Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications The zoo was closed to the public again today due to the snow and ice conditions. Here's a look at what was happening on grounds: We'll post to www.zoo.org first thing in the morning tomorrow on whether we'll finally be able to open again. Until then, stay safe! Photos by Ryan Hawk and Carol Roll/Woodland Park Zoo.

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications The zoo may be closed today due to “Snowpocalypse,” but many of the animals are still out and about. Some animals retreat indoors or look for a warm spot to tuck themselves into to get out of the snow, while others—like our residents of the Northern Trail exhibit—are in their element. The first animals you encounter in the Northern Trail are the pack of four sister wolves—Doba, Shila, Aponi and Kaya. When we first approached the wolves this morning, they were beautiful to behold in their white fur coated in snow, an elk lounging in the background. But it wasn’t long before one of the wolves interrupted the still, idyllic portrait with a piercing howl. Then the wolves all began to vocalize together and play. They chased. And chased. Then took a break to nibble at the snow. We pulled ourselves away from the scene just long enough to see one of our grizzly bears shaking himself free of the snow piling onto his fur. The

Posted by: Gigi Allianic, Communications Lupe practicing on the scale. Photo by Ric Brewer/WPZ. Was losing weight your New Year's resolution? Well, for our hippos, it’s time to get on the scale! Lily (left) and Lupe (right) in the African Savanna. Photo by Dennis Dow/WPZ. We carefully monitor the weight of our animals and now that we have acquired a new scale to weigh our hippos, we’re holding a contest to see who can guess the combined weight of our graceful 33-year-old Water Lily and the lovely 12-year-old Guadalupe. The winner gets to go behind the scenes to meet the hippos up close! Guadalupe with a snack. Photo by Dennis Dow/WPZ. Beginning today, Washington state residents are invited to guess the COMBINED WEIGHT of both hippos by entering online at www.zoo.org/hippocontest through midnight, January 27, 2012. The winning entry will be the closest to the combined weight (if more than one person gets it right, we’ll draw one random winner from those

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications Roses are red, violets are blue…unless you’re a tetrachromat, it’s true. Apologies for the obvious segue to a post about color, but I couldn’t resist!  A blue bellied roller and a brightly colored orchid show us examples of some of the beautiful colors here at Woodland Park Zoo. Photos by Ryan Hawk and Kirsten Pisto/WPZ. Throughout the animal kingdom, there is enormous diversity in the structure and faculty of eyesight. Oftentimes, we relate our own human eyesight to the visual capabilities of animals, but most evidence points to the contrary: in fact, humans might be an underdog in visual perception. A rainbow sits over the North Meadow. Red has the longest wavelength and blue has the shortest. Photo by Dennis Conner/WPZ.   The human eye sees a wide range of what we call visual color, that is , measurable wavelengths in the range of about 390–700 nanometers. Our eyeballs have a ton of tiny little cones and rods in th

Posted by: Staff of Woodland Park Zoo Happy holidays from the Woodland Park Zoo family to your family! We hope you’ll spread the holiday cheer and pass this video or a zoo holiday eCard along to your loved ones. Stay warm, safe and jolly! Video produced by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo.

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications Unless you’ve been on a tropical getaway for the past month, you probably noticed that the Pacific Northwest welcomed in the coming winter season with regular drenchings of heavy rain. This is the time of year when leaves clog drainpipes, and puddles emerge on the streets, sometimes as big as ponds. Well, if you were a West African dwarf crocodile you would be very pleased! Woodland Park Zoo’s male dwarf crocodile almost fully submerged on exhibit. Photo by Alex Monopolis. Dwarf crocodiles ( Osteolaemus tetraspis ) are a special type of small crocodile species found in the tropical rivers and swamps of sub-Saharan West Africa and West Central Africa. They thrive in swamps and rainforest rivers, but have also been found in Savannah flood zones where they soak up the extra moisture during the wet season, and dig burrows in heavy mud to aestivate during the subsequent dry season. Dwarf crocodile camouflaged on exhibit at Woodland

Posted by: Diane Yoshimi, Zookeeper, with Linda Uyeda, Zookeeper Recently born Chinese crocodile lizard. Photo by Ryan Hawk /Woodland Park Zoo. Woodland Park Zoo recently had two female Chinese crocodile lizards ( Shinisaurus crocodilurus ) give birth to two litters of 11 babies in total. The crocodile lizard is an unusual reptile that gives birth to young after 9 to12 months of gestation. The newborn babies, weighing approximately 4 to 6 grams, are independent at birth and litter size ranges from 1 to 9. Since WPZ acquired a pair in 1993, there have been 70 crocodile lizard offspring born at the zoo. In December 2010 there were 115 individuals living in 22 North American institutions held in a managed program, meaning a studbook keeper recommends which individuals should be bred in order to maintain genetic diversity in the captive population. Adult Chinese crocodile lizard (left) in a tank next to a baby Shinisaurus (right). Photo by Ryan Hawk /Woodland Park Zoo.