Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Guest Post by: Ken Kieffer, Volunteer, Make-A-Wish® Alaska and Washington Editor’s note: Woodland Park Zoo is happy and proud to partner with the Make-A-Wish Alaska and Washington to share in the power of a wish®. We are grateful to bring smiles and happiness to kids and families all around the country and share the wonders of wildlife, like in this story of Josiah’s visit to the zoo... Make-A-Wish Alaska and Washington encourages wish children to dream big, be creative and craft the perfect wish for themselves. Josiah, who is 18 and the oldest of four siblings, was enthusiastic when we paid our first visit to his home. Filling the room with his smile, he told us emphatically that he wanted to go on a photo safari in Africa. Josiah preparing for his African photo safari. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. His letter to Make-A-Wish staff and trustees says it best: “ I have dreamed of going to Africa ever since I was 6 years old. I am very excited to go to Africa and

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor Like these? Blooming plants at Woodland Park Zoo. Photos by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo and Mat Hayward/Woodland Park Zoo. Then we need these: Photos from top, clockwise: Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo; Flickr user jeffreyww under Creative Commons License ; Flickr user leshoward under Creative Commons License .  At Woodland Park Zoo, we’re abuzz, aflutter and atwitter about the big news coming from the White House: the announcement of a new federal strategy for protecting pollinators . With a focus on honeybees and other essential pollinators like native butterflies, birds and bats, the strategy establishes a task force and goals for population restoration, habitat protection and public education to stem the losses from this blooming crisis. The White House makes a case for the economic importance of pollinators, which “ contribute substantially to the economy of the United States and are vital to keeping fruit, nuts, and veg

Posted by: Kerston Swartz, Public Affairs Woodland Park Zoo, the Phinney Neighborhood Association (PNA) and Seattle City Light are partnering on Community Solar on Phinney Ridge , a new community solar project going live summer 2014. The project will produce approximately 75 kilowatts of energy from solar panels installed on building roofs at the zoo and PNA, making it the largest community solar project in Washington state. The Rain Forest Food Pavilion will soon be decked out with solar panels. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Enrollment has just begun for City Light customers to participate in Community Solar on Phinney Ridge . You can purchase energy from the solar-modules, and then receive annual credits for the amount of energy generated by your units. Customer investment will end in July 2020 when ownership of the solar panels is transferred to the zoo and PNA. A rendering of the zoo's commissary with a solar panel installation.  As part of the Commu

Posted by: Laura Lockard, Public Affairs After many weeks of deliberation and receiving public comments and testimony, Seattle City Council voted unanimously to place a Seattle Park District on the August 5th ballot. Your calls, emails and testimonies made this happen—and for this we offer a deep bow of thanks. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. What a park district means for Seattle In August, Seattleites will have the opportunity to vote YES to fund critical maintenance projects for Seattle’s parks and the zoo, including structural seismic and building upgrades to our exhibits, and infrastructure improvements that will move us closer to our sustainability goals. If voters approve this measure, the major backlog of maintenance, upkeep and operations of the 6,000 acres of city parklands, including the zoo, would no longer be neglected due to budget cuts and competition with the city’s other important services. A Seattle Park District would create a dedicated funding sou

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Another season of BECU ZooTunes presented by Carter Subaru summer concerts is heating up with this year’s blazing lineup: June 18 — Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood June 22 — Mavis Staples / Marc Cohn July 2 — Gregg Allman July 6 — Carolina Chocolate Drops / The Del McCoury Band July 30 — Josh Ritter & the Royal City Band with special guests Lake Street Dive July 31 — Lucinda Williams August 6 — Taj Mahal Trio / John Hiatt & The Combo August 10 — Robert Cray Band / Shemekia Copeland August 17 — Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue / Galactic August 20 & 21 — Pink Martini featuring China Forbes and Storm Large August 24 — Ziggy Marley Join us on the North Meadow for great music all summer long. When you see concerts, you save animals by supporting Woodland Park Zoo’s mission! Tickets go on sale to the general public on Fri., April 25 at 8:00 a.m. Current zoo members enjoy a special presale on Wed., Apr. 2

Posted by: Dr. Deborah B. Jensen, President and CEO WPZ President Jensen. Photo by Matt Hagen. Because of your support and the generosity of nearly 16,000 individuals, I’m thrilled to share the news that we exceeded our $80 million More Wonder More Wild campaign goal by raising more than $83.5 million! If this isn't enough to celebrate, in 2013 we also set an all-time record for zoo visitor attendance! During the eight-year campaign, our community experienced the deepest recession since the Great Depression. But world events continued to illustrate the urgent need to save our planet’s wildlife and habitats, to create a future in which animals and people can co-exist and thrive together. So, with passion and commitment, we continued to tell our story. Our animals continued to provide the wonder and joy that we all experience when we visit the zoo. And you continued to show your generous support! This member-submitted photo iconically conveys the wonder and wild donor

Posted by: Bettina Woodford, Communications Video produced by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Peregrinations A delicate spring dew has settled on the shrub steppe of the Columbia Basin. Raptors, migrating through the Pacific flyway from distant wintering grounds, have alighted here, driven by eons of instinct to breeding areas where a potential buffet of small mammals, such as ground squirrels and pocket gophers, awaits. Heeding the juveniles’ endless squawks, for several weeks dutiful parents will bring meat, day after day, for gaping beaks to tear into. The raptors’ main business here is to raise healthy young and ready them to fledge, egging the species on one season at a time.  Fewer prey scurry about this landscape today, however. As ranches, farms, towns and paved roads have grown in number, more than 50% of previously undeveloped shrub-steppe habitat, a raptor haven, has disappeared. This hybrid environment makes survival harder for the large, long-lived bir

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Here mountains grasp at the clouds, waterways flow across the distance, forests burst from the earth, and shrub-steppe stretches beyond the horizon. The Pacific Northwest has a global reputation for its scenic beauty and relative wildness. We connect with nature all around us. Those connections run deep, as our everyday choices have an impact: the way we store our garbage could mean life or death for bears, and the way we tend to our gardens can help or harm native pollinators. Grizzlies at Woodland Park Zoo. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo; modified.  On March 19, join us for our annual Thrive breakfast , co-chaired by Maryanne Tagney and Margie Wetherald at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel, to learn how your Woodland Park Zoo is working with communities, researchers and conservationists through the Living Northwest conservation program to study, prese

Posted by: Laura Lockard, Director of Public Affairs and Communications Friends, we need your help! We have an opportunity to clean up Puget Sound by making a major difference here at the zoo—using green technology to keep hippo waste from overflowing into local waterways. It’ll take the support of the state legislature to get us there, so we’re asking you to raise your voice and let Capital Budget Chairs, Rep. Hans Dunshee and Sen. Jim Honeyford and their committees know you support this effort! Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Here is what’s at stake: Woodland Park Zoo is asking the state legislature to help with our commitment to sustainability and resource management in the Puget Sound area by requesting state capital funding for our priority sustainability project: reducing water waste from the zoo's hippo pool in the African Savanna exhibit. With an approximately $2 million state investment, completion of the hippo pool project would accomplish the following:

Posted by: Gigi Allianic, Communications Take your pic with the #Tallest12 Some of the shortest 12s pose with the #Tallest12. Photo: Caileigh Robertson/Woodland Park Zoo. Wear your Seahawks gear and come pose with the #Tallest12. Photo: Caileigh Robertson/Woodland Park Zoo. For Seahawks Twelfies, take selfies next to a cutout sign of Misawa, the zoo’s 6-month-old, 9-foot-tall giraffe, who is Seattle’s #Tallest 12 decked out in Seahawks colors. Take your pic with the cutout at the zoo's West Entrance and share it with us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using #Tallest12 to show the wild side of your Blue Pride. (Zoo admission is not required to take your photo, but remember—wearing your Seahawks gear gets you  $3 off zoo admission  through Sunday.) Legion of Boom The Legion of Boom. Photo: Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. In honor of the Seahawks’ secondary, Woodland Park Zoo has named our four Asian small-clawed otter boys after the Legion of Boom. The pups, S