Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Mark Myers, Animal Curator A Northern helmeted curassow chick hatched 6/26 with a little assistance from keepers since the chick wasn’t making much progress after 48 hours of effort. It is now located behind the scenes in a brooder box next to its mother in the zoo’s Conservation Aviary in the Temperate Forest zone. By keeping it next to her, the chick should become more properly socialized and have less of a chance of imprinting on humans. To reduce imprinting, staff minimizes talking in the presence of the chick. Like chickens or turkeys, curassow chicks are precocial at hatching—meaning they are born relatively independent—and with guidance, they learn to eat on their own very quickly. To stimulate it to eat, we use objects like tweezers or a long stick with a red tip to point food out to the chick. These chicks are also very arboreal and they like to perch up off the ground. At hatching, their wing feathers are very well developed which allows them to take short flights

Posted by: Katherine Steen, Education Want to join a Woodland Park Zoo team restoring habitat for wildlife at Licton Springs Park? Sign up for a habitat restoration event with us and EarthCorps ! Back on May 16, our zoo team had a great time with EarthCorps and community volunteers restoring habitat at Golden Gardens Park . And now, we’re doing it again! This summer WPZ invites you to share the habitat by taking action to protect and restore wildlife habitat around the world and in our own backyards. On Saturday, July 11th, a team of zoo staff, volunteers, and friends will be joining Earth Corps and the Green Seattle Partnership for a restoration event at Licton Springs Park in north Seattle. Add it to your calendar! Saturday, July 11th, 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. What to expect: You'll be side by side with zoo staff and volunteers planting native trees, shrubs, and ground cover. EarthCorps will provide gloves, tools, water, light refreshments (coffee, tea, water and donuts!) and a ta

Posted by: Bobbi Miller, Field Conservation Did you see today’s Seattle Times cover story about the Cedar Creek Corrections Center inmates helping to raise and reintroduce endangered Oregon spotted frogs to Washington habitats? It’s all part of a great recovery program Woodland Park Zoo has joined with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Northwest Zoo and Aquarium Alliance . Here in our own Northwest backyard, we’ve seen populations of the Oregon spotted frog diminish significantly, all but lost to wetland degradation and chytridiomycosis—a deadly, fast spreading fungus. Add to that the introduction of predators such as the bullfrog, and this native frog has disappeared from much of its original habitat. These factors prompted Washington state to list the species as endangered in 1997. It may also ultimately lead to a federal endangered listing soon. But hope is on the horizon. Woodland Park Zoo has joined a multi-institution recovery project that is pairing cap

Posted by: Walter Dupree, Animal Collections Manager On June 23, Woodland Park Zoo became home to another significant addition…a bouncing eleven-month-old female giraffe named Tufani. She came to us from Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, Missouri. For those that remember, this is the same zoo that sent us Olivia, our other female giraffe . In fact, Tufani and Olivia are half sisters. And no, they don’t seem to recognize each other, but with giraffe, you never know. Like Olivia, Tufani is a Rothschild’s giraffe also known as Baringo or Lado giraffe. Although she is not a Reticulated giraffe like our males, the Association of Zoos & Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan manages them as one sub species so we have future breeding recommendations already. But don’t expect to see any infant giraffe running on the savanna anytime soon as our girls are still a bit young. If you’ve never seen a giraffe shipment before, it’s an interesting undertaking. I bet a few of you are wondering how we ge

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications The two endangered snow leopard cubs are one month old today, and we took some new photos this morning to document their growth. Check out the full photo album from this morning's session on Woodland Park Zoo's Facebook fan page . Become our Facebook fan to get automatic zoo updates in your Facebook news feeds. The two cubs remain behind the scenes with their mother while they bond and grow, but stay tuned to the blog for more updates on the duo. Photo by Ryan Hawk.

Posted by: Mark Myers, Curator Woodland Park Zoo’s first ever tawny frogmouth chick is growing up! What first looked like a cottonball is now starting to look more like the adults of its species. At 20 days of age, the chick is doing great and achieving all the expected developmental benchmarks—it has clear eyes, its flight feathers are growing well and its weight is up to 5.9 ounces (it would take six stamps to mail it!). The first-time parents are doing well too. The male, shown here, has been sitting on the nest during the day brooding the chick. The chick has been given the name Nangkita, an aboriginal word inspired by its native Australia meaning “place of little frogs.” It’s a fitting name given the bird’s wide, frog-like mouth. Typically tawny frogmouth chicks leave the nest between anywhere from 25-35 days of age. Photos and video by Ryan Hawk.

Posted by: Peter Miller, Keeper In the last few weeks on the blog, we’ve introduced you to baby bugs , birds , and mammals . So now it’s time for baby reptiles… Meet a newly hatched, endangered black-breasted leaf turtle. When this turtle was born on June 5, it weighed in at 5 grams—about the weight of a quarter—and its shell is about the size of a quarter too! A lot of care goes into preparing for a hatching like this. It took about 2 months to gestate in our incubator which was set at about 78-80 degrees Fahrenheit. One of the most striking and conspicuous features of this unusual turtle is its large and protuberant eyes that give an alert expression. Their diet includes snails, slugs, earthworms and other forest floor invertebrates, although some captive individuals apparently also feed on fruit and vegetables. Like most Asian turtle species, the black-breasted leaf turtle is in grave danger of extinction due to over-collection from the wild for the food, medicine and pet trade. Tu