Woodland Park Zoo Blog

The last of our Humboldt penguins will be heading out to other zoos by March 24 as we begin preparations to build a brand new penguin exhibit. The new exhibit will be located on the footprint of the old one, originally built in 1947 (but lots of modifications over the years). BUT, the new exhibit will be much more interactive with lots of fun features for kids of different age levels to teach about life for Humboldt penguins in Peru's Punta San Juan, one of the last refuges for these endangered birds. Another great feature about the exhibit is that is will be much more environmentally friendly than the current exhibit, saving thousands of gallons of water a year through the utilization of rainwater collection and special filtration systems that allow for safe re-use of water in the exhibit. There will also be more areas and levels of viewing for kids and folks in wheelchairs. There will even be a blowhole that mimic those found on the coast of Punta San Juan! Groundbreaking won'

Last night was our annual thrive! dinner at the Sheraton Hotel. And what a night it was! With nearly 300 community guests, the overall theme was sharing the stories of the zoo and the impact a visit to the zoo has on our guests. With special guests, the Kratt brothers--Marti n and Chris-- thrive! guests were treated to tales of their amazing exploits and the important role that experiencing that nature provides everyone, no matter their age. President and CEO Dr. Deborah Jensen gave an overview of the zoo's conservation and educational opportunities and even had a one-on-one "talk" with a frog to highlight Year of the Frog, an international effort to educate about the plight of amphibian species around the world. Thanks to volunteer photographer Mat Hayward for his wonderful documentation of the evening. For more photos, visit Mat's blog: http://www.haywardphoto.blogspot.com/

We were fortunate to recently have Thomas Breuer join us to discuss his project focusing on the use of "bais" --the swampy clearings in the forest---located in central Africa. These bais are havens for native wildlife including forest elephants and western lowland gorillas. Much of Breuer's work is tracking the demographics of the gorilla groups that come to feed on the rich plant life in the bais. During his six years, they have identified and observed several groups and individually identified gorillas, tracking their individual life histories. In the process, they've learned a tremendous amount about gorilla behavior and helped conserve the populations utilizing the bais. As part of his visit, we taped a segment with Breuer as he talks about the project. Woodland Park Zoo is one of the proud funders of this project. Take a look at the video in the Video Bar on the right. Also included is an excellent piece by National Geographic showing recent discoveries about gor

Twin orangutans Towan and Chinta seemed to have ball celebrating their 40th birthday. Nice weather brought out hundreds of people to the zoo to help in the event. While the orangutans received wrapped gifts filled with treats and "orang cupcakes", visitors received tasty cupcakes from Cupcake Royale. Zookeepers shared stories about the orangutans, reminiscing about their antics over the past four decades. In this photo, male orangutan Towan tore up a gift-wrapped package to discover his treats inside. (Photo by Dennis Dow)

If it weren't thrilling enough when our latest western lowland gorilla was born in October, now the entire community gets the opportunity to help name her! The now 4-month-old gorilla has been through quite a bit, when a congenital defect called for surgery to correct. Thanks to a team of physicians from Seattle's Children Hospital, she's now right as rain and ready for a name. In cooperation with Ivar's and Kidd Valley restaurants, we're looking for a name that derives from the languages of their origin countries. In this case, names of Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa and Swahili languages are the suggested sources. It's not too hard to discover appropriate names: simply go online and type in "Yoruba language", etc., in any search engine, or visit your local library and find dictionaries for those languages. Then visit any Western Washington Ivar's or Kidd Valley restaurant to pick up and fill in an entry form. The contest runs from March 2 through March 23.

Kids 3-12 who "go froggy" get in free today at the zoo to celebrate the Year of the Frog, a campaign to alert people to the plight of amphibians around the world. Just come dressed in green and you get in free and get the chance to participate in a number of frog-related activities. The more than 6,000 species of frogs, toads, newts, and salamanders are currently in the midst of a crisis where their numbers are drastically falling due to the infestation of the chytrid fungus as well as tremendous habitat loss. Woodland Park Zoo is joining with the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Amphibian Ark and hundreds of zoos and aquariums around the world to help save amphibians from extinction. Currently we are working with several regional partners to help create a recovery plan for the endangered Oregon spotted frog which has declined over 90% of its historic range. Find out how you can help frogs and other amphibians, too. Visit http:

Turning 40 isn't going to be traumatic for Towan and his twin sister Chinta on Saturday. The party starts at 11:00 a.m. and runs to 12:30 p.m. The orangutans will receive wrapped "presents" that they enjoy tearing into, special treats and our human guests will receive tasty gourmet cupcakes courtesy of Cupcake Royale (while supplies last!) and everyone is welcome to enter into a free raffle to win one of Towan's increasingly famous works of art (see below to the entry that offered two of his paintings for auction on eBay). Our February entry showed Towan and Chinta as infants, so we thought it only fair that we post photos of them now (That's Towan , the male on the left, and Chinta , the female, on the right). They would also like to say hello to Hannah, Mark and Conni up in Vancouver, B.C. Hannah was looking forward to coming to the birthday party, but unfortunately she's not feeling well so the orangutans hope this finds her on the mend!