Woodland Park Zoo
This is the first of my visit reports/reviews. Firstly, I don’t know how snowleopard does it. I went to three zoos in three days involving a fair amount of travel and was completely exhausted.
I went to Woodland Park Zoo on my second day in Seattle, a day with perfect weather which is by no means guaranteed in this part of the world.
I wanted to be at the zoo as it opened and was pretty early. When I arrived there were only two other people at the entrance. The new entrance area is very attractive in my opinion with attractive wooden fronted buildings. I had a hot drink and a delicious peanut butter cookie as I waited.
Quite a few people were there as opening time approached and on entry I panicked a little. Here I was at my favourite zoo in the world and I was worried that I would feel overwhelmed and not be able to take it all in. In what order should I see things? How best to dodge the crowds? What if I missed something?
I turned right and went to the penguin exhibit which was very impressive. The attention to detail was excellent and on a very warm and bright morning you could appreciate what the penguin’s native environment is like.
I then went across to the Tropical Rainforest. No jaguar was to be seen but again, this was an excellent enclosure. I enjoyed seeing footprints in the concrete path even without an animal in sight; it was a pleasure to view the exhibit. I later saw a jaguar very close up, asleep in the glass fronted cave.
The Tropical Rain Forest Building was nice and quiet at the start of the day and although small was nicely done with some beautifully done small enclosures and I thought the walkthrough aviary was excellent with dense, green and lush vegetation. This is what a small rainforest building should be like I thought with my local London Zoo in mind.
The outside enclosures for ruffed lemur, red-flanked duiker (a first for me) and black and white colobus were all excellent with lushly planted islands and a nice glass fronted mesh enclosure.
One of the pleasures of this zoo is moving between exhibits, always densely planted and winding pathways which create a sense of anticipation and excitement.
I enjoyed the gorilla exhibits too, my only slightly negative point is that they seemed smaller than I had expected but still very, very good.
The day exhibit is one of the weaker areas in terms of aesthetics and is one of the few indoor exhibits in the zoo. There was still an interesting mix of species and I was excited to see a western pond turtle.
I walked on along the sun bear and sloth bear grottoes as well as the tiger enclosure. I know snowleopard always mentions these as being weak spots in the zoo but all things considered I have seen much worse. I thought the sun bear enclosure was the most attractive but didn’t spot a bear.
The cage next to the tiger enclosure had a low wooden walkway leading into it with a waist-height barrier and some boards detailing the plans for this part of the zoo. I overheard someone say “what’s in there?” to the reply “I dunno, I guess it’s gonna be a new tiger cage” “Fence looks kinda low to me, you wouldn’t get me up close to that if a tiger’s behind it”. Doh.
Next I went to the snow leopard enclosure. Like many enclosures at Woodland Park Zoo it is set back from the main path and there is some nice foliage and rocks and an attractive statue. The enclosure is ok but not outstanding but there was lots of signage and some volunteer docents with lots of material including a full snow leopard pelt which you could touch. I talked to them; they were all very friendly and fascinated to hear that I had travelled from England to visit their zoo and was so well informed on their animals and exhibits.
Along to Australasia. Again, the path was beautifully landscaped. In fact, just take it as a given that all areas of the zoo are well planted and beautifully maintained. It’s a wonderful place to wander around. The paddock was average but attractive but the birds in Willawong Station were unspectacular.
Then to my favourite part of the zoo: Northern Trail. The path leads past wolves with elk (identified variously as moose, reindeer and caribou by my fellow visitors) in the background, netted enclosures for owls and porcupine and down to grizzly bears in an amazing enclosure with mountain goats in the distance. The vistas are amazing and the sense of closeness to the bears is incredible. You can see them through gaps in the foliage as you go down towards the wooden deck walkway and through a cave.
The Taiga Viewing Shelter provided more great views of the bears splashing about in the water and if you are up close the sheer size of the bear being right next to you is breath-taking. However this is understandably very popular and it is hard to get close up.
On the other side is underwater viewing for river otter with mountain goats in the background again.
The walkway leads past the rocky cliffs of the mountain goat and arctic fox (didn’t see) enclosure and into a wooden hide which takes you into the sea eagle aviary which was excellent. They are probably my favourite raptor and it’s appropriate to see them in the home town of the Sea Hawks NFL team. There are more views of the elk in their grassy meadow.
My only criticism of Northern Trail is that there is lots of visible mesh fencing around the wolves and elk but I can live with that.
I then walked past the simple but pleasant grassy yards for anoa and the raptor building where birds are flown over a meadow.
Tropical Asia is the next area and there are densely planted stands of bamboo all around here. There is a forest atmosphere and at one point, between the siamangs and tapirs, everything was green due to the sun shining through the canopy of broad leaves above.
The orang utan enclosures were great and I enjoyed seeing so much greenery in an orang enclosure. The siamang enclosure was also excellent, similar to the island enclosures in the Tropical Rain Forest.
The tapirs were close up to the glass viewing areas but it was difficult to get a picture due to glare on the glass and lots of people desperate to get close to the ‘anteater’ as several of them called the tapir.
I was tempted to carry on to the elephants but was very tired and getting hungry so I had lunch at the Pacific Blue Chowder House. I had fish and chips and it was very nice. The queue was quite long but I found a quite spot near the Adaptations building to sit down.
The Thai Village by the elephants was nicely done and the whole area was nice to explore but the enclosure itself wasn’t that amazing being rather narrow. I can see that it was once excellent for its time but I think it could be improved. The varied viewing points are excellent and I liked the part with the pool and waterfall. The winding path leads you out by the main path which I took back up to the Adaptations building.
Here, from memory, are meerkat (personally I would have put them in a side enclosure to the savannah exhibit), tree shrew, tamandua, sloth and Komodo dragons. Nothing special here in terms of enclosures, basic glass fronted indoor ones. I did find the building attractive from the outside though.
There is also a kea enclosure here. A trek to find a bathroom took me back up to the top of the zoo and around the historic carousel and meadow where concerts are held. There is also a summer dinosaur attraction here but I didn’t bother with it.
I picked up another cookie for dessert ( I love all the peanut butter flavoured treats in North America) at the Food Pavilion and walked down to what, in terms of immersion and landscaping, is probably the weakest area of the zoo.
There is a small South American area with Chilean flamingo and coscoroba swan (maybe other species too) in a nicely landscaped but unspectacular pond and an enclosure for pudu. There is lots of wire fencing on view here and throughout the Temperate Forest area.
The red panda enclosure is attractive with plenty of opportunities for climbing but is let down by the mesh. The Japanese serow enclosure is also very nice but the same drawback applies.
There are various enclosures for white-naped, hooded and red-crowned cranes in this area and it was nice to see a selection that included my favourite species. There is a netted wetlands aviary that is attractive and the walk through path leads to the Conservation Aviary. Very nicely planted with some interesting species it is the former pheasantry with a row of harp wire fronted aviaries and a netted aviary with free flight species covering the visitor path. On the way out there is an old style aviary with knobbed hornbill.
You are now in the Family Farm area which is very nicely done with some unusual domestic species like Ossabaw island pig and miniature cows which look like pandas. There is also a clever (but small) barn owl aviary in the roof of the barn.
I walked on via Bug World, a small invertebrate building, an owl aviary and more woodland to the African Savanna.
This are is excellent although it was a bit of a challenge seeing all the animals. I came back a few days later for a behind the scenes experience which I booked in advance. It included getting to go in the hippo and giraffe barns as well as the African Savanna corral. Various things which you might miss around the exhibit are the bones embedded in the dry ‘river banks’ on the edge of the path and the heated rocks which you can stand on as you look over the enclosure. I was getting to be really tired by this point and the pathways were crowded but this area didn’t disappoint. I also saw a black spur-winged goose which I had never heard of and couldn’t identify.
The latest enclosure for wild dogs is very well done although seeing a sign about conservation which asked ‘could wild dogs vanish?’ the answer according to one visitor was a clear ‘yes’ as none could be seen.
However I managed to spot them in the undergrowth from another point. There is a nice viewing shelter for the lions and hunting dogs too I think but it was packed and I didn’t stay long.
I revisited a couple of areas including the jaguar enclosure but was feeling very tired and overwhelmed so quit while I was ahead.
In conclusion, I love this zoo! The enclosures, the trails and paths, the beautifully lush foliage everywhere, it really is amazing and its weak points are few and relative to the overwhelming high standard of the rest of the exhibits.
I like the low key feel with visitor facilities kept on the whole discrete and the focus is very much on the animals which do, it is true, need patience in some cases to see but for me, it’s really worth it.
My only criticism is the gift shops. I got a key ring and a magnet but there wasn’t much Woodland Park Zoo branded merchandise other than some caps and clothing which all had random designs and fonts. I would have loved a nicely branded baseball cap or a shirt but that is by no means the end of the world and it certainly didn’t spoil my visit.
