Woodland Park Zoo

Travel Washington

Photos by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo except as noted

by Danielle Rhéaume

T

he neighborhoods outside Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo are full of quaint older homes painted to express the personalities of their inhabitants. While these houses often reflect the essence of the Pacific Northwest and the individuality of the Phinney Ridge and Freemont neighborhoods, the elaborate and diverse exhibits beyond the gates of the zoo transport visitors to far more distant and exotic places.

Revolutionary exhibits Entering Woodland Park Zoo through the south gate, visitors encounter African Savanna—the nation’s first exhibit to display wildlife by ecosystem, rather than by species. Here they can hand-feed giraffes, watch ostriches strut, and see massive hippopotamuses amble through flocks of scrambling ducks to their beloved waterhole. The exhibit features an authentic East African Maasai village, complete with a school, a thatched-roof house and native cultural interpreters who explain the Maasai way of life and the importance of waterholes to the indigenous people of Africa.

In the nearby Tropical Rain Forest exhibit, gorillas live as ambassadors of their wild counterparts. This exhibit—known as a wildlife immersion exhibit—houses the first naturalistic gorilla exhibit in the world. Seattlebased architectural firm, Jones & Jones, with help from renowned primatologists Jane Goodall and the late Dian Fossey of Gorillas in the Mist fame, designed the exhibit in 1979. According to Jones & Jones’ Web site, “the design of this gorilla habitat—the first of its kind in the world—

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utilizes the principles of geology, climate and vegetation of the gorillas of West Africa.” Accordingly, the “habitat serves the needs of the gorillas first, while immersing visitors in the exhibit landscape, thus removing the psychological barriers of separation.” Jones & Jones proudly proclaims, “This is the ‘classic’ that started a zoo revolution!”

Gigi Allianic, Woodland Park Zoo’s public relations manager, noted, “At the time that the exhibit came out, there were skeptics who thought that the gorillas would destroy it.” They didn’t. Now, 20 years later, the groundbreaking exhibit is not only a success story—it’s also a model for other zoos to follow.

Following the creation of the West African gorilla exhibit it became more rare at Woodland Park Zoo to see animals caged in the traditional sense. Increasingly, the zoo’s wild residents were provided with a landscape in which to roam and play, with familiar vegetation and open sky above them providing unfiltered, natural light. One by one, the zoo’s exhibits became the next best place to home for the animals. In some cases, the zoo

became a critically important haven where captive study of endangered species directly benefits conservation efforts for animals in the wild.

Since the 1970s, Woodland Park Zoo has received numerous awards for its exhibits from the American Zoo and Aquarium Association; only New York City’s Bronx Zoo and Wildlife Conservation Society hold more awards. Most recently, they received two Significant Achievement Awards for Jaguar Cove (see photo on facing page at left), an exhibit four times the size of their former jaguar exhibit. This exhibit is not only one of the largest and most naturalistic exhibits dedicated to jaguars in any zoo; it also has more than 1,500 plants inside and outside the jaguar enclosure, including trees, shrubs, grasses, vines and groundcovers. The horticulture mimics the lush, tropical rain forests of Central and South America—the jaguar’s natural habitat. It also has a four-feet-deep pool, fed by a waterfall and bordered by glass, where onlookers can watch the powerful felines catch trout.

Accurately depicting ecosystems requires a lot of work by the zoo’s horticultural staff. They must research not only which plants are native to the ecosystems, but they must also ensure that the plants will survive in the Pacific Northwest’s mild climate. This often forces horticulturalists to find plants that look and feel like plants from animals’ native ecosystems, but that will also thrive in Seattle. This requires extensive research, experimentation and maintenance.

Conservation Woodland Park Zoo’s ambitious goal is to preserve the original ecosystems that inspire their exhibits. They do this through education, fundraising, and participation in 44 field projects in more than 30 countries. The zoo posts current information on these projects within their exhibits, along with information on how to get involved in conservation efforts locally and globally. Woodland Park Zoo has received many awards for their conservation and education programs. Their Wild Wise statewide outreach program, a hands-on class that teaches Washington grade-school students and their teachers about the state’s wildlife and habitats, is a recent example.

One of Woodland Park Zoo’s most successful local projects is the Western Pond Turtle Recovery Project. Through this project the zoo, in partnership with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, has been recovering the endangered Western Pond Turtle through their breeding and hatching program. Of the 1,250 pond turtles estimated to exist in Washington, an impressive 80 percent to 85 percent of them came from the zoo.

A cultural interpreter, above, answers questions from a group of children during a field trip. Five-year-old Katie Matthews, right, rides a slide down the 20-foot-high Strangler Fig tree at Woodland Park Zoo’s new Zoomazium facility.

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Another key Woodland Park Zoo effort is the Botswana Wild Dog Project, which hopes to forestall the extinction of one of Africa’s largest carnivores. These remarkable canines—viewable in the zoo’s African Savannah exhibit—once roamed in nomadic and highly social packs over most of Africa. Today, they are found in only a few areas. Their conservation has become a top priority for Woodland Park Zoo, along with the Snow Leopard Trust in the high mountains of Central Asia, the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Project in Papua, New Guinea, and the Mbeli Bai Gorilla Study in the Republic of Congo.

Ecological diversity

Woodland Park Zoo’s orangutans, above, are well adapted to life in Seattle despite the difference in climate from their native range on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

Orangutans can live up to 60 years in captivity. A team of veterinarians perform a surgical procedure on one of the zoo’s prized western lowland gorillas, below. Expert medical care is crucial to the well-being of the animals at Woodland Park Zoo.

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At the northern tip of the zoo, brown bears, bald eagles and arctic foxes live alongside elk and mountain goats on the Northern Trail— an exhibit landscaped to resemble a real trail in Alaska’s Denali National Park. Equally impressive are the Tropical Rain Forest and African Sahara habitats, as well as the Tropical Asian Trail of Vines and the Elephant Forest.

The newest addition to the Woodland Park Zoo is Zoomazium—an indoor, all-weather facility that incorporates spectacular multimedia features with fun, interactive nature-themed areas devoted to play and learning for children.

Bordered by Seattle’s Phinney Ridge and Freemont neighborhoods, Woodland Park Zoo stands out like an oasis in this aerial view.

Green Lake can be seen in the background.

Photo by Ric Brewer /Woodland Park Zoo

Changing hands Since it’s founding, Woodland Park Zoo has seen many changes, but one of the most important came five years ago when city management and operations were shifted from Seattle Parks and Recreation to the zoo’s nonprofit fundraising partner, the Woodland Park Zoological Society.

This transition, according to Allianic, has “enhanced fundraising for the zoo and made it more efficient.” In particular, it stimulates the flow of more privately donated funds for exhibit updates and education programs. “A contingency of people are worried about the zoo becoming too corporate or commercial,” said Allianic. “But we must have private funds to survive!” In particular, the zoo needs funds to finance their long-range plans, which include development of a new covered parking lot, new employee offices (to replace the aging and energy inefficient trailers that the employees now work in), development of existing exhibits for endangered species and a completely new penguin exhibit.

Woodland Park Zoo’s revenue comes from a variety of sources, including admission fees, annual memberships, the ZooStore, private events, fundraising, travel programs, classes, and the highly regarded annual ZooTunes concert series sponsored by Washington Mutual. The zoo’s new “green” Rain Forest Catering also frequently hosts regional wine-tastings and holiday brunches. The zoo also has rental space available for catered special events like weddings, business retreats, birthdays, parties and picnics.

“Plus, it’s a great date spot,” said Allianic, expressing the zoo’s interest in diversifying the population of their visitors. She noted that couples on their first date, or even their 50th anniversary, could visit the exhibits together and picnic in the park. “Even though the zoo brings out the child in everybody,” said Allianic, “it isn’t just for children!”

Woodland Park Zoo is open year round. Admission is $15.00 for adults and $7.50 for children three to 12 years old. Visit the zoo’s Web site at www.zoo.org for more information.

Life is a carousel Visitors who want to travel back in time at Woodland Park Zoo can do so on the back of a gorgeous hand-carved carousel horse.

This recent donation—originally built for the Cincinnati Zoo in the early 20th century—is only a couple of decades younger than the 188-acre Woodland Park, which the City of Seattle purchased in 1899 for $5,000 and assumption of a $95,000 mortgage. The previous owner was the widow of Canadian-born lumber mill owner and real estate developer Guy C. Phinney. In 1903, John Olmsted of the Olmsted Brothers firm in Boston designed the park’s first zoological gardens, which were quickly enhanced by the donation of animals from a private menagerie in Leschi Park.

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