Woodland Park Zoo Blog

The animals at the zoo get the opportunity to celebrate the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday with the Turkey Toss begin held this coming Saturday, November 17. Carnivorous critters will receive turkeys--some whole, others get choice bits--are a part of the zookeepers’ ongoing efforts to help enrich the lives of the zoo’s animals, promote natural animal behavior, keep animals mentally and physically stimulated and provide added enjoyment for zoo visitors. A full schedule of each animal to receive turkey treats will be posted at zoo gates. Photo by Ryan Hawk.

Author Diane Ackerman will be speaking at Benaroya Hall on November 19 . You may recognize her name as the author of the best-selling book, The Zookeeper's Wife, an amazing true tale tells the remarkable WWII story of Jan Zabinski, the director of the Warsaw Zoo, and his wife, Antonina, who, with courage and coolheaded ingenuity, sheltered 300 Jews as well as Polish resisters in their villa and in animal cages and sheds. It's an amazing story of the people whose love of animals carried through to help save hundreds from certain death. Diane Ackerman - a Guggenheim Fellow, Lavan Poetry Prize winner, and recipient of the John Burroughs Nature Award - brings poetry to science and science to poetry. The author of the lyrical nonfiction bestseller A Natural History of the Senses and An Alchemy of Mind, a poetics of the brain based on recent neuroscience, she has also written Origami Bridges: Poems of Psychoanalysis and Fire and nature books for children. Seattle Arts & Lectures

Two new bushbabies (also called lesser galagos) were born in the zoo's Night Exhibit on November 1. The lesser galago is one of the smallest primates, about the size of a squirrel and weighing in at less than half an ounce. Despite their size, they can be exceptionally vocal, producing loud, shrill cries surprisingly like those of a human baby. The plaintive cries and "cute" appearance may account for the name "bush baby." The lesser galago and its larger cousin, the greater galago, are both arboreal and nocturnal in their habits and are found in the woodlands of East Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. The tiny babies will probably not be visible for sometime as they are nurtured by their mother. (Photo by Helen Shewman)

Everyone was extremely happy when a brand new baby gorilla was born here this Saturday, October 20 at around 3:30 a.m. The baby, a female, is the 12th gorilla born at Woodland Park Zoo and the third for the parents, Amanda (37 years) and Vip (28 years). This morning, mother and baby were out in the public exhibit since temperatures were so balmy and mother and baby appeared to be bonding very well. All the gorillas in the group are very interested in the newborn, especially Amanda and Vip’s other two daughters, 9-year-old Ngozi and 5-year-old Calaya. As we are able to get more photos and video, we'll post them to the zoo's website, but here's a "teaser" shot for now! Photo by Ryan Hawk.

It's not quite Vermont, but the color of the season is in full swing at the zoo. The several types of maple trees on the grounds are brilliant in their oranges, reds and yellows right now as are many other types of trees and plants. The 92 acres of the zoo offers hundreds of great opportunities to see some beautiful plants, even during fall and winter! (Take a look at the aerial shot of the zoo below.) Several other plants are blossoming right now, too! To see a few, take a look at the What's in Bloom: http://www.zoo.org/zoo_careers/bloom/october.html

KIRO tv recently visited the zoo to film an iWitness Video presentation of lucky Zoo Doo lottery winners picking up their loads of rich, composted Zoo Doo. For those of you not in the know, Zoo Doo is the waste-products left from the zoo's herbivores (elephants, giraffe, hippo, gazelle and many more) that is gathered up and composted into an incredibly rich and fertile soil additive coveted by gardeners. The original idea for Zoo Doo came about more than 20 years ago when costs for disposal of the animals' waste was getting expensive, so it was decided to compost it back into a usable product for on grounds. The idea grew and now each year we host a Fall and Spring Fecal Fest that people can enter a lottery to win loads of the fecund fecal fallout. Now it's also recognized that this is a great way to reduce landfill and bring in a little extra money as well. To view the video http://www.kirotv.com/video/14312341/index.html To read more about Zoo Doo, visit this section of o

There is a disturbing article in the October issue of Smithsonian Magazine about recent incursions into mountain gorilla habitat in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The article details the account of three mountain gorillas were slaughtered by rebel forces for food. So called "bushmeat" continues to be a threat for many species, but is particularly detrimental to the tiny populations of mountain gorillas which number perhaps 800 total in their three range countries. Read the complete article: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/guerilla.html The online version doesn't contain the disturbing shots of villagers bringing the three gorillas' bodies out of the forest to be buried. Woodland Park Zoo supports two conservation programs focusing on gorillas: the Mbeli Bai Project that studies western lowland gorillas in the Congo and the Association of Zoos & Aquariums' Bushmeat Task Force which helps with programs to help curtail the bushmeat trade in Africa