Woodland Park Zoo Woodland Park Zoo News 2025
- Thread starter Northwest_FIsh_Keeping
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A few updates:
The Bird Team is raising several waterfowl species, as well as a Red-legged Seriema chick and a Grey-winged Trumpeter chick.
White-headed Marmosets are now at TRF.
There are now Caribbean Giant Cockroaches in the long-time empty tank at the entrance of TRF.
New arrivals to the zoo include a pair of Rhinoceros Hornbills and Palm Cockatoo.
The Bird Team is raising several waterfowl species, as well as a Red-legged Seriema chick and a Grey-winged Trumpeter chick.
White-headed Marmosets are now at TRF.
There are now Caribbean Giant Cockroaches in the long-time empty tank at the entrance of TRF.
New arrivals to the zoo include a pair of Rhinoceros Hornbills and Palm Cockatoo.
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping
Well-Known Member
New Malayan tapir pair:
1.0 Tuah (August 8, 2020) - from Minnesota Zoo
0.1 Binti (July 17, 2023) - from Ellen Trout Zoo
Zoo welcomes new male Malayan tapir: Pleased to meet you, Tuah!
A new tapir has joined Woodland Park Zoo’s family—meet Binti!
The Francois' Langur aviary is being revamped to house the recently arrived Rhinoceros Hornbills.
A male Wrinkled Hornbill has arrived, a female crested Guineafowl and a male Sunbittern, along with yet another new species - Forsten's Tortoise.
Recent breeding successes for the Nicobar Pigeons, Pied imperial pigeons, and Chinese Hwameis.
Former reticulated python habitat is being renovated.
A male Wrinkled Hornbill has arrived, a female crested Guineafowl and a male Sunbittern, along with yet another new species - Forsten's Tortoise.
Recent breeding successes for the Nicobar Pigeons, Pied imperial pigeons, and Chinese Hwameis.
Former reticulated python habitat is being renovated.
PercideRolo
Well-Known Member
A few new species on show this week:
A male Hoffmann's two-toed sloth is at Tropical Rainforest, in the bird walkthrough, as well as the pair of Troupials.
At the Conservation aviary there is a new hornbill species - Wrinkled hornbill together with Great Argus, as well as Palm cockatoo in another aviary. In the walkthrough space there is now a Lady Ross's turaco as well.
They were transferred from one of the smaller habitats to the walkthrough aviary. They were together with the green aracaris.
The birds are officially out in the new habitat
GoldenTakin
Active Member
I visited the zoo this Wednesday and it was wonderful seeing all of these new additions. Its been about 10 years since we had Wrinkled Hornbills at WPZ and its great to see the species back in Conservation Aviary which has completely transformed this summer. Going from 2 species (Nicobar pigeons and tawny frogmouths) to 7 species in the walkthrough aviary and additions of Southern Ground Hornbills and Palm Cockatoos as well. Seeing a sloth in the Tropical Rainforest walkthrough aviary was spectacular and something I have been dreaming of for years. Having Dr. Luis Neves join WPZ this year has been incredible, going from 0 to 3 hornbill species in just a few months. I see the zoo has been doing some work on the former hippo exhibit, anyone have any insight on potential plans for this space, thanks! Cant wait to see the Rhinoceros Hornbills on my next visit
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping
Well-Known Member
In addition, here is a little rundown of the new Sloth courtesy of one of our local news stations:
- His name is Fezzik, and he comes from the Milwaukee County Zoo
- He's 10 years old
- He's the first Sloth at the Zoo in 5 years (which is crazy, I didn't realize it's been that long). Even though the Adaption's building was closed in 2023, and they still had a Sloth signed, I guess there wasn't actually a Sloth present at the Zoo.
To add to this, while I'm pretty sure the Kea's are the only bird that will be featured in the "Forest Trailhead" exhibit (unless they're bringing in some smaller birds that they haven't mentioned yet), it does make me even more excited to see what they'll be bringing in now. We already had a good idea since they confirmed a handful of species, but if it continues like this with all the new acquisitions, I'm really hoping for some rare Reptiles and Amphibians from overseas
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping
Well-Known Member
I made a visit to the Zoo this morning, and im really happy to say this was the first time in a long while that I was genuinely excited to walk around. Not that I didn't enjoy the last few visits, but seeing how much the Zoo has evolved the last few weeks, made me really excited as I honestly didn't know what to expect at each turn.
Maybe it's this stretch of incredibly hot weather were experiencing right now, or maybe the animals are just more photogenic on the weekends (half joking since my last handful of visits have been on the weekdays after class, and today was the first time I saw many species in what seems like forever) but I also got a ton of pictures of species I haven't seen in a long time which made me really happy (will be uploaded to the media section).
My only downsides were i didn't see the Sloth, however they were saying since he's still new, hes been incredibly shy. The staff photographer and keeper i was talking to had already been in the Aviary for an hour before me and didn't see him (I spent 40 minutes and didn't see him). And the Wrinkled Hornbills appeared to be in their off exhibit area as their door was open so sadly, didn't see them. But everything else was great, im genuinely excited for the next few visits if this influx of new species continues.
A couple updates I noticed, and to expand on @SZM 's reporting:
Trail of Vines
Tropical Rainforest
And the "Forest Trailhead" construction looks like its almost complete on the outside. The one outdoor enclosure you can see from the Banyan Wilds is pretty leveled with just a few rock structures. There's still a year before it opens so they will probably add more decor, but makes me wonder what could move in here.
I'll post a species list in a bit, but I think we're all happy to see the Zoo finally on an upwards trajectory after what seemed like a few years of being stagnant and phasing out a lot of species.
Maybe it's this stretch of incredibly hot weather were experiencing right now, or maybe the animals are just more photogenic on the weekends (half joking since my last handful of visits have been on the weekdays after class, and today was the first time I saw many species in what seems like forever) but I also got a ton of pictures of species I haven't seen in a long time which made me really happy (will be uploaded to the media section).
My only downsides were i didn't see the Sloth, however they were saying since he's still new, hes been incredibly shy. The staff photographer and keeper i was talking to had already been in the Aviary for an hour before me and didn't see him (I spent 40 minutes and didn't see him). And the Wrinkled Hornbills appeared to be in their off exhibit area as their door was open so sadly, didn't see them. But everything else was great, im genuinely excited for the next few visits if this influx of new species continues.
A couple updates I noticed, and to expand on @SZM 's reporting:
Trail of Vines
- As expected, the Francois Langurs are off exhibit since the Rhinoceros Hornbills moved in, @SZM Do you potentially know what the plan for the Langurs is?
Tropical Rainforest
- The first enclosure now houses a pair of Palawan Peacock-Pheasants (Polyplectron napoleonis). The Chestnut Backed Thrushes in that enclosure are now off exhibit, but the Bali Mynas and Golden-crested Mynas are still in there
- A Lady Ross' Turaco replaced the Plush Crested Jay's (Jay's are off exhibit)
- Rufous-Collared Sparrows and a Blue Grey Tanager were moved to the former Troupial and Crested Oropendola enclosure as those two species were moved to the walk-through aviary
- Red Crested Finches are now also next to the Green Aracaris (can't remember what used to live there)
- The White-headed Marmosets are housed with the White-faced Saki Monkey's and Red Rumped Agouti
- I believe this is a new mix of birds, I forgot what used to live here, but an enclosure of Golden-bellied Grosbeaks (Pheucticus chrysogaster), Silver-beaked Tanagers, Turquoise Tanagers, Red Capped Cardinals, and an Unsigned Sunbittern now claim the space.
- Bali Myna and Chinese Hawmei now share the Vietnamese / Edward's Pheasant enclosure with the Pheasants.
- The Southern Ground Hornbills took the Spectacled Owl enclosure, the Owls are off exhibit
- The Wrinkled Hornbill took the Red-crested Turaco space, and the Turaco is now in the free-flight space. The Malay Great Argus are still in the space, so they share it with the Hornbill
- The Palm Cockatoo took over the former Lady Ross' Turaco enclosure since the Turaco was moved to the free flight area
And the "Forest Trailhead" construction looks like its almost complete on the outside. The one outdoor enclosure you can see from the Banyan Wilds is pretty leveled with just a few rock structures. There's still a year before it opens so they will probably add more decor, but makes me wonder what could move in here.
I'll post a species list in a bit, but I think we're all happy to see the Zoo finally on an upwards trajectory after what seemed like a few years of being stagnant and phasing out a lot of species.
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After 45 years of Hippos, I'm not sure that a more disappointing addition could have been found other than African Crested Porcupines. Were a couple of Maras not available? Maybe a few Guinea Pigs?
Hopefully this is just a temporary, stopgap measure until the zoo decides what to permanently do with the space.
I will say, it is reminiscent of Burgers' Zoo replacing bighorn sheep with prairie dogs, NA porcupines and peccaries - if they plan on getting aardvark and a large mob of meerkats to run around the space alongside the porcupines, it could be a neat mix! Alternatively, the warthogs moving over in with the porcupines...After 45 years of Hippos, I'm not sure that a more disappointing addition could have been found other than African Crested Porcupines. Were a couple of Maras not available? Maybe a few Guinea Pigs?
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping
Well-Known Member
In my mind this is a temporary way for the Zoo to exhibit all 6 of the porcupines they said they're temporarily (hopefully it's still temporary) taking care of that they got from that Oregon safari park raid while they still figure out homes for all of them. It's definitely not the species I would've imagined going into this space, but for the time being, I don't mind it as long as they have something greater being schemed up right now.After 45 years of Hippos, I'm not sure that a more disappointing addition could have been found other than African Crested Porcupines. Were a couple of Maras not available? Maybe a few Guinea Pigs?
Like this, I didn't even know you could mix those species together but that would be a really neat way for the Zoo to bring back Meerkats in some way, especially since Point Defiance Zoo just an hour South I think has a total of 14 Meerkat babies now and there's no way they're keeping all of them (I think they have 20 or 22 total including the adults).
There actually is precedent for that mix at Whipsnade Zoo! All three species share a space that was originally built for red river hogs.
New Meerkat/Porcupine/Aardvark area - ZooChat