Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Congratulations to our ZooParent photo contest winners, Paul and Hannah DaRosa, whose Ottie the Otter took a big trip to their wedding for a series of photos worthy of the grand prize! Thanks to all who entered and had some fun with their ZooParent plushes! Become a ZooParent  today. You can pick your favorite animal or select the seasonal special — jaguars ! The special is also now available at ZooStores and makes the perfect gift. Your adoption helps support the daily care of the animals at the zoo, and $5 of the adoption goes directly to wildlife conservation in the Pacific Northwest and around the world.

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications There’s been a break in the sea of pink over at the flamingo exhibit. In the past week, we've had six tiny, white puffs in the form of flamingo chicks hatch out on exhibit. Generally, we let the chicks stay on the nest for the first five days, where they are well looked after by their parents. But once they become a bit more mobile and are ready to head out of the nest, we bring the chicks and their parents behind the scenes where they can get through the first few weeks of rearing together in a more protected environment. Newly hatched chick in nest. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Ideally the flamingo parents will feed and raise the chicks on their own. Some are first time parents and others are experienced. Zookeepers watch over the young families very closely, and are ready to step in to incubate eggs or rear chicks if it looks like any of the families are in need of a little help. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Pa

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications This might be the first time our four male otter pups have done something that can be classified as “swimming” outside. A tiny pup goes for a swim. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. We've seen them dip into the smaller pools in their exhibit, as well as one we keep for them behind the scenes, and they've flopped into the running water outside a few times, not always intentionally. But on Tuesday morning, we watched the family of Asian small-clawed otters head into the large pool in their exhibit and splash around outside for their first real swim together. A parent is always watching over the pups. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. The pups pushed out into the pool with mom Teratai and dad Guntur joining them, watching intently. The boys stuck close to the pool’s edge near the reeds, which offered them something to grab onto and a way to pull themselves out if swim time got too overwhelming for them. Kee

Posted by: Caileigh Robertson, Communications The Indianapolis Prize —the world’s leading award for animal conservation—has announced the 2014 nominees, and we are so proud to see Woodland Park Zoo’s Dr. Lisa Dabek named among some of the very best in the field. Dr. Lisa Dabek, center, works in Papua New Guinea’s YUS region, home to the endangered Matschie’s tree kangaroo . Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Lisa Dabek is the Director of Woodland Park Zoo’s flagship conservation program, Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program (TKCP), and it’s for her international work saving endangered Matschie’s tree kangaroos and their Papua New Guinea (PNG) habitat that she has been nominated. Photo: Bruce Beehler/Conservation International Thirty-nine conservationists who have dedicated their lives to saving the Earth’s endangered species have been nominated to receive the biennial Indianapolis Prize. The winner of the Prize will receive an unrestricted $250,000 cash award and the Li

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications The giraffe calf has grown nearly a foot since his birth 3 weeks ago, towering in at just about 7 feet tall now. But there’s another tell-tale sign of growth to look for: the formation of the calf’s ossicones. Notice mom’s fully formed ossicones and the little ones just starting to take shape on baby’s head. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Ossicones are the horn-like protuberances giraffes sport on their heads. They are formed from ossified cartilage (cartilage that has transformed into bone) and covered in skin and fur. Remember what looked like a little tuft of hair on baby when he was first born? One-day-old giraffe with flat ossicones. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Those were his little ossicones, all flat and barely developed. But over the weeks they have begun to harden. You can see in these pictures at one-week-old how the ossicones are beginning to take shape. One-week-old ossicones, the profile v

Posted by: Dr. Deborah B. Jensen, President and CEO African elephant Watoto watches Asian elephant Chai at play. Photo by Ryan Hawk/WPZ. As our dear friends and supporters of the zoo, I wanted to share with you the latest news from the Elephant Task Force . This group of community leaders was recently charged with providing an objective evaluation of the health and social well-being of Woodland Park Zoo’s elephants, and an assessment of the zoo’s elephant breeding program. Read the full report. Last night, the task force released a report from its Expert Review Panel comprised of six internationally recognized scientific experts in elephant care and behavioral health. The panel included respected scientific leaders from academic veterinary research and medicine, as well as animal science sectors. The Expert Review Panel reaffirmed that Woodland Park Zoo’s elephants Watoto, Chai and Bamboo are in good medical health and the behavioral and social well-being of all three e

Posted by: Dr. Deborah B. Jensen, President and CEO Mother Nature isn’t always kind. Just as some human babies are born with congenital conditions that throw their parents for a loop, leading them to make extraordinary commitments to their children’s special needs, the same can be true for animals. As you recall from last year’s stories , our endangered snow leopard cubs, Asha and Shanti, now 15 months old, were born with multiple ocular coloboma. This relatively rare congenital eye anomaly affects both human and non-human animals including Bengal tigers, Florida panthers, snow leopards, horses, and certain breeds of domestic cats and dogs. In Greek, coloboma means “unfinished.” The eye stops growing before it is fully developed. Ultimately, Asha and Shanti would develop functional vision only in their left eyes. Many of you wrote to us with outpourings of encouragement and hope for the cubs’ struggle, and for the expert staff caring for them. So I’d like to update you since th