Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Elizabeth Bacher, Communications Saturday, September 1st is officially Vulture Awareness Day! Modoc is a very special vulture!  Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo. At Woodland Park Zoo, we appreciate vultures like Modoc, our 32-year old turkey vulture, every day! Why? Because vultures all over the world help keep our ecosystems healthy and clean. Vultures don’t hunt live prey. They’re mostly scavengers that feed on dead animals which would otherwise rot. The acids in their stomach are so strong that they can neutralize all kinds of dangerous germs and bacteria—which helps minimize the spread of disease to other animals and to people. Featherless or lightly feathered heads help vultures, like Modoc, keep clean while feeding on carcasses. Photo by Elizabeth Bacher/Woodland Park Zoo. Even though it might not look like it at first glance, vultures are also role models for good hygiene! Carcasses can be messy, so featherless or lightly feathered hea

By: Alejandro Grajal, President and CEO Imagine what it would be like if you never came to the zoo. You may have memories of your children enjoying the open space, learning about animals, or just being happy to share time with you. But in a wildly booming city like ours, we are also seeing increasing economic inequality. Too many of our neighbors, community groups, and families never have the chance to come and enjoy the zoo. As the President and CEO of Woodland Park Zoo, I am proud of our efforts to more than double the opportunities to keep our zoo accessible to everyone in our community– whether it’s through complimentary passes to local nonprofit partners or through new programs we launched to make the zoo more affordable and accessible to all. A quiet moment on the Northern Trail. Through the $5 DiscoverTicket and a $35 Explorer Pass membership , current recipients of Washington Quest/EBT and/or WIC assistance will have more opportunities to visit the zoo. The $5 Disc

Posted by Elizabeth Bacher, Communications Male gorilla, Kwame, will become new leader of gorilla family group We are very excited to welcome a new gorilla to Woodland Park Zoo this September: a male named Kwame (KWA-may) who will be coming from Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Kwame is 18 years old—right in the age range when males typically assume the role of silverback, which is the head of a gorilla family group. Keepers at  Smithsonian’s National Zoo think  Kwame is one of the most handsome silverbacks they've ever seen. We are inclined to agree. Photo credit: Skip Brown/Smithsonian’s National Zoo Silverbacks, which are so named because of the silvery hairs that grow in when an adolescent male comes of age, play a critical role in gorilla families. They protect, they lead and they maintain peace in the group. It’s not natural for an established gorilla family to live without a silverback. The Gorilla Species Survival Plan, one of many conservation pro

Posted by Kirsten Pisto, Communications Earlier this summer, in celebration of the opening of Assam Rhino Reserve, we asked artists of all ages to show us their vision of a healthy future for greater one-horned rhinos with the Rhino Lookout coloring contest. Over 350 amazing entries rolled in, and we realized that picking the winners would be very tough. Here are the very creative and inspiring winners... Grand Prize:  KIDS AGES 2-7:  Gavin Foglesong (5)  "They are living creatures and they are alive. And you need to save them when they’re in trouble. If you’re there, try to stop the bad guy."  We couldn't agree more, Gavin, and we loved your optimistic pot of gold representing a healthy future for rhinos. Wonderful drawing! Gavin will receive a ZooParent rhino adoption package and certificate for an up-close rhino experience. Grand Prize:  KIDS AGES 8-12:  Ally Munoz (12) "It is important to protect them from poachers, habitat los

Posted by Daphne Matter, ZooCorps Intern Photos by Daphne Matter, Woodland Park Zoo. Woodland Park Zoo staff pledged to reduce or refuse single-use plastics during Plastic Free July! With support from Seattle Public Utilities, we then invited you to join us by taking the Plastic Free for Me pledge . Here is a recap of what we learned, what we found difficult to give up and a few surprising plastic confessions. Participants will receive a #PlasticFreeForMe water bottle sticker. Thank you to all those who participated in our Plastic Free for Me campaign! 236 of you joined us in our collective effort to lessen our impact on the environment during the month of July. By reducing your consumption of single-use plastics and taking this pledge, you have done your part to save wildlife from the great threat that plastic pollution poses. Why is it so important to keep plastic waste out of our oceans? Plastic presents a grave issue in our world today, especially for marine lif

Posted by Kelly Lindmark, Education Coyote picture captured by a camera trap as part of a student research project.  Photo: Issaquah School District and Woodland Park Zoo. Woodland Park Zoo is on a new mission, to save wildlife and inspire everyone to make conservation a priority in their lives. We think that starts right here, in the Pacific Northwest, where we are working with Issaquah School District 6th grade Life Science students and teachers to investigate local carnivores and use their findings to make recommendations for peaceful coexistence to their community. Wild Wise: Coexisting with Carnivores offers students a chance to develop their science inquiry, civic literacy and leadership skills as they investigate solutions for living with the carnivores in their communities. This spring, students and teachers at five Issaquah middle schools worked with zoo educators to develop and carry out scientific investigations of local carnivores — black bears, bobcats

Posted by Kirsten Pisto with President and CEO, Alejandro Grajal PhD A tree kangaroo checks out the hikers. Photo by Alejandro Grajal/Woodland Park Zoo. Woodland Park Zoo President and CEO, Alejandro Grajal, PhD, recently returned from his trip to Papua New Guinea, where he explored the community and conservation impacts of Woodland Park Zoo's Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program (TKCP). His mission? Experience first-hand the TKCP community and landscape that coexist in remarkable ways, bring back some of their stories, and change the batteries on three radio collars attached to three tree kangaroos that live nearly three stories about the forest floor. Woodland Park Zoo’s own Lisa Dabek, PhD, started the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program over 20 years ago. Her dedication to saving species has created a network of partners and communities that protect over 160,000 acres of tropical cloud forest, villages, plantations and grasslands, as well as 100 acres of coral reef i