Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Posted by Janel Kempf, Early Childhood When the month of May rolls around in the Pacific Northwest, the earth feels completely alive. Flowers are in full bloom, Douglas-fir trees are decked out in new light green branch tips, and some of those invasive weeds like Himalayan blackberry are growing like... well, weeds. As they do. We work hard on our gardens to get just what we want growing there, but there are lots of plants that grow just fine without our help. That doesn’t mean they don’t need any help from anyone, though. Plants all around the world rely on animals to help them thrive, whether by creating fertile soil, pollinating flowers, or even planting seeds. Planting seeds? Absolutely! Herbivores (plant-eaters) and omnivores (everything-eaters) eat a dizzying array of plants and plant parts. And some of those plant parts are there specifically to be eaten! Just as flowers are a plant’s way of attracting pollinators, fruits are a plant’s way of attracting seed dispersers—anima

Posted by Gigi Allianic, Communications Today in honor of Endangered Species Day, we are excited to announce the name of Uzumma's baby boy: Kitoko (ki-TOE-koh), which means beautiful or handsome in the African languages, Lingala /Kikongo. The opportunity to name the baby gorilla was given to Woodland Park Zoo Board member Rosemarie Havranek and her family, Nathan, Cameron, and Conor Myhrvold, as a small token of gratitude for their long-time, generous support of Woodland Park Zoo’s mission to save wildlife and inspire everyone to make conservation a priority in their lives. “Our family has supported the zoo for many decades and the opportunity to name the newest baby gorilla is an honor. We have spent many hours at the zoo as a family, observing the wildlife and teaching our sons about the important work of animal conservation,” says Rosemarie Havranek. “Woodland Park Zoo's mission of animal conservation locally and globally reminds us that we need to take care of t

Posted by Elizabeth Bacher, Communications Jibini at 1 month old and already a big boy! Photo: Elizabeth Bacher/Woodland Park Zoo We’d love to introduce you to the newest, and youngest member of our Ambassador Team—although he is certainly not the smallest! At least not anymore. This is Jibini. He is a Verreaux eagle owl, more commonly known as a milky eagle owl—the first of his species at Woodland Park Zoo. Anytime you hear of a species that is called an ‘eagle owl,’ it immediately begs the question “is it an eagle or an owl”? The ‘eagle’ part is a size reference. This bird is technically a very large owl—one of the largest in the world actually! A tiny Jibini at 13 days old. Photo: Regina Smith/Woodland Park Zoo After arriving as an egg from Zoo Atlanta, where his parents live, Jibini hatched on January 28th under the watchful eye of our dedicated keepers. He was smaller than a tennis ball at the time and, like many bird species, he was mostly featherless except for so

Posted by Kodi Jo Jaspers, Community Conservation Liaison Photos courtesy of Seattle Urban Carnivore Project / Woodland Park Zoo and Seattle University. On August 12th, 2019, the online carnivore reporting tool, Carnivore Spotter , was launched. Carnivore Spotter is part of the larger Seattle Urban Carnivore Project, a collaboration between Woodland Park Zoo and Seattle University. Over the last ten months many of our community members from across the greater Seattle area have shared their carnivore sightings. You have uploaded coyote sightings in Queen Anne, black bear reports in Issaquah and everything in between. Many of these reports also included media, such as videos or photos. We are especially excited when we receive reports with media, as it lets us see the exciting sightings you all are seeing in our city, and also allows us to verify the report. Each report is individually reviewed, and those that do include photos, video or audio are verified to ensure that these obse

Posted by Janel Kempf, Early Childhood First, don’t worry—this does not involve butting heads with your kids. But it does give us all an excuse to think about some high-spirited zoo residents who arrived here as kids. Literally kids, in their case—mountain goats Zeus and Hera! You might remember these two arriving at the zoo in 2018 and 2019 as young kids who couldn’t be matched up with mothers during efforts to relocate the species from the Olympic Mountains to the North Cascades. Mountain goats are native to the Cascades, but were introduced to the Olympics in the 1920s to provide hunting opportunities. Zeus, Hera, and the 275 goats successfully relocated to the North Cascades over the past two and a half years are descendants of those goats. Mountain goats do a lot of scrambling, leaping, and bouncing—behaviors you might have also noticed in your early learners! Full-body, active play is vitally important for growing bodies. Equally so for growing minds, since a st

Posted by Elizabeth Bacher, Communications Uzumma enjoying the spring sunshine with her 2-month old baby. Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo We know you’ve been waiting for an update on mama Uzumma, her baby, dad Kwame and the rest of our Western lowland gorilla family—so here it is, just in time for Uzumma’s first Mother’s Day! Big thanks to gorilla keepers Stephanie and Judy for providing so many rich and descriptive details for us to share … and we’re happy to begin with the news that everything is going great and everyone seems healthy and content! WATCH VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/q40AGP4AcXA The group continues to do well with the new baby, who is about 2 months old now and will be named very soon. All the gorillas are still giving Uzumma lots of space when she needs it, and reverence. It’s common for members of a gorilla family to show a lot of respect for a new mother and infant—elevating their status in the group hierarchy. And seeing as Uzumma was already

Posted by Elizabeth Bacher, Communications Photos courtesy of RS Holcomb There are two reasons to celebrate birds this week! Today, May 4th, is Bird Day. A tradition that started more than 120 years ago, it’s one of the oldest days set aside to promote North American bird conservation. And this coming Saturday, May 9th marks World Migratory Bird Day . This event has a broader focus on seasonal visitors and the need for protection of our planet’s major flight corridors between Africa and Eurasia, East Asia and Australia, and the Americas.  Annual migratory corridors for birds all over the world. Courtesy of Birdlife International   Whether you’re a novice bird watcher or a seasoned pro, there is beauty to be found in some of our most common year-round residents. You can even spot many of them in your own yard and neighborhood—a bonus at a time of physical distancing when safety is paramount. Here are a few to look out for. The American Robin is a type of thrush with a