Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Show your love as a ZooParent through Instagram or Twitter and be entered to win a grand prize featuring a behind-the-scenes Real Close Tour and a Jaguar ZooParent adoption . Contest runs through August 31, 2013. How to Enter: Follow @woodlandparkzoo on Instagram or Twitter    Take a photo of you and your ZooParent plush animal doing something fun to share with us on Instagram or Twitter. You can be at the zoo, around town or even at a tea party in your backyard. Get creative! Tag @woodlandparkzoo in your Instagram or Twitter photo entry and include #ZooParent to be automatically entered into the contest. See complete rules and prizes . Good luck!

Posted by: Pattie Beaven, Zookeeper and Member of Puget Sound Chapter – American Association of Zoo Keepers Zookeeper Pattie Beaven gives an elephant-sized shout out to American Association of Zoo Keepers (AAZK).  This week is a special week for many of us at the zoo. This week is National Zoo Keeper Week celebrated by the American Association of Zoo Keepers . So what's it mean to be a zookeeper? Words aren't enough to describe this amazing job and the amazing animals. You know that feeling you get when your dog wags its tail in greeting when you come home? Imagine having a pack of wolves greet you in a similar manner! Wolf greetings. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Cats purr when they are content, and it can give us great pleasure to have our kitties sit in our laps, eyes closed, purring away. Now imagine having an 8,000-pound elephant purr with contentment upon seeing you. These are the joys of being a zookeeper. An elephant gets a scrub from a z

Posted by: Wendy Gardner, Zookeeper Photos by Wendy Gardner/Woodland Park Zoo Who weighs nearly 100 pounds, belongs to a family of mammals (Macropodidae) whose name means “big feet,” has a long, muscular tail that helps with balance, turning and support while resting, and cannot walk backwards? Harry gets a food reward for cooperating with his treatment. That would be Harry, our male wallaroo who lives in the zoo’s Australasia zone. Harry came to Woodland Park Zoo in October 2008 as 2.5-year-old sub-adult, a term we use to describe juveniles that have not yet reached sexual maturity. In December of 2008 he weighed about 62 lb (28 kg), but as of June 2013, the now adult wallaroo weighs just shy of 100 lb (44 kg). That’s a good weight for him, but that size and strength means we do not want to have to hand catch him if he were to ever need medical attention, both for our own safety and to prevent stress for him. We decided using operant conditioning to get Harry not o

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Happy National Zoo Keeper Week! If you've been enjoying the baby boom at the zoo this past year, then you have our dedicated keepers to thank. It’s their hard work in matching up animal mates, caring for growing families, and keeping babies healthy that makes it all possible. Next time you see a zookeeper, let them know what their work means to you and your family! Video: Celebrating zookeepers at Woodland Park Zoo. Video by VIA Creatives. The late Dana Payne, a Woodland Park Zoo curator, poignantly summed up the work of the zookeeper in an end note he wrote for local artist Catherine Eaton Skinner’s book, Unleashed : “Those of us who have chosen a life with animals know we have chosen well. Having a conversation with a lion is a fine way to start one’s day. For that matter, so is tossing tidbits to a toucan, or medicating a cobra. There’s something there, in the lion’s luminous eyes, in the gaudy splendor of the toucan

Posted by: Dr. Deborah B. Jensen, President and CEO Did you know that, on average, residents of King County spend as much as 90 percent of our time within 25 miles of home? Given our Northwest love of all things outdoors, thank goodness we have King County’s 200 parks and 175 miles of regional trails to provide us access to nature’s wonders. Whether it’s an expansive network of open spaces and trails or Woodland Park Zoo’s beloved 92-acre urban oasis—we all win when we protect our big backyard. That’s why I encourage you on August 6 to vote YES on King County Proposition One and renew essential support for King County Parks, suburban city parks and Woodland Park Zoo through 2019. A young girl connects with nature at the zoo's award-winning Humboldt penguin exhibit. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Svane. General fund support to King County parks was eliminated as of 2011, so keeping parks open and safe depends on you, me and other county residents renewing two 2007 voter-

Posted by: Gigi Allianic, Communications The question on everyone's mind is: who will give birth first—the Duchess of Cambridge or the Duchess of Phinney Ridge? Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. The zoo's own duchess, 6-year-old Rothschild’s giraffe Olivia, is expected to give birth any day now. With a gestation period of 14 to 15 months, Olivia’s window to give birth is pretty wide—it began June 24 and closes August 12, explained Martin Ramirez, a curator at the zoo. Olivia’s belly is pretty big and she’s carrying low so we expect a calf any day. Zookeepers are keeping a close watch for signs of labor which may include restlessness, loss of appetite, or biting or licking her flanks. We will bring Olivia into the barn and mobilize a 24-hour birth watch at the first sign of labor, and we also have a den cam installed in the barn to monitor the new family. The last viable birth of a giraffe at the zoo was in 1997. There’s a lot of excitement at the zoo for this

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communication Jaguar cubs Arizona, Inka and Kuwan. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. This week marked the final post-birth exam for the triplet jaguar cubs . These early in life check-ups are meant to ensure the cubs are gaining weight and hitting all of their developmental benchmarks, while also providing the opportunity to give vaccinations, draw blood samples for routine tests, and establish their health baselines. With the cubs now four months old and weighing 25-28 pounds, completing these exams can be a challenge. The cubs first need to be transferred one by one to the zoo’s Animal Health hospital. Getting the cubs into their transfer crate requires their cooperation—something they aren’t always willing to give. Cats will be cats. Arizona is readied for her exam. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Once a cub arrives at the hospital, it is anesthetized for the exam. This allows the zoo’s veterinary team to get in close to in