Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Photos by Stan Milkowski/Woodland Park Zoo Junior the jaguar encountered a 40-year-old icon in his exhibit: the samoa cookie! As Girl Scouts of Western Washington celebrate the 40th birthday of the popular cookie, Junior received a giant samoa-inspired piñata stuffed with fish and topped with real coconut. We admit: it’s not exactly the same recipe the Girl Scouts use! Next up the Asian small-clawed otter family proved their ability to turn anything into a game when they got their hands—and teeth, and feet, and tails—onto, into and all over an empty box of the iconic cookies. Girl Scouts of Western Washington has been a great supporter of the zoo throughout the years—they have volunteered hours of service, contributed cookie fund donations, and joined us for many of our own zoo celebrations. They came to party, and the Girl Scouts who attended were decked out in cookie-inspired party gear! You can follow the party all week long by looking for #SamoaSightings  on Fa

Posted by: Robert Long, Senior Conservation Fellow Washington’s North Cascades Ecosystem, an area of 9,800 square miles comprising large swaths of public land and wilderness, is one of only two regions in the contiguous United States—the other being the Northern Rockies—capable of supporting all of the larger carnivore species native to the United States. Most of these species, including black bears, cougars, and now gray wolves and wolverines, already occur in or are recolonizing their former habitats. Now, the American public will get the opportunity to support the recovery of grizzly bears—an iconic symbol of wildness—in the North Cascades. Photo courtesy of Western Wildlife Outreach. Grizzly bear populations once stretched from the tundra of northern Canada down through the Pacific Northwest and into California and even Mexico. Because of excessive hunting and trapping during the 1800s and early 1900s, however, grizzlies are now gone from the southern Pacific states, and

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor and Gigi Allianic, Communications We are 12. Photo by John Loughlin/Woodland Park Zoo. The Mini Legion of Boom—Asian small-clawed otters Sherman, Thomas, Chancellor and Maxwell, huddled to raise the 12 Flag in their exhibit today. Video: Otters raise the 12 Flag for Seahawks Super Bowl Rally. Produced by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Sherman took the lead and set the flag waving for Seattle Seahawks fans as we rally for Super Bowl XLIX. Photo by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo. Then the otters got down to business for a little scrimmage, showing off their vertical and secondary defense. Photo by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo. Bring on the boom! Photo by John Loughlin/Woodland Park Zoo. The Mini Legion of Boom, four otter brothers born at the zoo in 2013, were named after the Legion of Boom as a tribute to the Seahawks explosive secondary. The otter brothers live with their parents and four younger siblings. Ph

Posted by Caileigh Robertson, Communications Aruba Island rattlesnake. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Behind the scenes of Woodland Park Zoo’s Day Exhibit—home to timid tree ‘roos, slow-moving tortoises and venomous snakes—is a refrigerator full of antivenom, life-saving treatments for less fortunate encounters with poisonous reptiles and amphibians. While snake bites are (thankfully!) a rarity among Woodland Park Zoo keepers, doctors at the Washington Poison Center have witnessed their fair share of poisonous bites. Dr. Jenny Pramuk tours Washington Poison Center and Harborview staff around the zoo's snake collection. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Recently, Woodland Park Zoo’s curator, Jenny Pramuk, welcomed Washington Poison Center and Harborview staff on a tour through the Day Exhibit, to see up-close the zoo’s most venomous animals and behind-the-scenes antivenom supply. The zoo partners with Harborview Medical Center on performing venomous snake b

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor Today Reps. Pettigrew (D), Buys (R) and Fitzgibbon (D) introduced bipartisan House Bill 1131 to put an end to illegal elephant ivory and rhinoceros horn trade in Washington state. In addition to federal law, state laws are needed to close loopholes that allow the black market to go unchecked. Which one is more precious? You got us this far! More than 7,000 Woodland Park Zoo and Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium supporters joined together to raise our voices on this issue. Legislators are now listening. Let’s be heard! TAKE ACTION It’s time to use your voice once again! Leave a public comment on the Washington State Legislature website in SUPPORT of HB 1131.  You can use the following talking points in your comment: As your constituent, I am writing in support of Woodland Park Zoo’s and Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium’s 96 Elephants campaign and ask you to support WA State HB 1131 to end the sale of illegal elephant ivory and rhin

Posted by: Stacey Hammond, Education The ZooCrew middle school outreach program is back in action this fall at Asa Mercer International Middle School, Washington Middle School, Seattle World School, and McClure Middle School. This quarter, ZooCrew participants learned about issues facing the animals of the African savanna. The participants designed their own projects to take action on these issues, raising awareness and advocating for the animals. Check out some of the projects from this quarter! Waterhole Restoration Project: bringing awareness to issues around waterholes in the African savanna and highlighting a resource for people to learn more about the issues and projects happening. Video created by Ava, Isobel, Tracey, Malia . Michael from Seattle World School chose to write about the Waterhole Restoration Project and bring awareness to the issue of resource depletion and how it affects animals. In his blog post, he explains what people can do to get involved with h

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. Woodland Park Zoo is “Ready to Rave” for the Seattle Sounders FC facing Dallas in the final leg of the Western Conference semifinals. We recruited the grizzly bears and Asian small-clawed otters to join us in rallying for the Sounders today, and, well, they had a ball! (Get it?) Photo by Stan Milkowski/Woodland Park Zoo. Playing by their own rule book, the otters used their nimble hands to dribble the ball around the exhibit. Then the family of 10 all joined in on the fun of destroying the ball together! Photo by Stan Milkowski/Woodland Park Zoo. Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. Keepers also tossed a soccer ball to each of the grizzly bears, brothers Keema and Denali. It only takes one grizzly bite to deflate a soccer ball! Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. OK, there’s not much

Asian elephant Chai at Woodland Park Zoo. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Woodland Park Zoo loves our elephants Chai and Bamboo, and we deeply mourn the loss of their herd mate, Watoto. Her recent death sent waves of grief through our community of staff, volunteers, members and guests. She was part of our family and will forever be honored in our memories. Woodland Park Zoo’s elephant program continues to spark dialogue in our community. Productive dialogue has led to positive change, including the creation of the community-based Elephant Task Force , which concluded our elephants are in good physical and emotional health, and recommended some improvements to our program already underway. Unfortunately, this dialogue is being colored by inflammatory campaigns from local and national activist groups and the media they garner. These campaigns rely on alarming sound bites that confuse and mislead well-intentioned people and mischaracterize the zoo as profit-driven and ent

Posted by: Fred Koontz, Vice President of Field Conservation, and Jennifer Pramuk, Animal Curator An Oregon spotted frog is released into protected wetlands after being raised at Woodland Park Zoo. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Yesterday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told this little frog we've got its back. Woodland Park Zoo applauds the USFWS on its official decision to extend federal protection to the Oregon spotted frog as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. This big move will go a long way in making recovery possible throughout the Oregon spotted frog’s northwest range. An adult Oregon spotted frog. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Once common and widespread in Puget Sound area wetlands, the Oregon spotted frog now inhabits 10% or less of its former range in the Pacific Northwest. That loss means more than just devastation to our native frog population. As Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Acting Supervisor, Tom

Posted by: Kerston Swartz, Public Affairs and Advocacy This week, Seattle said YES to renew its commitment to 450 parks, 26 community centers, 185 athletic fields, 120+ playgrounds and one extremely thankful zoo. With the passing of Proposition 1, Woodland Park Zoo will be able to complete major maintenance projects critical to our functionality and guest experience. A stable and dedicated funding source established by creating a voter-approved park district means we can make badly-needed upgrades to our electrical, water and other utility systems, replace aging and inefficient structures and (maybe most importantly) make strides toward our sustainability goals. Here’s what your YES vote makes possible: Preventing energy loss The roof of the Tropical Rain Forest (TRF) building used to look like this: Look at all of that light coming through! Archive photo by Woodland Park Zoo.  Today, it looks like this: Not so much light coming through anymore. Photo by Ryan