Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications How is a meerkat like a bike? Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. A meerkat uses its long, stiff tail like a kickstand in order to balance when it stands upright.

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo (modified) Our 8-month-old wallaby joey , Dargo, now fully leaves his mother’s pouch to explore around his Australasia exhibit , which he shares with other wallabies, wallaroos and emu. That’s right on cue, as this is around the age that wallaby joeys start to be weaned and gain complete independence. Photo set by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo As you can see from this great set of photos of Dargo ducking in and out of his mom’s pouch (taken last month), that independence means a significant break for mom Kiley, who has pulled triple duty as shelter, blanket and cafeteria for all these months!

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Finally, the trifecta! Kunekune pigs have arrived at the Family Farm. And that means I can finally say that this is the summer of three little pigs! Three little pigs, from left to right: African warthog now on view in the African Savanna (photo by Dennis Dow/WPZ), Visayan warty pig now on view in Elephant Forest (photo by Dennis Dow/WPZ), kunekune pig now on view in Family Farm (photo by Ryan Hawk/WPZ) Unlike the two wild pig species that debuted at the zoo this May—the Visayan warty pig and African warthog—the kunekune is a domestic species, albeit a rare one, native to New Zealand. Let me guess: you’re wondering how to pronounce kunekune. Try this: “KOO-KNEE, KOO-KNEE.” The word kunekune means “fat and round” in the Māori language, which isn’t a stretch when you see these little guys. You’ll have no trouble spotting the pigs, whose mottled spots and constant snorting draw plenty of attention in the farm. The

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications A giraffe's tongue is over 18 inches long and dark in color, most likely to prevent it from being sunburned as it strips leaves out in the savanna sun. You can see these adaptations up close when you participate in one of our unforgettable  Giraffe Feeding Experiences ! Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo.

Posted by: Bobbi Miller, Field Conservation; with Carmina Gutiérrez and Miguel Gómez Ramírez, Northern Jaguar Project Exciting news about the northernmost wild jaguar population has come in from the field. Woodland Park Zoo-supported jaguar conservation biologists report in that they have seen signs that these threatened cats are pairing up, which means they could be mating and there could be cubs in the near future—a sign of hope for this threatened species.   Male and female jaguars, Ferb and Libélula, spotted together via a remote camera. Video courtesy Northern Jaguar Project A little background on Woodland Park Zoo's jaguar conservation efforts: Thanks to a generous bequest, the Field Conservation department has been able to fund jaguar conservation projects for the past 10 years at the rate of $10,000 a year. This year, one of the recipients was the Northern Jaguar Project , based in Arizona but working with ranchers in the area near Sonora, Mexico—just 125 miles so

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham and Gigi Allianic, Communications We’re deeply saddened to share this news with you: One of our precious snow leopard triplets did not survive his turbulent first weeks. The now six-week-old cubs have been well cared for by their mother Helen in their behind the scenes maternal den, but each of the cubs has displayed health concerns that have caused our keepers and vet staff to go into overdrive trying to help the cubs pull through these challenges. Unfortunately, we had to make the difficult but humane decision to euthanize the male cub yesterday after we determined that the little guy had multiple, severe heart defects that were causing early heart failure. Dr. Darin Collins, the zoo’s Director of Animal Health, tells us that it’s very rare to encounter disease concerns in the zoo’s newborn animals that are too severe for modern medicine to overcome, but in this case, there were no surgical or drug treatment options available. As you can im

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Remember our little penguin hero , the boy who spotted an abandoned Humboldt penguin egg in our exhibit and alerted a keeper to its need for rescue? Despite our all-points bulletin to locate him and thank him for his effort, we never found him after two months of searching. But we won’t let his act go unrecognized even if his identity remains a mystery! So we decided to honor our little hero by naming the penguin chick Ramón, a Spanish name that means “protector.” Ramón is now two months old and is thriving behind the scenes. His rocky start as an abandoned egg put his survival at peril, but thanks to the little boy’s call for help, penguin keeper Celine Pardo was able to rescue the egg before a crow or gull could snatch it. The egg was given to a pair of foster parents who took it in and successfully hatched it days after the rescue. The chick is old enough to start some training so he now works with his zookeepers behind the sce