My wife, 4 kids and I visited Woodland Park Zoo on March 18th, 2023, for the first time since August 2019. We visited again yesterday (April 29th) as the USA/Canada border was closed for years due to the pandemic, which explains our lack of Seattle visits. We had a great couple of days at the zoo, and the facility was extremely busy as the weather was sunny and pleasant on both occasions. From a family perspective, it was wonderful. From a zoo nerd analytical perspective, Woodland Park continues to not make any significant progress.
The zoo has had several golden periods, specifically the late 1970s (gorillas, elephants, African Savanna) and the mid-1990s (Tropical Rain Forest, Northern Trail, Trail of Vines) and even the 2000s (Komodo Dragons, African Village, Jaguar Cove, Zoomazium, flamingos, penguins, new entrance) and for several decades expectations were extremely high surrounding this famous zoo. It seemed as if every year or two something big opened to the public.
However, new exhibits and continual progress has been stalled for a long time now. Between 2009 (penguins) and 2026 (the vague 'Forests for All'), the zoo will go 17 years without a lot of major investment. The Banyan Wilds area in 2015 saw a small aviary and otters added, while expanding the tiger exhibit and making the viewing of the Sloth Bears worse. There's been a seasonal butterfly structure and other mild changes, but for a major zoo with 1.3 million annual visitors to go 17 years without any stand-out additions is disappointing.
I used to be a major fan of Woodland Park as my 'home zoo', even though it's a 5-hour round-trip for every visit. But the loss, since 2010, of the excellent Nocturnal House (closed for fiscal reasons), the Reptile House (its 40 exhibits ended with a fire), the departure of elephants, and the aging of several key habitats, means that the zoo has fallen behind plenty of others in North America. I'm not going to type up a full review, but instead make a few comments via an overview of each of the zoo's major geographical sections:
One emerging issue is that some of the trend-setting exhibits of past years are now a bit on the small and quaint side. I saw three giraffes, an ostrich and two zebras on the African Savanna. Seeing Scandinavian zoos last summer with African Savannas many acres in size, and at times filled with 50 to 80 ungulates, makes WPZ's savanna appear tiny. Plus, the giraffes rarely venture onto the hilly sections and on rainy days are confined to their small yards and barn. Adjacent to the main field, the Common Hippos have unfiltered, cold, tap water in an outdated exhibit and it might be best if they are sent away as was the plan pre-pandemic. The Savanna Aviary is ridiculously small and all the pathways surrounding the savanna are far too tiny for even moderate crowds. The once lauded, AZA award winning African Savanna is looking a little threadbare after 40+ years. Even the African Village, added in 2001, now has its buildings bordered up (visitors used to be able to enter) and the schoolhouse has been gutted as all the desks and benches have been removed! I used to love the African Savanna, but these days it is slightly disheartening even with strong exhibits for Lions, Warthogs and Patas Monkeys.
The Temperate Forest part of the zoo has a Red Panda exhibit and a Maned Wolf enclosure with a single on-show animal in each, plus a series of crane yards (4 species) and an exhibit for Southern Pudus. The flamingo exhibit, added in 2008, is very small and not netted over and thus far behind European standards. Bug World is currently closed and the farmyard area is old, small and dusty. The Conservation Aviary section is well done and still an old-fashioned delight, although the walk-through Wetlands Aviary is sparse on birds. This is consistently the quietest section of the zoo, with many visitors skipping it entirely.
Australasia has a pleasant yard for macropods and a couple of emus, but it's nothing too memorable. Snow Leopards are nearby in a decent exhibit from 1982, but one that has always had terrible viewing options as visitors congregate in a small area and it's frequently bedlam. A small aviary rounds out this uninspiring section of the zoo.
The 1990s Northern Trail zone has been rebranded as Living Northwest Trail and this area still holds up very well. The two old male bears, each weighing in at 900 pounds, made their enclosure appear to be too small by modern standards, but since their passing the two young female grizzlies are a better fit. Steller's Sea Eagles, Elk, Wolves, Rocky Mountain Goats, North American River Otters and Canada Lynx (new in late 2022) all, for the most part, have great enclosures. Western Pond Turtles have a tank (empty on both my visits) in the revamped 'Basecamp Northwest' and the new Coast Salish Indigenous carvings are a nice touch. Other than having to backtrack all the way uphill, and too small Snowy Owl aviary, this whole area is a real highlight of the zoo. The replica salmon drying rack has been removed, which is a loss.
Trail of Vines: Tropical Asia has a pair of very good Orangutan exhibits, two young male Greater One-horned Rhinos, Visayan Warty Pigs, Siamangs, a Reticulated Python, Francois' Langurs (who have denuded their once leafy exhibit) and Malayan Tapirs. It's all quite good and with space for expansion if the zoo decides to go down that route. It's a lot of walking for a zone that has approximately 17 animals and only 7 species, but it's still a highlight.
Banyan Wilds: Tropical Asia has an okay tiger exhibit, two Sloth Bear yards (with awkward viewing post 2015 renovation), a small aviary and an enclosure for Small-clawed Otters. It's a hodgepodge of a loop. The Adaptations building is nearby, with Komodo Dragons (good), some bats, a few herps, and Meerkats (awful).
Penguins is all on its own and it is a superb exhibit that replicates a Peruvian coastline with the Humboldt species in residence. One of the better penguin exhibits in North America.
Lastly, the Tropical Rain Forest section of the zoo is another genuine highlight. The steamy building and walk-through aviary are both on the small side after 30+ years of use, but it's an effective experience nonetheless. Jaguar Cove is superb, although the adjacent Research Hut is now closed. The two outdoor lemur and Colobus Monkey habitats are all excellent, and of course there are still the classic 1970s Gorilla exhibits. However, in all my years of visiting the zoo, a family troop of Gorillas has remained in the smaller yard and it is surely a candidate for North America's tiniest outdoor Gorilla exhibit. Currently there are 7 Gorillas and we watched them for a very long time between our visits. The group is fascinating to study, the climbing apparatus is nicely designed, and everything looks great, but the yard is awfully small by modern standards and it's just an old bear grotto. By contrast, the much larger Gorilla yard always hosts older apes and lacks a climbing frame.
Overall, Woodland Park Zoo must be praised for having some key exhibits that have stood the test of time. The enclosures for Grizzly Bears, Rocky Mountain Goats, Steller's Sea Eagles, Orangutans, Gorillas, Humboldt Penguins, Jaguars and two lemur species (Ring-tailed and Red Ruffed) are all truly top-class in many ways. The future reopening of Bug World will be much appreciated. However, the almost complete absence of reptiles, amphibians and fish, has made the zoo very mammal-centric these days. And even with mammals, there are approximately 20 species with only one or two individuals on-show. I suppose that there simply is no space for herds or large groupings, but at 92 acres it's not exactly a small zoo.
Visitor amenities is also an issue. Parking has been a problem for decades, with the zoo losing a long-winded legal battle to build a parking garage many years ago when the neighbourhood residents voted it away. That means that parking is at a premium, with the main lot (by the South Entrance) consistently full shortly after the zoo opens for the day. Anyone not arriving extra early is forced into smaller side lots. The zoo's main restaurant, called 1899 Grove these days, has radically overhauled the menu. Gone are the sandwiches, Chinese food and Mexican food of past years, replaced with the typical hamburger/hot dog/fries/chicken strips to appeal to the masses. On both my recent visits, lining up to order was a half-hour affair each time as the restaurant hasn't kept pace with the zoo's attendance figures. The zoo's smaller restaurant, on the eastern side, has no indoor seating and the lineups were a block long at times during both my visits. Between parking and eating, the zoo simply cannot keep up on busy days.
