Woodland Park Zoo Woodland Park Zoo News 2025

Brookrowcottage said:
WPZ had them from early 1900s to 1992
Click to expand...
I'm aware, but I don't see a reason for WPZ to acquire bison, since A: there isn't really a place in the zoo for the bison to be exhibited, and B: like I said, NW Trek is an hour and a half away, and they have a pretty big herd of bison.
 
Last edited:
2 Pieces of December 2024 News + Early 2025 News Not Mentioned:
On January 17th, the zoo announced their (1.0) Scillian donkey named Rico passed away the week prior at age 17 due to an acute GI 'crisis'.

Woodland Park Zoo

On April 3rd, the zoo announced that a (1.0) Flemish giant rabbit named Keaton passed away at age 8.

Woodland Park Zoo

On December 16th, it was announced that the zoo transferred a (0.1) southern pudu to the San Francisco Zoo in California on November 12th.

https://sfrecpark.org/DocumentCenter/View/25061/JtZooAg121924

On December 18th, it was announced that the zoo transferred a (1.0) green aracari to the Los Angeles Zoo in California.

https://lazoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Zoo-Commission-MINUTES-9.10.24-FINAL.pdf

On April 3rd, the zoo announced that a (0.1) Grant's gazelle named Buttercup, a (1.0) Virginia opossum named Skookum, and a (1.0) milksnake* named Memphis all passed away recently.

Woodland Park Zoo

On April 25th, the zoo announced that a (0.1) Humboldt penguin hatched on March 28th.

Woodland Park Zoo
Celebrate World Penguin Day with this newly-hatched Humboldt nugget!

* Memphis was age 10 at time of passing.
 
The Zoo is currently providing a temporary home to 3 Llamas and 6 African Crested Porcupines that were a part of the recent raid at the "West Coast Game Park Safari" in Oregon. You can see the Llamas from the main loop but the Porcupines are behind the scenes. Honestly, with the upcoming "Family Farm" overhaul and eventual "African Savannah" overhaul, I could see them keeping the Llamas (Family Farm) and at least 1 or 2 of the Porcupines (African Savannah). since I'm assuming the Llamas at least are already accustomed to people based off of where they were rescued from. Both would be new species to the zoo too.

In a recent article that came out today from a local network, they mention construction for the "Forest Trailhead" is set to wrap up in June or July, and animals will start moving in shortly
after. In addition to what animals we already know of, they mention that "Vietnamese Mossy Frogs and Rainbowfish (no specific species)" will be a part of the indoor exhibits. I haven't visited the Zoo in a bit but from the photos, it looks like it's coming together very nicely.
 
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping said:
and Rainbowfish (no specific species)" will be a part of the indoor exhibits. I
Click to expand...
Unfortunately I can't find the news story anymore (they probably haven't uploaded it yet), but to expand on this, one of the local news stations did a little behind-the-scenes tour today of the construction and mentioned that this will be "The Zoo's first Aquarium". Which is quite vague but I'm guessing it means this exhibit will actually be pretty substantial. Technically, there are other aquariums around the Zoo (the Anaconda tank in the Rainforest for example has various other South American species, along with the African Cichlid tank in the Kid's Area), so for them to make this claim must mean they've got something big cooking up.
Considering a lot of the indoor species are coming from Australia / the PNG area, a Fly River Turtle Tank seems like a possibility (if they copy the Vancouver Aquarium's design, I would be happy). But now they've peaked my interest more since the Aquarium also isn't shown on any of the concept artwork they've released so far, I'm looking forward to it
 
A few news from the zoo :):

  • A turkey vulture is now at the large flight cage outside of the conservation aviary. The blue turaco has moved to one of the aviaries inside
  • Victoria crowned pigeons, Nicobar pigeons and pied imperial pigeons are now in the free flight area
  • There are two white naped crane chicks being raised by the parents at the temperate forest crane yards
  • Violet turacos have been added to the savanna aviary
  • Asian brown tortoises are back at the outdoor yard (the offspring remain at Reptile Realm but in a different enclosure, joined by an Indochinese box turtle)
  • Quince monitor has moved to the former Timor python enclosure
  • The reticulated python has moved to Reptile Realm (former Asian mountain tortoise enclosure), with plenty more space. The former exhibit is currently empty
  • Timor Pythons have moved to Tropical Rainforest
  • An emerald tree boa has joined the dyeing poison frogs at TRF
  • First enclosure at TRF now houses Golden crested mynas and chestnut-backed thrushes
  • Red-rumped agouti has joined the white-faced sakis at TRF
  • There are red siskins in the former tiger rat snake habitat at TRF
 
Made a short visit to the Zoo today, comparing my list I made back in February, here are some changes that happened:
  • The Nene Geese are now in with the Chilean Flamingos for some reason, I couldn't ask why but that's an interesting mix
  • The Oriental Knight Anole in TRF was moved to the other Poison Dart Frog enclosure, the frogs are still in there, the Anole just inhabits the arboreal space, I'm assuming
  • There are now Cabot's Tragopon in the Wetland's Aviary; they replaced the Temminck's Tragopon, which moved into the Conservation Aviary
  • The Sunbittern and Blue-crowned Mot-Mot's now share a space together in the TRF
  • There are now 2 Toco Toucans living together in TRF, which I don't know if that's a recent move but I've always just seen 1 (unless the other one was hiding in the lower part of the enclosure, but I'm not sure)
  • One signage wheel near the African Plains has "Egyptian Goose" and "White-headed Buffalo Weaver" which, I don't remember seeing last time so it must be new. I'm honestly confused why it's there, since the Zoo doesn't exhibit either species in the Walk-through Aviary, nor would they make much sense in the Plains exhibit since it's open top obviously. I'm not sure if this is a mistake or maybe they're preparing one of the empty watering hole exhibits for Egyptian Geese at least? I wouldn't put much thought into it at the moment
Forest Trailhead development hasn't differed much from the last time I was here, but they did finish more of the exterior, it looks like (I believe the black part is going to be covered up with wood planks). According the News Report, animals should be moving over somewhat soon and since there's so many visible viewing areas of the outside enclosures through the construction fence, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some animals moving around in there soon
20250617_111800.jpg 20250617_113532.jpg 20250617_114136.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 20250617_111800.jpg
    20250617_111800.jpg
    113.2 KB · Views: 156
  • 20250617_113532.jpg
    20250617_113532.jpg
    206.2 KB · Views: 151
  • 20250617_114136.jpg
    20250617_114136.jpg
    331.3 KB · Views: 155
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping said:
Made a short visit to the Zoo today, comparing my list I made back in February, here are some changes that happened:
  • The Nene Geese are now in with the Chilean Flamingos for some reason, I couldn't ask why but that's an interesting mix
  • The Oriental Knight Anole in TRF was moved to the other Poison Dart Frog enclosure, the frogs are still in there, the Anole just inhabits the arboreal space, I'm assuming
  • There are now Cabot's Tragopon in the Wetland's Aviary; they replaced the Temminck's Tragopon, which moved into the Conservation Aviary
  • The Sunbittern and Blue-crowned Mot-Mot's now share a space together in the TRF
  • There are now 2 Toco Toucans living together in TRF, which I don't know if that's a recent move but I've always just seen 1 (unless the other one was hiding in the lower part of the enclosure, but I'm not sure)
  • One signage wheel near the African Plains has "Egyptian Goose" and "White-headed Buffalo Weaver" which, I don't remember seeing last time so it must be new. I'm honestly confused why it's there, since the Zoo doesn't exhibit either species in the Walk-through Aviary, nor would they make much sense in the Plains exhibit since it's open top obviously. I'm not sure if this is a mistake or maybe they're preparing one of the empty watering hole exhibits for Egyptian Geese at least? I wouldn't put much thought into it at the moment
Forest Trailhead development hasn't differed much from the last time I was here, but they did finish more of the exterior, it looks like (I believe the black part is going to be covered up with wood planks). According the News Report, animals should be moving over somewhat soon and since there's so many visible viewing areas of the outside enclosures through the construction fence, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some animals moving around in there soon
View attachment 801512 View attachment 801513 View attachment 801514
Click to expand...

The Egyptian Geese are free roaming in the Savanna and the park does not currently have any Buffalo Weavers.
 
SZM said:
The Egyptian Geese are free roaming in the Savanna and the park does not currently have any Buffalo Weavers.
Click to expand...
Oh interesting, I've never seen them before but to be fair, I've never seen the supposed Helmeted Guineafowl that are in the Savanna either. Those are on my radar for next time.
SZM said:
  • The Malayan Tapirs are back to WPZ! The female is in their habitat, soon to be joined by the male.
  • There are Swan Geese in the formerly empty yard behind the Asian Brown Tortoises.
Click to expand...
Thank you, I was wondering what those Geese in the yard were. I think I saw 3 or 4 of them the other day. Sucks that I passed up the Tapir habitat, I was assuming they still haven't arrived yet, that's good to know.
 
Haliaeetus said:
2 White-naped Cranes have hatched.
Woodland Park Zoo on Instagram: "A precious, and floofy, summer solstice update: White-naped crane parents Laura and Cal are doting on their two fuzzy chicks. The two white-naped cranes hatched on May 18th and 19th. The dedicated parents are raising the chicks on exhibit. Spot these cuties near maned wolves in the white-naped crane yard. This is the second clutch for the doting parents. The chicks will stay with Cal and Laura for about a year—so there is plenty of time to say hello and watch them grow! Cal and Laura were paired on a recommendation from the White-Naped Crane Species Survival Plan (SSP), a conservation breeding program to ensure genetic diversity and stability for endangered species in accredited North American conservation zoos. Cranes typically mate for life and are renowned for their spectacular and elaborate courtship dances. Lucky for us, Cal and Laura seem to have perfect dance moves for parenting success!"
Click to expand...
This was already mentioned:
SZM said:
There are two white naped crane chicks being raised by the parents at the temperate forest crane yard
Click to expand...
 
The zoo has just acquired a new 23-month old female Malayan Tapir named Binti, who I believe comes from the Ellen Trout Zoo in Texas.
Woodland Park Zoo on Instagram: "Welcome Binti! We are SO happy to announce that tapirs are back on the Trail of Vines! Binti is curious and friendly. Her animal keepers tell us she loves willow browse and a good back scratch! She will celebrate her 2nd birthday in July—the same month a new male tapir is schedule to join her. Guests might hear Binti squeal and whistle loudly to let animal keepers know she’s ready for her breakfast! Thanks to our fantastic exhibits team for making sure her habitat has all the creature comforts a tapir needs to swim, relax and explore. Get the full scoop on this new cutie at blog.zoo.org or blog link in bio! Image descriptions: three images in succession of adorable Malayan tapir walking towards camera in a forested enclosure with shade and soft, sandy dirt."
 
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top