Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Story by Ariel Mark, mongabay.com contributor Originally published by mongabay.com ; republished in part via The Global Forest Reporting Network Habitat loss and illegal hunting are leading drivers behind mammal population decline and extinction in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. But what's driving these drivers? Road infrastructure, according to research. Dr. Reuben Clements* from James Cook University, along with his colleagues, conducted the first-ever comprehensive study examining the impacts of road infrastructure on mammal populations in Southeast Asia. Their findings were recently published in PLOS One . An elephant crosses State Road 156. Photo by Reuben Clements. Roads pose extreme environmental challenges, particularly for conservation efforts in the global south, where roads are often intertwined with economic growth and habitat degradation. From just 2005 to 2010, Southeast Asian landscapes saw an increase of total paved roads from 16 to 51 percent,

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor Photo by Steve Winter/Panthera. UPDATE:  Wow! Thanks for showing your stripes for tigers—your online votes from earlier this week helped our on-the-ground conservation partner, MYCAT, win funding to expand anti-poaching patrols in Malaysia. It's amazing what we can do when we join forces as a community with partners in the field to fight for a better future for wildlife!  ORIGINAL STORY: Woodland Park Zoo and Panthera work together with on-the-ground partners in Malaysia to protect tigers and their forests— and now one of those partners needs your help! MYCAT (Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers) needs your vote to receive $30,000+ to expand its CAT Walks program , where trained volunteers trek through Malaysia’s rain forests looking for signs of poachers. Snares and traps are recorded, deactivated and reported to the authorities. A poacher's snare hidden in a tree. Photo: Fred Koontz/WPZ. CAT Walkers celebra

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor Malayan tiger brothers Liem, Eko and Olan arrived from Little Rock Zoo via FedEx cargo shipping last night! The tigers in their travel crates were unloaded from the FedEx cargo plane at Sea-Tac Airport, then moved to a truck where they were loaded in for a quick trip to Woodland Park Zoo. Photo: Martin Ramirez/Woodland Park Zoo. Keepers picked up the boys at Sea-Tac Airport and brought them to their new digs here at Woodland Park Zoo. They'll be getting settled behind the scenes before the all new Banyan Wilds exhibit opens May 2. Two of the brothers at their previous home, Little Rock Zoo. Photo: Karen Caster/Little Rock Zoo. The tigers, each traveling in their own crate, were brought to a behind the scenes area at the zoo specialized for big cats. They were accompanied on their journey by their keepers from Little Rock Zoo who helped them settle in with us. One by one we unloaded the crates into the holding area, allowing the

Posted by: Snow Leopard Trust, a Woodland Park Zoo Partner for Wildlife Editor’s note: The Snow Leopard Trust’s work in Kyrgyzstan is in collaboration with Woodland Park Zoo , with special support from Partnership Funding by Fondation Segré, managed by the Whitley Fund for Nature. Less than a year after launching a pilot program to fight poaching of endangered snow leopards and their prey in Kyrgyzstan, the Snow Leopard Trust and its partners are ‘going national’ to cover all 19 of the country’s state parks and nature reserves, thanks to a grant from the UK government’s Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund. Wild snow leopard recorded by a remote camera. Photo courtesy of Snow Leopard Trust. The project, known as the Citizen-Ranger Wildlife Protection Program (CRWPP), trains, publicly honors, and financially rewards park rangers and local community members who successfully apprehend illegal hunters. It addresses one of the most persistent threats to snow leopards and the

Posted by: Gigi Allianic, Communications Sunny the otter (foreground) with her mate, Duncan. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. For the past couple of decades, a female river otter named Salishan enchanted visitors with her energetic diving, gliding and cuteness. Now we say goodbye to the otter keepers fondly called "Sunny." Sunny was humanely euthanized today at the age of 19 following a period of declining health and lethargy. River otters live 8 to 10 years in the wild and 18 to 20 years in zoos. The zoo’s consulting veterinary cardiologist, Dr. Jerry Woodfield with Northwest Cardiology Consultants, diagnosed the otter a year ago with age-related congestive heart failure. She was given a prognosis of three to six months to live but survived another 12 months. Photo by Dennis Dow/Woodland Park Zoo. “Targeted treatment, close monitoring, excellent supportive care, and lots of TLC by our keeper and veterinary staff all contributed to giving Salishan a v

Photos by Stan Milkowski/Woodland Park Zoo Junior the jaguar encountered a 40-year-old icon in his exhibit: the samoa cookie! As Girl Scouts of Western Washington celebrate the 40th birthday of the popular cookie, Junior received a giant samoa-inspired piñata stuffed with fish and topped with real coconut. We admit: it’s not exactly the same recipe the Girl Scouts use! Next up the Asian small-clawed otter family proved their ability to turn anything into a game when they got their hands—and teeth, and feet, and tails—onto, into and all over an empty box of the iconic cookies. Girl Scouts of Western Washington has been a great supporter of the zoo throughout the years—they have volunteered hours of service, contributed cookie fund donations, and joined us for many of our own zoo celebrations. They came to party, and the Girl Scouts who attended were decked out in cookie-inspired party gear! You can follow the party all week long by looking for #SamoaSightings  on Fa

As many of you know, we have spent the last three months carefully evaluating new homes for Asian elephants Chai and Bamboo in order to give them a chance to join a larger social herd and ensure their long-term health and well-being. Bamboo at Woodland Park Zoo. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. Chai at Woodland Park Zoo. Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo. We are happy to announce that we have selected Oklahoma City Zoo, which best meets our criteria based on recommendations from animal welfare experts: a social herd of Asian elephants into which Chai and Bamboo may successfully integrate, a state-of-the-art facility, a healthy environment free of active infectious disease, high caliber elephant keeper and veterinary staff, a restricted contact management system, and an established history of stable finances and leadership. In the wild elephants live in multi-generational herds, so we are delighted we can place them with a herd that includes younger elephants to