Woodland Park Zoo Blog

This summer the zoo launched its Maasai Journey, a presentation that highlighted the animals of East Africa. Part of Maasai Journey is the opportunity to meet and speak with four Maasai in person. Kibole, Kakuta, Kenneth and Sipoi are four Maasai hailing from a small, rural community in Maasailand in southern Kenya. The Maasai in their village, Merrueshi, are pastoralists, raising cattle for food. Because of this they live in very close proximity to African wildlife including giraffe, lions, zebra, hyenas and other animals that live on the savanna. Kakuta Ole Hamisi, a junior elder at Merrueshi, has worked at the zoo the past six years, giving presentations about life in Maasailand, the challenges to his people and to the wildlife they share the land with. This summer, Kibole, Kenneth and Sipoi joined him at the zoo to give presentations that help paint a fuller picture of life in Kenya in a rural setting, which is mimicked in our African Village exhibit. The Maasai here are educators,

Due to her popularity (apparently her videos are a very popular discussion in the local clubs!), here are more photos of our new tapir calf. Right now, we are in contact with the zoo's Director of Animal Health, Dr. Darin Collins, who is in Indonesia working on the avian flu situation. He is going to hook the zoo up with a school in Sumatra to have the kids help us name the tapir. We hope to accomplish this in the next few months. - Photos by Ryan Hawk

The zoo is celebrating 25 years of partnership with the Snow Leopard Trust, the Seattle-based organization dedicated to the preservation of snow leopards and snow leopard habitat. By working with the people living in snow leopard areas, SLT has influenced a number of programs including anti-poaching initiatives and creating opportunities for indigenous people in Tibet and other countries in snow leopard range countries to earn money from sources other than poaching. Join us and the Snow Leopard Trust on Saturday, August 18 to celebrate Snow Leopard Day at the Zoo! Lots of crafts, entertainment and information on how you can help snow leopards.

Our little female tapir calf, born July 3, made her unofficial public debut with her mother today in the Tropical Asia exhibit. Now weighing in at a hefty 61 pounds, the baby stuck close to her mom, but soon ventured up to the glass viewing area to the delight of zoo visitors (and staff, too!). With the nice r weather, we hope to have her out daily (weather permitting, of course). Tomorrow she will hopefully be on public view with her mom beginning around noon. You'll notice the spots and stripes on her--very different from the black with white "belt" on the adults. This is used as camouflage---much like the spots on a deer fawn---until they start to fade and turn black and white similar to their parents. Malayan tapirs are endangered in their range due to hunting and habitat loss.

Butterflies & Blooms is one of the zoo's most popular exhibits. Because the butterflies are native species to the U.S., the exhibit is seasonal, operating in the summer months when these species would normally be breeding and flying. With several dozen species, from the striped zebra longwings to even an occasional dramatic-looking luna moth, the B&B tent is a nice respite from walking around the zoo's 92 acres!

The release of 50 western pond turtles went well into a protected pond in Pierce County. Due to our headstarting program, their population has grown from a low of around 150 to more than 1,500! Here, zoo staff member Walter English paints a tracking number on one of the juvenile turtles shells. Thanks for the zoo's curator of reptiles, Dana Payne, for sending this photo.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 17, the zoo will be releasing endangered western pond turtles (Clemmys marmorata), some with tiny radio transmitters glued to their shells, into the wild in Pierce County. A portion of the group of 50 turtles will be released in Mason County. The 10-month-old turtles were collected from the wild as hatchlings and “head started” at Woodland Park Zoo to improve their chance of survival in the wild. Invasive bull frogs often eat the young hatchlings, so the headstarting provides a way for the young turtles to grow to a size that is too large for the frogs to consume. The turtles currently weigh about 2 ounces. Woodland Park Zoo, along with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Oregon Zoo have collaborated for more than a decade, raising turtles and letting them loose in protected ponds in Washington. From an all-time low of only around 100 turtles left in the state, this headstarting has swelled their population to more than 1,200!