Woodland Park Zoo Blog

These male mountain goat kids whose mothers could not be found will have new homes at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, Woodland Park Zoo and other zoos. Photo courtesy of Northwest Trek Wildlife Park. As state and federal agencies move non-native mountain goats from Olympic National Park to the northern Cascade Mountains, Woodland Park Zoo is partnering with Northwest Trek and Oregon Zoo to provide permanent homes to goat kids without known mothers. “Our plan is to translocate nanny-kid pairs when possible,” said Rich Harris, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife statewide mountain goat manager. “But when young goats cannot be paired up with their mothers, experience from other mountain goat translocation projects is that their survival rates are low.” Northwest Trek Wildlife Park veterinarian Dr. Allison Case joined a team of state and federal veterinarians at Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park this week to examine the mountain goats, conduct physical exams and pro

In India’s Manas National Park, the greater one-horned rhino population was once poached to extinction. But now rhinos are getting a second chance there. So are the people of Manas.  This is the community leading the cause: to look out for rhinos. Video | Rhino Lookout: A Second Chance for Rhinos. “Poachers target the rhino because of its horn. Horn earns a lot of money in the international market,” explains Bibhab Talukdar, Asia Coordinator of the International Rhino Foundation , Woodland Park Zoo’s rhino conservation partner in India. Rhino horn is illegally traded mainly for use in traditional medicines, though it has no medicinal value. It is made of keratin. So are toenails. The rhino’s horn can grow between 8 and 25 inches. “In the late 1980s, early 1990s, there used to be about 80 rhinos in Manas,” according to Bibhab. “But then, due to socio-political unrest, we lost the rhino population. The poachers took advantage of the situation because

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