for the conservation lab in the Temperate Forest zone of the zoo. Photo by Kirsten Pisto/WPZ. The rout of tiny endangered tree snails has moved out of Bug World and across the path to their brand new lab. The snail lab was completed this summer, and all of the residents seem quite at home in their new digs. You can see animal care and conservation at work when you visit the lab. Photo by Kirsten Pisto/WPZ. Erin Sullivan, collection manager, tells us a little more about the new lab. Why do the snails need their own space? The Partula snails living at Woodland Park Zoo’s lab are very special—they are extinct in the wild. Our zoo is one of the zoo’s participating in the captive bree...

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications With Valentine’s Day coming up, it’s a good time to meet the hermaphroditic Partula snail. Prior to copulating, Partula shoot “love darts”—tiny bits of calcium-based material—like daggers into their partner. No one knows exactly why. Some think that this is the origin of Cupid with his arrows.  Now there's a fun fact you can use to romance your Valentine. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo.

Posted by: Ric Brewer, Communications Seattle sports fans are well known for doing the wave, but did you know that snails also perform their own version? Here's a short video clip of our Partula snails doing what’s called the pedal wave: To get from place to place, snails first lay down a trail of mucus. Then they essentially surf over a trail of their slime. But that's only half of the story. Snails also have two types of muscles working in conjunction to propel them forward. A set of light and dark colored bands of muscle fibers relax and contract, in a process called a pedal wave. These muscles pull the snail forward while the other fibers push from behind. The same process works with most gastropod species, i.e., snails, a Latin term meaning "stomach-foot" that accurately sums up their anatomical structure! And that super tiny snail in the clip? That’s a baby Partula , that starts out life little more than the size of the head of a pin, and is seen here at abou...

Most people don't think of snails as being endangered, particularly if they are battling them as they eat through their Swiss chard patch. But Woodland Park Zoo is helping a species of Tahitian tree snail back into their rightful place. The Partula snail used to be represented by around 100 different species in the islands of French Polynesia. But thanks to (or no thanks, in this case) an invasive, and carnivorous, snail, Partula were reduced to about five species in less than 10 years in the 1980s, and only remnant survivors of those few remaining populations. Thankfully, scientists recognized what was happening and rescued about 17 species before they disappeared. Our zoo has been the U.S. hub at captive breeding efforts for one of these species, Partula nodosa, and currently has more than 900 of these half-inch long critters behind the scenes in Bug World. A rarity in the snail world, Partula give live birth to a single offspring every 4-6 weeks, as opposed to a typical brown ...