Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Nora Venne, Education Our look at the life of 5-year-olds continues in honor of Zoomazium’s big 5th birthday . In this post, zookeepers shed some light on what life is like for a 5-year-old snow leopard . Q: Human children at age 5 are still very young and completely dependent on their families for care. Give us a brief description of what life looks like for a snow leopard. Is age 5 young or older for this animal? A: At 3 years of age, our male snow leopard Tom had all ready consummated a relationship and at 4 years of age he was a father of two! Next year at age 5 he will once again hopefully father more children. Cats mature very quickly. In captivity snow leopards can live to be 18, although some live longer and a very few live to 21. Scientists are still researching how long snow leopards live in the wild but a domestic housecat would be considered in its upper 30s in human years when it was 5. Q: For humans, kindergarten is just starting at age 5. Some

Posted by: Nora Venne, Education Happy 5th birthday, Zoomazium ! We’re celebrating 5 years of child’s play in Zoomazium with a look this week at what it means to be 5 for humans and different animals. Then the party continues this Saturday and Sunday , Nov. 5 and 6, with cupcakes, live entertainment and birthday-themed activities at Zoomazium including enrichment treats for some of the zoo’s notable 5-year-old residents. In this blog post, we spoke with penguin keepers at Woodland Park Zoo to learn more about what it is like to be 5 years old for a Humboldt penguin .   Q: Human children at age 5 are still very young and completely dependent on their families for care. Give us a brief description of what life looks like for a penguin. Is age 5 young or older for this animal?   A: Humboldt penguins are much further along in their maturity by age 5 than humans are. That’s because the average life span of a Humboldt penguin is around 20 – 25 years in the wild; 25 – 30 year

Posted by: Peter S. Miller, Zookeeper “Is it safe to come out yet? Not yet, maybe tomorrow.” These are the thoughts that might arise in the brain of a Louisiana pine snake hatchling. It is a chance decision that could mean your life or death in the wild. Such is the beginning of life for an endangered Louisiana pine snake. Next thoughts: hide or eat. When your serpentine undulations would signal a nearby predator that a tasty meal has just emerged from a clutch of eggs under the soil, stealth is critical…but so is breakfast! As the old adage goes, “eat or be eaten.” The Louisiana pine snake, Pituophis ruthveni , is a species under threat from habitat alteration of its native longleaf pine forest in the southeastern United States. This species has just increased its numbers on planet Earth by two, thanks to hatchlings that emerged late this summer at Woodland Park Zoo’s Day Exhibit. This accomplishment might not sound like much, but when your species is rare in the wild and

Posted by: Fred Koontz, Field Conservation; Sue Andersen and Amy Brandt, Zookeepers For Wolf Awareness Week, we’re giving you a glimpse into the fascinating dynamics within the zoo’s pack of wolves living in our award-winning Northern Trail exhibit. Did you know Woodland Park Zoo has had wolves in its collection for more than 60 years? The zoo’s wolves serve a critical role as ambassadors for their wild counterparts. The current pack consists of four female litter mates born at New York State Zoo in April 2010. They have four distinct personalities. When you next visit the zoo, see if you can identify them from their pack behavior: Doba is the pack's "alpha" or most dominant wolf. She is often visible in the front and center of the exhibit, where she can keep track of the other wolves. If you see a wolf gathering bones or toys that is likely to be Doba! Shila is the pack's most submissive member. She spends most of her time lying a bit distant from t

Posted by: Carolyn Sellar, Zookeeper In February we blogged about the departure of gorilla Naku from Woodland Park Zoo to start a new family in Milwaukee. Here’s an update on how she’s transitioning! The entertaining and rambunctious Naku, a 10-year-old female western lowland gorilla , went to Milwaukee County Zoo at the end of June to begin a new family with Cassius, Milwaukee’s 25-year-old resident male. She had a very smooth flight there and after her standard quarantine at the zoo, she was transferred to their gorilla unit where introductions are now in progress. The introductions have been going very well and Naku is now part of a group with both Cassius (shown above) and another female named Femelle. She spends all day with both the other gorillas, and for now spends the night just with Femelle, but soon they will all be spending the night together. In fact, it is often difficult to separate Naku from Cassius! She must be smitten! If things progress the way they ha

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications We’re getting ready to release more than 700 endangered Oregon spotted frogs into the wild next month. Before we can let the juvenile frogs go, we have to tag, weigh, sex and measure them so that state biologists can identify and track them once they’re released. Not surprisingly, it takes a long time to do all that 700 times! Our zookeepers joined a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist on Monday for the hours-long process of prepping all 700 frogs, with more days of prep still to come. Frog prepping Step one: Break out the ruler and record the frog’s measurements.  Step two: Place the frog in a container on a scale (then cover quickly so it doesn’t jump away!) and take its weight. Step three: Insert identification tag on select frogs. Step four: Note the sex of the frog and make sure all data is recorded. These frogs are just weeks away from being released, but they started their lives here

Posted by: John Samaras, Penguin Keeper This blog post is part two of a three-part series based on Woodland Park Zoo penguin keeper John Samaras’ work in Punta San Juan, Peru with a zoo conservation partner . In part one , I blogged about the diverse wildlife I encountered on my trip to Punta San Juan in Peru where I joined zoo professionals and Peruvian biologists in conducting an annual health assessment of the wild population of Humboldt penguins . Woodland Park Zoo’s penguin exhibit, which opened in May 2009, replicates the coast of Punta San Juan, a barren desert peninsula that juts out into the South Pacific in southern Peru. Here in part two, I’ll take you through the experience of administering the health assessments on these wild penguins, a challenging annual task that is critical to establish baseline data so we can track the health and any emergent needs of this endangered population. From the field: We stood at the edge of a high c