Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Hippos can open their mouths up to 150 degrees wide! That’s handy for chomping on pumpkins. Photo by Lori Veres/Woodland Park Zoo. Happy Halloween!

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications A lemur guards its pumpkin while snacking. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren.  At the annual Pumpkin Bash presented by Delta Dental/Washington Dental Service , there is pumpkin bashing, and also pumpkin smashing. There's pumpkin chomping and definitely some pumpkin stomping. This pumpkin came pre-pecked for the penguins. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. The fun continues this weekend with our final two days of the event, Sat. - Sun., Oct. 27 & 28 . See how each animal tears into its Halloween treats and get some treats of your own with trick-or-treating for the little ones. Plus, one child 12 years and under in costume is admitted FREE with a paid adult during Pumpkin Bash. A wolf delicately opens its jack-o-lantern. What happens next isn't so delicate. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. The pumpkins are part of the zoo’s excellent animal care program to help enrich the lives of the zoo’s animal

Posted by: Alyse Kennamer, Zoo Corps intern Oregon silverspot butterfly. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. This summer, I had the unforgettable opportunity to work with a threatened species, the Oregon silverspot butterfly . While I was working here, an amazing idea came to my head for a study that could help scientists better understand and protect this species. I wanted to observe a female butterfly, see where she lays her eggs, and how it’s done. Observing butterfly behavior in the silverspot lab at the zoo. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. It all started at the beginning of the summer when I joined the silverspot project as part of the zoo’s teen program, Zoo Corps . I joined Zoo Corps in my sophomore year of high school, and am now enrolled in my first year of college. In early spring, we got to pick from a list of about 10 areas we wanted to work in at the zoo. Working in the lab where the zoo rears silverspot caterpillars was my first choice. You w

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications The “red” in the red panda’s name is easy to understand—the animal’s fiery colored coat serves as camouflage to blend with reddish-brown moss on trees. Photo by Mat Hayward/Woodland Park Zoo. The “panda” part, well, despite the common bamboo diet, the red panda is more closely related to raccoons than it is to the giant panda.

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications Fall is here! Crispy leaves, football, presidential debates, pumpkin spice lattes and… spidies! This orb weaver is decorating for fall! Photo by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo. Spider webs appear everywhere; draped across your porch, athwart your front door, and if you happen to be tall, most likely dangling in your hair. Despite the unpleasantness of being greeted each morning with a silky web stuck to your face, orb weaver spiders are pretty incredible. Dancing in the morning fog, an orb weaver constructs her web. Woodland Park Zoo archive photo. There are more than 3,000 different species of orb weavers around the world, but the most common species in Western Washington is the cross spider ( Araneus diadematus ) . These tiny architects are unbelievable weavers. A female spider suns herself in the middle of her web. Photo by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo. Orb weavers construct their webs by first flinging

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down... Upside down sloth. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. OK, maybe the Fresh Prince wasn’t rapping about sloths, but considering they spend the vast majority of their day turned upside down, he sure could have been. Snacking while upside down. Don’t try this at home. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Sloths eat, sleep, mate and even give birth upside down. If you were to hang upside down from your seat right now (use your imagination and spare yourself the pain of actually doing it, trust me), you’ll feel your head start to pound, gravity tugging at your hair, and honestly, I’m getting dizzy just writing about it. But none of that happens for the upside-down kings of the rain forest, because sloths are specially adapted to live life from their unique point of view. So how do sloths function upside down? Looking good: Sloth

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Meerkat pileup! Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Meerkats are the most social of all the mongooses and spend much of their time playing and grooming to maintain their tight bonds.