Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by: Kirsten Pisto, Communications Photos by: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo You might think of Halloween costumes as the perfect disguise, but our quiz will reveal the true you. Find the best animal costume to match your personality by taking our quiz, Which Animal Should I be for Halloween? Discover your wild side and get DIY animal costume tips in time for Woodland Park Zoo's Pumpkin Bash! www.zoo.org/halloween After you've taken the quiz, check out a few easy DIY tips and tricks below to create the perfect animal costume just in time for Pumpkin Bash! Once you have your costume you can take advantage of our exclusive Pumpkin Bash discount: one child 12 years and under in costume is admitted FREE with a paid adult (cannot be combined with any other discount or promotion).   Bali Mynah You are gregarious and charming. Your flock of friends is always close by and you prefer to hang with the in-crowd. Your charismatic demeanor

Posted by: Snow Leopard Trust, a Woodland Park Zoo Partner for Wildlife Hello, snow leopard! A remote camera detected this elusive animal in the Shamshy Wildlife Sanctuary, Kyrgyzstan. Photo by SLF Kyrgyzstan / Snow Leopard Trust / SAEPF Researchers have captured the elusive snow leopard on camera in Shamshy, Kyrgyzstan, the first evidence that a bold strategy to transform a former hunting reserve into a protected wildlife preserve is working. Through a new, innovative conservation program piloted by Seattle-based Snow Leopard Trust, Woodland Park Zoo, Snow Leopard Foundation Kyrgyzstan and the Kyrgyz Department of Hunting and Natural Resource Management, the 100 square mile area of Shamsy in Kyrgyzstan’s northern Tian Shan mountains was converted from a hunting concession to a co-managed nature reserve in 2015. Shamsy is home to ibex and seasonal populations of argali and wolves. It lies within a large snow leopard landscape, and has the potential to become a key part of the

Posted by: Rebecca Whitham, Editor with Gigi Allianic, Communications Team Oily Palms, Seattle Zoohackathon winners. Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. Team Oily Palms gave a helping hand to wildlife this weekend with Seattle Zoohackathon's winning solution, a citizen science tool that empowers locals to report deforestation activity such as illegal logging and fires. This people-minded solution was the perfect embodiment of what Zoohackathon is all about: tapping into the community to bring new eyes to old problems and innovate solutions that advance the ongoing efforts of NGOs, governments, and organizations like Woodland Park Zoo committed to ending wildlife trafficking. The first event of its kind, this weekend's Zoohackathon took place simultaneously at six leading conservation technology zoos around the world: Woodland Park Zoo, San Diego Zoo, Saint Louis Zoo, Smithsonian National Zoo, London Zoo and Sydney's Taronga Zoo. The winning solutions f

Posted by: Alejandro Grajal, PhD, President and CEO Last week, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk detailed his goal to make humans a multi-planetary species. He believes, as do I and many scientists, that humans are at a crossroads. Life on Earth as we know it is headed to its sixth extinction event. He says we can stay here and face the consequences, or we can become a space-faring species. Hanging out on Mars would be a handy option when Earth gets too crowded and its resources too depleted. His vision is we should build a highway to Mars now and begin colonizing, and he wants the whole world involved. Clearly, such out-of-the-box thinking gets attention and investment. It certainly gets my attention. Not necessarily because I agree or disagree with Musk. I must admit that whether we should colonize Mars is not a question that keeps me up at night. The question that does keep me up at night is this: How can we do more to save the planet we’re already on? Rather than make humans into a mult

Posted by: Alissa Wolken, Communications Video: Flamingo chick goes for a run. The flamingo chick who needed a second chance is now in first place. Take a look at the 7-week-old chick's impressive running skills. Hatched in August, the third flamingo hatching of the year, this chick started life in a precarious situation. The egg was found unattended so zookeepers took it behind the scenes to incubate safely. Once hatched, the chick had a dedicated team of zookeepers and animal health staff ready to give it the care and attention it needed to thrive. “In less than two months it’s gone from receiving up to five feedings a day to being fully weaned. The chick now weighs a little over 2 pounds and is big enough to go on longer walks, with keepers, in safe outdoor areas off public view," said zookeeper John Samaras. Throughout the day, zookeepers hold exercise sessions with the chick to encourage it to walk and stretch to strengthen its growing legs. "When i

Posted by: Bobbi Miller, Field Conservation, Woodland Park Zoo and Kae Kawanishi, PhD, MYCAT Saving tigers is a complicated business. It’s not enough for researchers and conservationists just to know where the tigers are. Saving them requires knowing how many there are, where and how they travel, what their prey base is, how to sustain them and what the imminent threats are to their survival. From this vast database of knowledge comes one obvious fact: the tigers need to have a place to live and a way to safely move from place to place. Enter Woodland Park Zoo Wildlife Survival Fund partner Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (MYCAT) and their recent Rewilding of the Sungai Yu Reforestation project. The project is a component of the Sungai Yu Tiger Corridor Conservation Program, which is striving to return wildlife and forests to the Sungai Yu tiger corridor in Peninsular Malaysia. During her doctoral work, Kae Kawanishi, MYCAT General Manager and Head of Conservation, ide

Posted by: Ryan Driscoll, Education Western Washington is known for its amazing outdoor opportunities. This summer, participants in the ZooCrew Summer Learning Program took full advantage of those opportunities to sharpen their science skills and explore the ecosystems around the Puget Sound. From hiking Mount Rainier to working with local field biologists, students examined the different parts of the watershed while learning about how humans and animals interact with their environments. This cultural access program is about more than just exposing students to new careers and building their science skills—it is about our mission to inspire the next generation of conservation leaders. We want youth to see themselves as scientists and to understand not only that there are issues in our area, but that they can help to investigate and solve them. At the top of a watershed hiking Mount Rainier. Over two four-week sessions this summer, 18 6th and 7th grade students from Asa Merc