Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Fred Koontz, PhD, VP Field Conservation Nowhere can we make a greater difference for endangered tigers than to work directly in the field. Just one hundred years ago, more than 100,000 wild tigers roamed the grasslands and forests of Asia. Now, less than 3,200 survive. Behind this sharp decline are decades of habitat loss and illegal killing. Today, conservation scientists worry about an accelerating international demand for tiger parts, such as skin for rugs and bone for Chinese medicine. Poachers are pushing this iconic big cat to the brink of extinction. We’re working hard to change that! As you learned in last summer’s field report , Panthera and Woodland Park Zoo established a 10-year, $1 million partnership to assist our Malaysian colleagues’ efforts to save tigers from extinction. The Malayan tiger ( Panthera tigris jacksoni ) is a tiger subspecies found only on the Malay Peninsula. In the 1950s, there were an estimated 3,000 tigers in Peninsular Malaysia; possib

Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. We have news we want to share: today, Woodland Park Zoo announced we will phase out our on-site elephant program and begin plans to relocate together our Asian elephants, Bamboo and Chai, to another Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) accredited institution. Above all, we are committed to putting the welfare of Bamboo and Chai first. You may recall the Elephant Task Force—a panel of local community representatives and internationally-distinguished scientists and animal care professionals—conducted a critical and thorough external review of the zoo’s elephant program in 2013. Following that, we announced earlier this year a strategic direction to strengthen our Asian elephant program, which included an effort to expand the herd to enhance the social welfare of the animals. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. After several months of working to implement the recommendations of the Elephant Task Force, we have found that adding

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor We’re localphiles in the Pacific Northwest—we like our local food, local brews and local music. At Woodland Park Zoo, we’re working hard to get that sentiment extended to our local wildlife. And now, everything we’re learning from our work with native frogs and our Northwest communities, we’re taking with us all the way across the globe to support conservation efforts in Madagascar. There, “local” takes on a deeper meaning—of Madagascar’s 292 known frog species, all but one exists nowhere else on the planet. Alarmingly, nearly one quarter of these endemic frog species are threatened with extinction. The time for action is now. The critically endangered golden mantella is found only in Madagascar. Photo by John Mather via Wikimedia. The zoo’s Amphibians of Andasibe  project—a Wildlife Survival Fund conservation project—is directly addressing the rapid loss of local amphibians in Madagascar through the support of Association Mitsinjo, a c

Posted by: Cassie Freund, Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program, and Bobbi Miller, Woodland Park Zoo Field Conservation In honor of Orangutan Caring Week, we share this powerful story coming from our Partner for Wildlife: Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program (GPOCP) out of Indonesia. This story chronicles the rescue of four endangered orangutans, and what will happen to them now. Rescued orangutan, Bob. Photo courtesy of International Animal Rescue. It is estimated that there are just over 50,000 Bornean orangutans left in the wild, although numbers are decreasing daily. Orangutans are the largest arboreal animals on the face of the earth today, but they are quickly losing habitat to mining and conversion of land for agriculture, namely palm oil . As habitat is lost, orangutans have nowhere to go, often ending up in the hands of local community members to be kept as pets. Remaining pockets of orangutan habitat are easily accessible from local villages and oran

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. Woodland Park Zoo is “Ready to Rave” for the Seattle Sounders FC facing Dallas in the final leg of the Western Conference semifinals. We recruited the grizzly bears and Asian small-clawed otters to join us in rallying for the Sounders today, and, well, they had a ball! (Get it?) Photo by Stan Milkowski/Woodland Park Zoo. Playing by their own rule book, the otters used their nimble hands to dribble the ball around the exhibit. Then the family of 10 all joined in on the fun of destroying the ball together! Photo by Stan Milkowski/Woodland Park Zoo. Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. Keepers also tossed a soccer ball to each of the grizzly bears, brothers Keema and Denali. It only takes one grizzly bite to deflate a soccer ball! Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. OK, there’s not much

Posted by: Gigi Allianic, Communications One of more than 500 Oregon spotted frogs reared at Woodland Park Zoo that were released into the wild last week. Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. Precious frog . That's the meaning of  Rana pretiosa , the scientific name for the Oregon spotted frog, and a fitting one for a disappearing native. But there's good news to celebrate: more than 500 Oregon spotted frogs reared at Woodland Park Zoo were released last week into marshy wetlands at a protected site in Pierce County. These precious frogs will help rebuild the wild population in their native Northwest. Dr. Jennifer Pramuk, Woodland Park Zoo curator, packing frogs for an early morning release. Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. The frogs were collected from wetlands as eggs and placed at the zoo for hatching and rearing for several months in a predator-free home as they transformed from tadpole to juveniles. This head start increases the

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor Photos by: Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo At just about two weeks old, a typical day for our triplet lion cubs includes filling their bellies with mom’s milk and figuring out how to get their limbs to cooperate with their will to explore. The boys have doubled their birth weight, now weighing between 6.7 and 7.9 pounds. Looks like we’ve got one milk hog in the litter, but don’t worry—all are within a healthy weight range. To make it easier for keepers to tell the cubs apart at a quick glance, each boy has been shaved in a unique spot. When they are all squirming around mom, wrestling for a cuddle or a spot to nurse, sometimes a quick glance is all you get! Video: Lion Triplets Grooming Mom Adia and the cubs are spending quality time together in a behind-the-scenes nursing den where they can have quiet and minimal disturbance. Keepers watch them via an internal video monitor to keep an eye on the family. So far, we only h