Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications It's official! The jaguar cubs now have daily access to their exhibit from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Jaguar cub up close. Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren Look for the cubs cozying up in the cave or exploring the higher reaches of the exhibit. The cubs may begin retreating to their behind-the-scenes bedroom between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m. Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren Don't miss our Zoo Babies webpage to learn more about the jaguar cubs and the other tiny tykes that now call the zoo home. Love jaguars and want to support our conservation efforts to protect them and other wildlife ? Become a jaguar ZooParent today! Your ZooParent adoption helps us care for the animals at the zoo and sends $5 directly to field conservation projects in the wild.

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Photos by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo, Video by Caileigh Robertson/Woodland Park Zoo [ UPDATE: The jaguar cubs have now made their official debut and have daily access to their exhibit, 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.] It’s a good thing these jaguar cubs are creatures of the rain forest, as their very first steps outdoors were soggy ones. Three-month-old jaguar triplets—brother Kuwan and sisters Inka and Arizona—had their first practice session outside today. The trio is getting ready for their official public debut, which should be coming up any day as the cubs get used to their new digs. Before the zoo opened to the public this morning, a lucky few of us zoo staff gathered around the exhibit at Jaguar Cove and watched to see what would happen when the jaguars’ den door opened. Out came the cubs for the first time, bouncing out with less of a predatory slinking and more of an enthusiastic tromping. The keepers pred

Posted by: Dr. Deborah B. Jensen, President and CEO Dr. Deborah B. Jensen. Photo by Matt Hagen. We have less than 20 years to save the tiger, or say goodbye to it forever.  For millennia, the tiger has occupied a vibrant place in our collective consciousness—an icon revered in our mythology and folklore, enjoyed in our films and literature. Sadly, over the last century this magnificent animal has become one of the fastest-vanishing species on our planet. The decline owes to a lethal blend of high-class sport hunting; loss of forest habitat to logging, agriculture and growing urban areas; and a rampant increase in illegal poaching to supply tiger body parts for traditional medicine, ornamentation, and financing the black market drug trade. Numbering as many as 100,000 in the early 1900s, as few as 3,200 tigers are left on the planet. In fact, today more tigers live in captivity than in the wild. Isolation, habitat loss and poaching threaten all tiger subspecies in the w

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications Photos by Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo. Kids love bugs. There is just something irresistible about the creepy crawlies that slither, march and fly around us. Maybe it is their intriguing size or perhaps their alien form. Either way, I've seen a group of kids snub a jaguar for a trail of ants, seriously. We have plenty of bugs at the zoo, inside and out. Our Bug World exhibit is brimming with roaches, gigantic spiders and the coolest looking leaf insects you’ll ever see. We also happen to live in a region that is teeming with insects that can be found in our own backyards. Connecting kids to the insects in their backyard is a big part of connecting them to the idea of living landscapes . Every organism is a player, and if you start with the little guys, it is easy to get kids on board with that concept. We hung with Zoomazium interns Brianna Morley and Saritha Beauchamp as they led a group of youngsters and their parents to Zo

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications If you give a black-breasted leaf turtle a hibiscus...she might ask for another petal! Part of Alyssa Borek’s job as Day Exhibit keeper is to ensure all of her residents get a variety of food and enrichment items. Sometimes this means giving an animal a new palatable experience; such was the case with this sweet, little black-breasted leaf turtle and her hibiscus dinner. Video: Black-breasted leaf turtle snacks on hibiscus. Video by Alyssa Borek/Woodland Park Zoo. The adorable clip above shows a tiny taste-test starring our black-breasted leaf turtle, Geoemyda spengleri, and her appetite for a hibiscus petal. Four stars to the chef! Day Exhibit keeper, Alyssa, answers a few questions about this daring culinary adventure… What does this turtle usually eat in the wild? In the wild, these turtles eat various invertebrates, such as insects, worms, and grubs. They also eat decaying fruit found on the forest floor and venture in

Posted by: Caileigh Robertson, Communications Photos by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo except where otherwise noted. The truth is, Junior buckled. Leading up to the naming ceremony, the communications and animal management teams prepared with hours of work: planning the press op, selecting culturally significant names, molding papier-mâché enrichment into maracas, and warming up Junior to practice piñatas for a successful ceremony. Three name options chosen by jaguar zookeepers—Cruz, Tlaloc and Kuwan—were individually paired with tasty, enticing piñatas and hung from a low tree branch for Junior in Jaguar Cove Friday morning. The goal was for Junior to bite into one of the named piñatas and thus ultimately decide the name of his first-born son. The three colorful piñatas tempted Junior toward his big decision with the scents of raw, juicy chicken, which was stuffed inside the maracas. With the lure of his favorite treat, there was no doubt Junior would be game to complete th

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications The naming contest ends this Saturday, but for right now, we’re calling our new Asian small-clawed otter pair mom and dad. That’s because the pair delivered pups on Tuesday, June 11 behind the scenes of their Bamboo Forest Reserve exhibit! Mom and dad. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. In celebration of our new otter pop this Father’s Day, we’re giving away Otter Pops to zoo visitors on Sunday, June 16. Pick up a free Otter Pop while supplies last at the Rain Forest Food Pavilion. We’d love to be able to share photos of the new pups with you, but we haven’t seen much of them yet! The attentive parents are keeping them tucked away in their behind-the-scenes den. We can hear vocalizations and have an internal cam set up so keepers can keep a watchful eye on the family and hopefully get a pup count soon! While mom nurses the cubs, dad helps by gathering food and nesting material. He stands guard over the vulnerable pups, who a