Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Gigi Allianic, Communications Snow leopard sisters Shanti and Asha, now 3½ months old, are proving to be playful and inquisitive cubs. For now, the two live behind the scenes with their mother, Helen, where they receive special veterinary care for their impaired vision. Our keepers and vet staff assess the cubs’ visual function on a day-to-day basis as the pair grows and explores their environment. Snow leopard cubs behind the scenes at Woodland Park Zoo. Photo by Ryan Hawk/WPZ. The cubs were born with eye and eyelid defects, and each remains blind in the right eye. They recently went through another round of surgery, performed by Dr. Tom Sullivan, the zoo’s volunteer veterinary ophthalmologist with the Animal Eye Clinic, to correct their impaired vision. The procedure is a critical step toward a progressive, more permanent solution to create functional eyelids for the cubs. Photo by Ryan Hawk/WPZ. We know you all can’t wait to see Shanti and Asha mak

Posted by: Rob Goehrke, Education A wolf receives an enrichment treat put together by Zoo Crew kids. Photo by Ryan Hawk/WPZ “Spectacular!” “Outstanding!” “Awesome!” These are the words I heard after my class of 7th graders enjoyed a culminating experience at Woodland Park Zoo through our Zoo Crew program. Zoo Crew is designed to engage middle school youth from traditionally underserved communities in science and conservation enrichment activities. I had the chance to work with this particular group of kids during their 4-week summer camp through the YMCA, serving as one of their science teachers and guiding them through a program that was both enriching to them and the zoo’s animals. Here’s the recipe: Brown bear at Woodland Park Zoo. Photo by Ryan Hawk/WPZ Step 1:   Each student choose one of four animals: gray wolf , brown bear ,  l owland anoa  or  k ea Step 2:   As a group, research their animal’s habitat, diet, adaptations, conservation status and more

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications With Olympics in full swing, we’re awarding some medals to our own animal all-stars, some of the best athletes at Woodland Park Zoo. Competition: Swimming Penguin porpoising with purpose. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Gold medal: Humboldt penguin Humboldt penguins may seem awkward on land, but in the water they truly fly, getting up to speeds of 17 mph and bursting into glorious dives known as porpoising, where they leap out of the water to catch a breath and dive back in again without losing speed. Doing the backstroke. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Silver medal: River otter Otters have a killer backstroke, though their form might differ from our own. Plus, their propensity to create whirlwinds that kick up bottom-feeding fish may throw off the competition. Hippo submerging. Photo by Mat Hayward/Woodland Park Zoo. Bronze medal: Hippo Hippos get up to about 5 mph underwater, but

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Gorillas are known for their knuckle-walking on the ground, but they are also adept at climbing when they need to navigate through trees, a sometimes surprising sight given their mass. Have you ever spotted one of our gorillas up in the trees? Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo.

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications This little turtle is about to be released into a protected pond site. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. From the parking lot you pull into off a suburban drag, you’d never guess you are about to enter a protected wetlands, where hope for an endangered turtle species hangs in the balance. Pull on your rubber boots, head through the reeds down a thin, winding path flattened by the steps of the biologists ahead of you, and as your feet start to sink into the softening ground, you know you are getting close to your destination—the edge of a small pond with a big story. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. It’s unassuming, but this spot—marked by nothing more than a temporary wooden plank for our safe balancing—is where hundreds of turtles have made the journey back into the wild over the past 20 years through an ambitious conservation effort to bring the native western pond turtle back from the brink of extinction in

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Even if you haven’t seen the crested screamer at the zoo, you almost certainly have heard it.  When these birds vocalize, it is obvious why they are named “screamer”—their double-noted trumpeting or guttural drumming can be heard up to 2 miles away! You’ll find our screamers in an exhibit near the flamingos in the Temperate Forest zone .  Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo

Posted by: Susan Burchardt, Zookeeper A raptor flies over a wind turbine. Photo by Gretchen Albrecht/Woodland Park Zoo. As part of our wildlife conservation efforts in the Pacific Northwest , Woodland Park Zoo collaborates with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife on the Raptor Ecology of the Shrub-Steppe conservation program. This spring, zookeepers Gretchen Albrecht, Ros Bass-Fournier, Jean Ragland and I returned to eastern Oregon for three weeks to continue research begun last year . We recorded data on how nesting hawks interact with wind turbines. Hours of observation gives us important insight into how raptors are adapting to this new change to the shrub-steppe habitat. Lupine in a field of turbines. Photo by Gretchen Albrecht/Woodland Park Zoo. Shrub-steppe is a grassland habitat that occurs in western North America. Grasses and shrubs make up the shrub-steppe landscape. The most common shrub, or woody plant, is sage brush. There are many birds,