Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Kirsten Pisto, Communications Love your mother! As Mother Day approaches, we're going to help you out with a few ways to show your love. Whether you are shopping for your mom, your grandma, your sister, your bestie or yourself — we've got some gift ideas fit for any queen. ZOO MEMBERSHIP You know what all moms love? Time with you! Pick up a Woodland Park Zoo membership for your mom and she'll think of you each time she visits the zoo, plus with visitor passes, she'll be able to bring you along! It's the Mother's Day gift that lasts all year, supports conservation and connects mom with the animals she loves most (besides you of course). Purchase a membership today:  https://www.zoo.org/membership A DELICIOUS EVENING This tawny frogmouth mama knows what’s best for her chicks' palates. WildBites will win your mom over too! Treat her to an evening of delicious bites and fabulous cocktails on September 6. Get your tickets today:  ...

Posted by Kirsten Pisto with President and CEO, Alejandro Grajal PhD A tree kangaroo checks out the hikers. Photo by Alejandro Grajal/Woodland Park Zoo. Woodland Park Zoo President and CEO, Alejandro Grajal, PhD, recently returned from his trip to Papua New Guinea, where he explored the community and conservation impacts of Woodland Park Zoo's Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program (TKCP). His mission? Experience first-hand the TKCP community and landscape that coexist in remarkable ways, bring back some of their stories, and change the batteries on three radio collars attached to three tree kangaroos that live nearly three stories about the forest floor. Woodland Park Zoo’s own Lisa Dabek, PhD, started the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program over 20 years ago. Her dedication to saving species has created a network of partners and communities that protect over 160,000 acres of tropical cloud forest, villages, plantations and grasslands, as well as 100 acres of coral reef i...

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo On July 12, more than 45 endangered Western pond turtles were weighed, measured and marked for identification in preparation for being released to the wild at protected sites in Washington. Under the Western Pond Turtle Recovery Project , the turtles were collected from the wild as eggs and given a head start on life under the care of Woodland Park Zoo to improve their chance of survival in the wild. Unlike wild turtles, they are fed at the zoo throughout the winter so that by summer they are nearly as big as 3-year-old turtles that grew up in the wild. Once the turtles reach about 2 ounces—a suitable size to escape the mouths of invasive predatory bullfrogs—they are returned to the wild and monitored by biologists. In 1991, only about 150 Western pond turtles remained in two populations in the state of Washington and the species nearly became extinct. In 1993, the state list...

Posted by: Elizabeth Bacher, Communications Photos by Dennis Dow, Woodland Park Zoo Here at Woodland Park Zoo, we share the habitat with all kinds of native wildlife such as bald eagles.  Two eagle fledglings, called eaglets, just left their nest above the zoo’s elk yard a few weeks ago. They’re only about 15 or 16 weeks old right now and already as big as their parents, but their overall dark coloring sets them apart from adults.  Juveniles don’t develop the distinctive bald eagle features—white head, yellow beak and yellow feet—until they’re 4 or 5 years old. The eaglets’ long flight feathers, which help steady them as they learn to fly and hunt, often make them look even bigger than adults for the first year. But they’re still completely dependent on mom and dad right now.   Soon, the parents will leave the nesting area to take advantage of fall salmon runs in places like the Skagit and Columbia River systems, and they won’t return for severa...