Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Photo by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo. Flippers aren’t designed to hold paint brushes, so when zookeepers wanted to give our Humboldt penguins the chance to paint, we had to go kindergarten style and just get messy. We held a painting session yesterday for penguin trio Mojito, Cortez and Ramón to produce artwork that will be available for purchase tomorrow at the Puget Sound - American Association of Zoo Keepers  annual holiday auction . Painting is a new form of enrichment for our penguins,though it is something we have done with other animals around the zoo for years. Asian elephant Chai has been painting for 13 years now, and her painting will also be available at the auction. Chai paints inside the Elephant Barn. Photo by Caileigh Robertson/Woodland Park Zoo. Follow @woodlandparkzoo on Instagram. Painting works as a great enrichment opportunity for animals like orangutans, bringing out their natural t

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications WildLights presented by KeyBank —the zoo's first winter lights festival—premieres next week, but we've been daydreaming about sugarplums and snowflakes for months in preparation for the big debut. You can say we’ve been hit with the WildLights bug—Twinkleitus—ever since we saw the preliminary sketches of our zoo lit up with 375,000 sparkling LED lights! A sneak peek at some of the sparkle. It takes a lot of hard work to build such an elaborate lights display, so John Evans, the zoo's guy in charge of this entire operation, assembled a group of LED artisans who blew our socks off with their ingenuity and resourcefulness. A lot of these folks have backgrounds in theater design, carpentry and sculpture, but one of them is even a stuntman from Hollywood. The pop up workshop was full of grinding, drilling, sawing, and lots of ear plugs. The crew worked all summer building flapping flamingos, flying frogs and even a gracef

Posted by: Gigi Allianic and Rebecca Whitham, Communications Good things happen to those who wait, and we’ve been awaiting this good thing for 20 years—the birth of lions at Woodland Park Zoo! Our 3-year-old South African lion Adia gave birth last night to four cubs following a gestation period of 109 days. This is the first litter for mom Adia and 13-year-old father Hubert, and it’s also the first litter born at the zoo since 1991. Right now the cubs are with mom in an off-view maternity den where the new family can bond in a hushed, comfortable environment. Our expert keepers and veterinarian staff are closely monitoring the litter via an internal web cam to ensure Adia is providing excellent maternal care and the cubs are properly nursing. The first 48 to 72 hours after a birth are critical, particularly among mammals. Adia is a first-time mother so naturally there is concern, but we are cautiously optimistic she will instinctively provide attentive materna

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications When you’re the world’s smallest deer, you need a decent predator escape plan in your repertoire. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. If a pudu is threatened, it will run in a zigzag pattern to throw off and confuse its pursuer.

Posted by: Jenny Mears, Education Woodland Park Zoo has teamed up with Project Dragonfly from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio to offer the Advanced Inquiry Program (AIP), an exciting Master’s program for a broad range of environmental and education professionals, including classroom teachers, zoo and aquarium professionals, and informal educators. The AIP offers a groundbreaking graduate degree focused on inquiry-driven learning as a powerful agent for social change, public engagement, and ecological stewardship. Woodland Park Zoo (WPZ) is one of seven institutions across the country that offers the AIP Master’s. The first AIP cohort at WPZ started in 2011 and students have already reported positive changes in their personal and professional lives. We asked Sabrina Hetland, a West Mercer Elementary kindergarten teacher and member of that cohort, to illustrate the impact that this program has had on her teaching, her students, and her life. Sabrina (left) and fellow graduate

Posted by Caileigh Robertson and Kirsten Pisto, Communications Yesterday, animals across the zoo were given enrichment in honor of Sounders fever! The zoo’s own line-up of animals gave it their all at a kicking exhibition to cheer on the Sounders heading to the MLS Cup playoffs. Here’s the rundown… In a pre-game scrimmage, our colony of penguins had a ball with their Sounders gear! Back and forth across the pool, the penguins porpoised through the water and dribbled with their beaks. Along the Northern Trail, Denali and Keema defended their Sounders soccer balls in good old-fashioned bear-to-bear defense. There were no passes to be made.  Keema and Denali held the defensive and both earned yellow cards for carrying the ball! At the other end of the Northern Trail, our wolves chased the Sounders ball between the trees and down the slope of their exhibit. Now if we can just get them to pass the ball or do anything other than bite into

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!