Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Fred Koontz, Vice President of Field Conservation and Jennifer Pramuk, Animal Curator Washington has a reputation for being wet all the time, yet that infamous wet weather belies the real story—our actual wetlands are disappearing, and along with them our native frogs. The most aquatic frog of all in the Northwest is the Oregon spotted frog, who has become an ambassador for our local wetlands now that it has been thrust into the national spotlight. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Why are all eyes suddenly on this little frog? The Oregon spotted frog is currently being considered for protection as a threatened species under the Federal Endangered Species Act—a listing we hope to see become reality. Though the timeline may be impacted by the government shutdown, there's no doubt that this opportunity presents a major milestone for Northwest conservation. For the past five years, Woodland Park Zoo has been working with the Washington Department of Fish and

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. Happy 8th birthday to our wonderful momma jaguar! May your day be filled with uninterrupted cat naps, Nayla.

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications …Or face-lift, you know, a makeover, remodel, renovation. Last spring, what started with some peeling paint and worn out walls in the kookaburra exhibit in Woodland Park Zoo's Australasia biome turned into a larger project. The exhibits crew spent the summer rebuilding the entire space. Now, the exhibit's resident kookaburras, honeyeaters and masked plovers have settled back into their newly revamped digs, complete with a fresh coat of paint and luscious foliage. Top: Honeyeater, bottom: Masked plover and right: Laughing kookaburra. Photos: Dennis Dow/WPZ.  The crew did an awesome job designing a shallow wading pool for these birds that live near streams and marshes in their native Australia. They also installed proper lighting (with energy efficient light bulbs) for the collection of plants in the exhibit. Then the horticulture team added some beautiful vegetation that mimics an Australian forest, including grasses, unde

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications This summer, we invited kids, ages 6 – 12, to submit their short stories about a Northwest animal encounter, fiction or non-fiction, to our MyZoo magazine Amazing Animal Encounters writing contest! Here are the winners! Our Grand Prize winner, Alice Yang, 11 years old: One morning, I was eating breakfast before leaving for my friend’s house to go to a birthday party. I was looking out our glass sliding door, next to the dinner table. It was a gloomy day; I wouldn't have been surprised if it rained.  There was a small patch of forest next to our house, but it was fenced off. I looked at the fence and saw something strange. There was a brown cat on it! It had been very still and I hadn't noticed it. The cat was in the neighbor's side of the fence, and I stared at it.   Suddenly it turned around and I saw its rather short tail. It suddenly dawned on me that it was much too large to be a regular house cat, and the short t

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications You can still call him “cutie,” but our nearly 8-foot-tall, 7-week-old baby giraffe  now has an official name: Misawa (me-SAW-wah). Misawa at one month old. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. The name was selected by the current class of Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine students. The zoo works with the WSU program to mentor the next generation of wildlife veterinarians. What better way to honor that connection than by letting them name one of the most beloved ambassadors of the next generation of zoo animals? Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. The students chose the name Misawa, a common greeting in an indigenous Luo language from Tanzania and southwest Kenya, to honor the giraffe’s native range. It’s an especially fitting connection, given the school’s dedication to human and wildlife health through their Global Animal Health programs in east Africa, a region native to giraffes like Misawa.

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications Photos by: Kirsten Pisto/Woodland Park Zoo It's back to school these days, and even our baby eyelash palm pit viper is ready with school supplies. Here are seven tips for a successful school day, according to our pencil-loving snakeling. 1. Always bring your favorite pencil. This baby eyelash palm pit viper, born August 23, weighs about 0.1 ounces (2.9 grams). We brought a pencil to the photo shoot to help show scale, and that pencil quickly became the property of this little snake. 2. Protect your pencil at all costs. Eyelash palm pit vipers are ovoviviparous, which means they give birth to live young, instead of laying eggs. This snakeling is certainly a live wire! 3. Pay attention or you’ll get tangled in knots. Handling a baby eyelash palm pit viper is dangerous. They are venomous; do not play with snakes and pencils. Our keeper, Alyssa, was holding the pencil with a special tool for handling venomous snakes. 4

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Communications Even dragons start out small. Have you seen the two Komodo dragon juveniles now living at the Adaptations Building at the zoo? Born in January at the Memphis Zoo as part of the Species Survival Plan for this endangered species, the duo moved here this summer to be raised in our ample dragon digs. Hard to imagine these tiny critters, who each weigh in at about one-and-a-half pounds (650 grams), will one day be as big as our 15-year-old male Selat, who is 110 pounds (50 kilograms). Though, they won’t reach adult size until they're about 7 to 10 years old! Once these dragons mature, they’ll continue to participate in the Species Survival Plan and may move on to other zoos if they are matched up with a partner for breeding. It’ll be some time before they are ready for that next step. For now, the juveniles are on view next door to Selat. We've built a little apartment for them inside one of the Komodo dragon exhibits th