Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Giraffes have the largest eyes of any land mammal.  Photo by Brittney Bollay/Woodland Park Zoo.   Other animals on the savanna use giraffes as watchtowers — with their height and keen vision, giraffes are often the first to spot predators.

Posted by: Caileigh Robertson, Communications The arctic fox , of course! Not only can this small, furry fox survive Old Man Winter’s North Pole stomping grounds, it travels across the treeless lands of the Arctic relying solely on its fur coat and snow-burrowed den to stay warm. Female arctic fox Somer on a snowy day. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo.. Although our two newly arrived arctic foxes never traveled the North Pole, they did trek nearly 1,500 miles from the northwest corner of Minnesota to join Woodland Park Zoo this summer. August and Lily—1-year-old half-siblings—are now making themselves at home in their spacious Northern Trail exhibit, which they share with the zoo’s mountain goats. Though, they’ve learned to keep their distance from mountain goat Wilson after a playful run-in during their first week on exhibit.  When the foxes were introduced to their new enclosure, they had to learn their boundaries with the goats and the respectful distance t

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Why is a blue-tongued skink’s tongue blue?  Blue-tongued skink. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Because we feed it blue ice pops. Nah, just kidding. That blue tongue is a natural adaptation. A blue tongue darting out dramatically from a skink’s mouth can warn off or startle away predators.

Posted by: Mark Myers, Curator of Birds It’s baby bird season at Woodland Park Zoo! Over the past few weeks, we’ve had several successful hatchings from birds across the zoo—from temperate waterfowl to tropical tanagers. Here’s a round-up of some of the significant hatchings: Cinnamon teal and falcated ducklings. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. The quiet, tucked away Temperate Wetlands exhibit is home to a number of newly hatched ducks and geese. Since July, we have successfully hatched falcated ducks, red-breasted geese, redhead, cinnamon teal, and lesser scaups (North American diving ducks). Candling a red-breasted goose egg. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. To help prepare for all of these hatchings, our zookeepers use a process called candling in which they hold an egg up to a high powered, focused light source for a few seconds to see if an egg is fertile or to check the health of a developing embryo.  We were thrilled to candle and

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Before they make their official debut to the public this Sat., August 25, we gave our snow leopard cubs the chance to take their very first steps out onto exhibit this week to get comfortable with their new surroundings. Shanti (left) with mother Helen and sister Asha (far right). Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. On the first day that we gave 16-week-old cubs Asha and Shanti access to the exhibit this week, they never stepped foot outside of their holding area! This was likely due to a combination of their own shyness and their mother Helen’s cautiousness. On day two, they didn’t do too much better. Keepers eventually got them to go out into the exhibit but it lasted for just a few short minutes and they ran back inside to their mother not to be seen again that day. Helen grooms her cub Asha. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Finally, on day three of these soft introductions, we had success! Helen led t

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications A penguin’s tuxedo feathering is not for fancy occasions—it’s actually a type of camouflage known as countershading.   Humboldt penguin at Woodland Park Zoo. Photo by Ryan Hawk/WPZ. When a penguin is in the water, its black back blends into the darker water below when viewing it from above, and its white belly blends into the lighter surface of the water when looking up from underneath it. 

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications The results of our Visayan warty pig naming contest are in! With more than 900 votes cast, the top names for the three female pigs, in order of greatest number of votes received are: GUAPA (beautiful), BULAK (flower) and MAGDULA (playful). The names reflect the pigs' Philippine origin. One lucky winner—Toni Thomas of Seattle—was selected at random from all eligible contest entrants to win the grand prize $500 Visa gift card courtesy of U.S. Bank and a Woodland Park Zoo Visayan warty pig ZooParent adoption . Runners-up—Bethel B. VonRoeder and Brian Patneaude—will receive each a $100 Visa gift card courtesy of U.S. Bank and a Woodland Park Zoo Visayan warty pig ZooParent adoption. Thanks for casting your vote this summer and thanks to our contest sponsors U.S. Bank and The Seattle Times for making this contest possible. Photo (modified) by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo.