The grounds cover 92 acres, but only 65 are actually open to visitors (not including a memorial garden near the South Gate dedicated to the heroes of the Spanish-American War), so it is just the right size for a three or four hour family adventure.
One great thing about this zoo is that it has a wide variety of animals that will appeal to just about anyone. The typical zoo visitor will marvel at "typical" zoo animals (lions adn tigers and bears, oh my!) but also appreciate creatures such as snow leopards, toucans, siamangs, and bald eagles. On the other hand, the zoo/animal enthusiast will flip over seeing rare animals like Japanese serows, springhaas, African wild dogs, Malayan tapirs, and white-eared pheasants that might not attract your average "megafauna" fan.
The zoo has three entrances - the south, north, and west gates. The south and west gates are open year-round, the north gate only being open in summer. The south gate is the main gate - its the largest and the most accessible. The west gate is teeny and I wouldn't reccomend it. Parking isn't great (I would reccomend parking on the street), but in the next few years the west gate will be expanded, the north gate closed, and a parking garage will be built at the south entrance. Admission is fairly average, not bad, but I would reccomend getting a membership is you live in the area.
As for various facilities, Woodland Park Zoo has everything. The gift shop is located next to the south entrance, and has a good selection of zoo souvenirs, as well as more animal toys than you ever want to see in your life, for pretty fair prices. There are also a number of gift stands throughout the zoo, open seasonally. The two main restaurants are the food court, located by the Tropical Forest building, and the Outback Cafe, located across from the raptors. In addition to those, in the summer a few small food stands are open along the zoo's main loop, near the main attractions. Food is, like at just about any zoo, pretty expensive. The food is of good quality, however, and is in my opinion worth it if you don't bring your own food. The food stands sell good fruit cups, and I would strongly reccomend the Dreyers ice cream bar in the food court. Restrooms are near just about everything, and kept nice and clean.
Again, the best way to enter the zoo is the South Gate, and doing so will place you at a good starting point for doing a loop through the zoo. When you come through the south gate, you find yourself in a large plaza with the main gift shop and the education center on your right, the family farm to the left, and the African Savannah directly ahead.
The education building is to the far right as you enter the south gate. There you can pick up brochures, fact sheets, and see education programs in the auditorium (there are times posted). Several rooms hold items like a (baby) elephant skeleton, armadillo shell, and bat wing. The Far North Gallery holds, among other things, a Kodiak bear skeleton, and the small auditorium may give you a chance to touch a snake or other small animal. African cichlid fish are displayed here as well, and their color is magnificent.
The African Savannah is the first exhibit you encounter from the South Gate. Built in the 70's, it is the first exhibit of it's kind, and a sight to behold. The exhibit has also recently been going through a number of changes in order to represent a true East African habitat. A while ago, the springbok (a South African gazelle) were removed, and replaced with the grant's gazelles and oryx here at present. The village and wild dog exhibits were also added recently to give the exhibit a truly African feel.
The first thing you pass through in your savannah tour is a African Village, added in 1999, with simulated huts, granaries, and even a well. There is a large African-style meetinghouse hwere daily conservation-related stories are told. A simulated schoolhouse is the best viewpoint for the freeroaming area, and where you will get your best pictures. It provides a view across a waterhole to see the hoofstock - four species interacting as they would in Africa. This three-acre habitat provides a home for Grant's gazelels, fringe eared oryxes, reticulated giraffes, and damara zebras, all natives of East Africa. The replicated savannah includes a waterhole and a feeder tree for the giraffes. Acacia trees have been simulated with black willow trees, which looks similar but survives in the rainy Northwest much better than the subtropical acacia tree (the giraffes' favorite food).Recently, the zoo has been successful in breeding Grant's gazelles, so look for any babies while you are there. In the spring, a flock of green winged teal ducks take over the waterhole, adding some native beauty.
Further along a trail is an African Aviary teeming with colorful birds flying around you. These include brown mousebirds and tiny Southern masked weaver birds. Just past this is a hippo pond with a heated rock, three female hippos, and Egyptian geese. This looks like part of the main exhibit, but is safely seperated, as the hippos could be aggressive towards the other animals. The pond is surrounded by high mudbanks, just like the real rivers in Africa. The hippos may draw your attention, but also look at the geese: Egyptian geese are amond the bravest animals alive, as they are often found swimming happily along and living right alongside rivers teeming with hippos and crocodiles.
Continuing along you find the giraffe barn, where the giraffes often are on cold days. This also has small, concrete (most hoofstock in zoos need some sort of hard standing, usually concrete, to keep their hooves in good condition, especially in winter) outdoor yards. There is a section of the path that can be fenced off and used for the giraffes to enter and exit the savannah habitat in the mornings and evenings. This is very cool to see -huge, 17-foot-tall animals galloping past you. Just past the giraffe barn is a pond for a family of Old World comb ducks. These ducks are very cool - grey, black, white, and spotted, they also have purple wing feathers and the males have an enormous knob on their bill.
Here there are two forks. Take the left one and on the left hand side are patas monkeys. These suprisingly slender monkeys are the fastest primates in the world, reaching speeds of up to 55 miles an hour (humans top out at around 26). They live on the savannahs, and need to be fast or they will be eaten. Their exhibit at the zoo, like the hippos', looks like part of the main exhibit but isn't - there are hiiden moats that keep them from being trampled by the bigger animals. Their exhibit is BIG, so you will have to look for them (hint: look near the top, on the rocky ledges or on the big log in the exhibit - in the wild they often are to be found in high-up places becuase it gives them a better vantage point for spotting potential threats).
On the right side of this path are three open-air overlooks into the supern lion habitat. The zoo's two lions have a large, grassy area that looks very much like Africa, with long grass, large boulders (heated to help replicate these big cats' home on the plains of Africa), and towering acacia/black willow trees. A moat provides a watering hole. Continuing on this fork will bring you to two old grotto habitats, one of which has a large cage over it. This was the orangutans' old home. The other once housed sun bears, but today is empty.
Past this, you can continue on to the rain forest/gorillas via a small loop, but don't. Instead, head back towards the giraffe barn, and turn left. Once you have walked a little ways, you come to a predator viewing shelter. This offers up-close views of the lions, sometimes only an inch of reinforced glass away. This usually is your best chance to see lions, rather than at the open-air viewing points near the patas monkeys. You will notice that one window in the shelter doesn't have lions; instead, there are wild dogs. The 5,000 square foot African wild dog exhibit opened June 28, 2002, and is the savannah's newest addition. Features include a streambed, two heated dens (one with a small, walk-in cave, and a viewing window), and termite mounds for the group of four brothers to enjoy. These extremely endangered canines once ranged across Africa, but thanks largely to poaching and disease, they only survive in a few countries in the southern region of Africa, the largest population being in Botswana (Woodland Park Zoo contributes to wild dog research here - look for signs explaining the work further at the exhibit). Wild dogs are the most effective predators in Africa, usually making a kill 9 out of 10 tries (lions make about 1 out of 10). However, they usually kill their prey by disembowelment, and they have been hunted actively as a livestock threat. Usually the endangered canines are most active in the early morning, so get there early.
Past the wild dog habitat, you exit the savannah and cross a path into Tropical Asia. This superb exhibit, in my opinion the zoo's best, is divided into two sections, Elephant Forest and Trail of Vines. Both have won national awards, and Elephant Forest has the largest bamboo collection in the Northwest for all you plant enthusiasts out there.
You enter the exhibit through Elephant Forest, where there is a winding path which brings you past not only part of the wonderful elephant yard (the upper part of this large habitat is fairly underutilized and may be be turned into an exhibit for Indian rhinos in the future), but also an Asian marsh with red breasted geese, barheaded geese, and muntjac deer. This habitat includes a large pond and a flowing stream. The geese will robably be out, but most likely you will have to look in the shadows - these small deer are very timid and scare easily. "Muntjac" means barking deer, and they do indeed make a noise very similar to a bark.
The Elephant Forest exhibit is lushly planted (except for the actual elephant yard, which has to be kept bare because the elephants will rip up and eat any green stuff they can get at), which adds a true rainforest feel. Further on, you find the large pool (your best bet to see swimming elephants is at around 3 PM) are more viewpoints and the elephant barn. This is usually a very good place to see Hansa. Hansa was the zoo's first baby elephant, born November 2000. Today she is probably the most popular animal at the zoo, but another baby may be coming in the near future, from Chai, Hansa's mom, who has valuable genetics and is in her breeding prime. The zoo is looking into using artificial insemination on CHai in the near future (Hansa was conceived when Chai was on breeding loan the the Dickerson Park Zoo in Missouri). You can also see Bamboo and Watoto, two 35-year-old elephants. Watoto is the zoo's only African elephant.
Elephant Forest is made to represent a Thai logging village, and also includes many elements of Thai culture and man's relationship with elephants in Southeast Asia.
Trail of Vines is next on your agenda, and is an even better (in my opinion) exhibit than the Elephant Forest. It starts right where Elephant Forest ends. The first animals you see are Malayan tapirs, a personal favorite of mine. Looking somewhat like a cross between a pig, anteater, and a giant panda, they are actually relatives of the horse and rhino. Their stunning black & white coats set are beautiful, and the zoo's pair, Rayai and Kelang, spend much of their time right by the glass, offering a close look at their massive (Kelang weighs a whopping 950 pounds, Rayai weighs less, around 850 pounds) bodies. Two viewing windows allow you to be only a thickness of glass from these huge but magnificent creatures, and another viewpoint offers a pool, where they can display their swimming skills on warm days.
Continuing along Trail of Vines, you find lion tailed macaque monkeys from the Western Ghat mountains of India. This exhibit is pretty big, so no guarantees on seeing a macaque. It is very neat, though: entirely glass fronted so you can get really close to the monkeys and it is fll of logs, vines, and branches, just like the macaques' real home. Past the macaques you come to a viewpoint where you can view the tapirs' pool (if you want to see a tapir swimming, get to the zoo right as the zoo opens and make a beeline for the tapir habitat - usually the tapirs are let out, go for a swim, then sit around for most of the day). A little further on is an outdoor habitat for swinging, hooting siamang gibbons, which are apes, not monkeys. They live on an island surrounded by a moat of black water, which you may find a little odd but is actually fairly standard - the black is due to a dye that is non toxic, kills algae, and makes it so that the siamangs cannot judge the depth of the water and feel more confident about a possible escape. You can also view the indoor habitats for the siamangs, whch are very nice and allow very close-up viewing. Past them are some endangered Indian pythons. Finally you come to the Trail of Vines' star attraction - the orangutans. Large indoor dens and two large outdoor yards viewed from both treetop and ground level provide a wonderful life for the orangs, which were moved here in 1996 after having spent more than a decade in a small cage near the savannah exhibit (you can still see it, on the path between the savannah and the rain forest). The indoor habitats provide lots of fun - hammocks, straw, paper bags, etc. and the outdoor areas are even more fun; all that plus trees to climb, hidden food, streams, and boulders.
You exit Trail of Vines past a statue of a group of orangutans playing in a tree, which is a kid's favorite and a very popular photo spot. After that you come out of the "jungle" and see the Raptor Center.
The Raptor Center is a large lawn and barn that was once the zoo's farm exhibit. There a a number of perches for various raptor species - turkey vultures, peregrine falcons, barred owls, ferruginous hawks, gyrfalcons, and a spectacled owl named Coba. There are daily raptor demonstrations where you learn about birds of prey and a raptor, usually the gyrfalcon Kenai (gyrfalcons are the largest falcon species is the world and live on the Artic Tundra) is let out to swoop around the audience's heads, plunging towards a luer swung by a staff member. It is very cool to watch.
Behind the Raptor Center are two very special but often ignored Asian hoofstock species. The first is the large yard which contains the zoo's Central Chinese gorals. These small cousins of the mountain goat are extremely surefooted and very neat to watch. The other exhibit is three large yards for a family of lowland anoa. Lowland anoas are found only on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, and are the smallest cattle on earth. They are often called dwarf water buffalo, as that is their closest relative. If you are patient enough, you may have an anoa come right up by the fence - I once even had the male anoa do a territorial threat to me, tossing his head back and kicking up mud.
As you pass the Raptor Center, the next area you come to is Northern Trail, another award-winning exhibit which brings the visitor from taiga to tundra in the far north reaches of our planet. The first animals are gray wolves in a large wooded yard. They are usually good for viewing in the early afternoon, and better viewing during the winter (if you don't see the wolves right away, your best bet is to look to right of the exhibit, because that is usually where they go to rest).
A short ways down the trail is a small alcove with four smaller exhibits. The first is a small home for the zoo's Artic fox. This very cute guy was found as a stowaway from Alaska aboard a ship containing garbage. He had probably been scavenging at a dump when the garbage was being picked up, and got to go along for the ride. It was concluded that he could not be returned to the wild, so now he lives at the zoo. You may notice that this fox does not turn white during the winter like most artic foxes (done to help them blend in with the snow). This is because he is from the Aleutian islands, which are home to a race of "blue" foxes, which stay the same color all year round, mainly because there just isn't enough snow there to merit them changing color. Next is a small porcupine grotto where you can see these marvelous rodents show off what is usually a nice view of their rear end. Black billed magpies and snowy owls occupy two small flight cages next to the porcupines, and are definitely worth a watch. The snowy owls are one of only a few bird species that live on the tundra year round, although some populations migrate and have been found as far south as Texas. After the owls is an tundra interperative center. This features a large mural with tundra fauna and flora on it as well as a five-minute video, "The Caribou People", which is about five minutes long and plays pretty much continuously. It features the people of Artic Village, Alaska, the northernmost Indian village in the world, and talks about their special relationship with the Caribou which live there.
The trail next brings you past several grizzly bear viewpoints to a shelter where the bears can be seen swimming underwater, a pretty unique feature in a zoo (I believe that WPZ is the only zoo in the world with underwater grizzly viewing). Live fish are provided for the bears' entertainment (basically to satisfy their hunger pangs). On the other side of the shelter are river otters, which too can be seen playfully swimming. Look at the hillside behind the otters and you can usually see the mountain goats. Further on is a boardwalk with more mountain goat viewpoints. The mountain goat exhibit at Woodland Park zoois excellant, with high rock formations and spacious hillsides. The zoo has had success breeding mountain goats, and has a large mountain goat population. After the mountain goats you enter a very cool feature of Northern Trail - a free-flight eagle aviary. The visitors occyupy a large viewing platform inside the aviary, but the eagles could very well fly right by you and you get a great open-air view of the eagles without having to have birds with clipped wings.
Finally in Northern Trail is the yard for Roosevelt elk. Found only in the Pacific Northwest, the zoo has had elk on display basically since it began in 1899. The elk is the same species as the red deer found across Eurasia and in parts of North Africa, and the different phases are just different subspecies of the same species, Cervus Elaphus. At the zoo, the elk occupy a large, sparsely wooded hillside. A hidden barrier seperates them from the wolves, and if you look towards the back of the exhibit you may see a wolf looking at it's natural prey. This may seem cruel, keeping natural predators and prey so close together, but it isn't. It keeps the two species alert as they would in the wild and much more stimulated.
The main shortcoming of Northern Trail is that it is a dead end exhibit - after reaching the elk you have to hike back to the entry point. But after that you can see the superb Australasian area.
The Australasia section of Woodland Park Zoo is small, but has a lot of neat animals in nice enclosures. It has been carved out of the former giraffe/kangaroo building, originally built in the 1950's. An outdoor yard has red-necked wallabys, wallaroos, cape barren geese, and emus in a small yard. People sometimes get confused about a number of these animals. Emus are not ostriches, and although both are large flightless birds, they are not too closely related. Most people understand now that wallabys are just small species of kangaroo, but people seem to get very confused about wallaroos. A wallaroo is its own seperate species, NOT a wallaby-kangaroo hybrid as many people think. You can tell the wallabies and wallaroos apart because the wallabies are smaller, darker, and have a red patch on their necks whilst the wallaroos are larger and a light grey.
Just past the main yard, you enter a small building and the first thing you see is the indoor kangaroo area, where the macropods (the scientific term for all wallabies, kangaroos, etc. - in Latin, literally it means "big feet")can go when it's too cold. Also in the building is a glass-fronted habitat with lots of foliage that is home to a number of kookaburras. The kookaburras are the largest member of the kingfisher family, and although often fondly remembered from the children's song "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree...", they are in fact active predators who use their large bills to kill small animals like rodents and lizards.
Just beyond this, a larger building which was once the zoo's giraffe barn and which later housed tree kangaroos and kea parrots is now being renovated. It will re-open as a new, walk-through aviary sometime in 2005.
A little ways beyond the tree kangaroo building, you exit Australasia and enter the Trail of Adaptations. This is a collection of a number of rather outdated habitats which hold mostly Asian animals until their homes are eventually remodeled into a proposed "Asian Highlands" exhibit sometime in the future. The first habitat you come to in Trail of Adaptations is perhaps the best, and that is the snow leopard exhibit.
The Woodland Park Zoo's snow leopard exhibit was recently remodeled to more accurately reflect the elusive animals' habitat and nature. As you enter, you are faced with a number of large rocks - both real and simulated, reminescent of the rocky mountain slopes on which the snow leopard lives and hunts. Hidden here are snow leopard petroglyphs. A wooden rail replaced a formerly plain metal one, and you can see through both chain-link fencing and glass into the cats' habitat. The snow leopard, which in my opinion is the prettiest of the cats, is displayed beautifully here, in a hillside exhibit that has plenty of rocky ledges and hideaways, as well as Asian plant species it might encounter in it's native habitat. A large, curved sign gives information on how the snow leopard is faring in different parts of it's range - there are both success stories and examples of failures - continued poaching and the like. A video also plays, with some dramatic shots of wild snow leopards. Relief maps divide the snow leopard's range into four areas of mountains - the Himalayas, the Hindu Kush, Central Asia, and the Altai. Signs highlight problems snow leopards face in each region, how they are similar, but also how they differ with different cultures and peoples. All of this adds up to a wonderful experience to learn sbout a beautiful creature.
Next in the Trail of Adaptations is what is formerly the Feline House but has now been turned into the "Adaptations" building. The first exhibit you will see here, a small outdoor enclosure, was once home to pallas cats from Central Asia but now houses the zoo's collection of kea parrots from New Zealand. Entering the Adaptations building, you first see two exhibits for the curious fennec fox. These are the smallest members of the canine family, and really are tiny, the size of a very small domestic dog. They have enormous ears, which are an adpatation to its native environment, the Sahara Desert (the ears help cool the fox down). After the foxes is a foretsed habitat for pygmy marmosets, the smallest monkey in the world. Found only in parts of South America, the pygmy marmoset lives entirely off sap.
After the marmosets are two replicated slices of jungle that are home to the zoo's clouded leopard. The clouded leopard is an extremely beautiful and extremely rare cat that provides a link between the little cats (bobcats, servals, etc.) and the big cats (lion, tigers, jaguars, etc.). Little is known about the leopards' behavior in the wild and they are extremely hard to breed in captivity, so their future probably lies in good conservation measures throughout their native range in Southeast Asia.
Beyond the clouded leopards is one of the zoo's best habitats - the Dragons of Komodo. This exhibit, of course, is home to the Komodo Dragon, the largest lizard species in the world. This exhibit has two habitats, both very natural and replicating the dragons' home range in Indonesia.
You now have to back track slightly, past the clouded leopards and pallas cats, to find the next part of the Trail of Adaptations. This is the pumas. The puma lives from Southern South America up into Canada, and is known by different names in each region it is found in - puma, cougar, mountain lion, catamount...Scientists have somehow decided that "puma' is the most politically correct name and that is what is now being widely used. The zoo exhibit for the mountain lions is somewhat dissapointing. It is barred with mostly concrete, although branches and perches have been provided. I believe that a new cougar habitat is planned in the far distant future, so it looks like this exhibit will have to do for now. Also, the zoo's solitary female cougar is very old, so it is unlikely she will still be around to see the new exhibit. I am unsure that this exhibit will become if she passes away.
On December 16, 2002, two female Sumatran tigers were born at the zoo - the first for the zoo in ten years. The cubs were a huge hit, drawing huge crowds to see them when first put on exhibit in an Adaptations building habitat. In 2004, these cubs were sent to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium for their Asia exhibit. In September, 2004, two more cubs were born to the same parents. Currently on display inside the Adaptations building, they will be big enough to go out into the main tiger exhibit - a large concrete grotto just past the puma habitat - this spring. The outdoor tiger yard is old and outdated, though it has been modernized somewhat with the addition of plantings, a small pool and dirt to walk on. It will be replaced with a new tiger exhibit sometime in the future.
Past the tigers, you come to what is left of the bear grotto complex constructed in the 1950's. The two remaining grottos are home to Asian bear, and have been renovated enough that they will do until new homes can be built for the bears. Other grottos have been turned into off-exhibit holding, temporary holding like the hyenas, and even a gorilla exhibit. Sloth bears from India occupy the first grotto. These bears are supposedly the meanest animal in India, and even tigers won't go near them. Thye love honey, and got the name sloth bear because the first westerners to see them saw them hanging upside down trying to get at bee nests and thought they had fiund a new species of sloth. The other grotto is home to sun bears from Southeast Asia. These bears are badly endangered mostly by the pet trade, which is very sad because most owners dump their bears after they are no longer cute and fuzzy, and animal shelters in Asia are up to their ears with sun bear cubs that cannot be introduced into the wild. Happily, Woodland Park Zoo has become a leader in sun bear conservation, and lead several expeditions which have brought orphaned and abandoned bears from Borneo into the captive breeding pool in the US. Sun bears are very hard to breed in captivity, and new blood is very welcome as the current zoo population is starting to die out.
The zoo's Butterflies exhibit, which features native species, is open summer only, with $1.00 admission. It is located just past the sun bears in a large domed aviary surrounded by butterfly gardens. Past that, Humboldt penguins occupy the former sea lion pool, which has been remodled to replicate a coastal South American habitat. As Humboldt penguins are from warm waters in Peru and Chile, youyr best bet to see them is on a hot summer day. Adjacent to the penguins, pony rides are an extra $5.00 for once around a track - weight maximum 120 lbs, along with a height limit. Behind the ponies there are prairie dogs in an exhibit with a few touches of the Old West, although it's nothing special.
Just across from the penguins is Day & Night, a combination reptile/nocturnal house. The first you enter is Day. In the Day Building, look for a wide variety of exotics, not just reptiles. As you enter, go to your left for gila monsters and a variety of Australian reptiles, as well as Indian star tortoises and desert rosy boas from the American Southwest. A large viewing window shows an exhibit home to Matshie's tree kangaroos from Papua New Guinea. Large, open-air side exhibits hold rhinoceros iguanas, green iguanas, dwarf crocodiles, a variety of turtles, and dwarf caimans. A large number of smaller, more classical reptile house-type exhibits hold a great array of exocitic fauna, including diamondback rattlesnakes, mangrove snakes, Trans-Pecos ratsnakes, day geckos, Brazilian cockroaches, and king cobras. There are creative areas for a every species in here, and many exhibits have more than one species, mixing things like green iguanas and red footed tortoise.
At the end of the Day exhibit, you see two large glass-fronted habitats for king cobras and reticulated pythons (the longest snakes in the world), then go through two double doors and through a small outdoor corridor to reach the Night House.
In the nocturnal house, there are three sections: South America, Africa, and Australasia. These are viewed through a covered boardwalk. As you enter, you are faced with some displays about nocturnal animals and various adaptations they have to cope with the nighttime environment, as well as some nocturnal fish species, including Mexican blind cavefish, which are very cool as they have no eyes whatsoever. You then go up a ramp and enter the South American section. A large main section, filled with climbing trees and "stars" overhead, = houses sloths, tamandua anteaters (very successful breeding program at the zoo for these guys), armadillos, vampire bats, and hutias (large, cat-sized rodents). Next is Africa, which boasts galagos (a.k.a. bushbabies), tenrecs, fruit bats, dwarf lemurs, and springhaas. One animal to look for here is the Rodriguez fruit bat, which is only found one a single island in the Indian Ocean but has recently made a comeback thanks to conservation measures and captive breeding efforts. The last section, Australasia, has flying foxes (BIG fruit bats), tawny frogmouth birds, and slow lorises, which are chubby little primates that move VERY SLOWLY.
As you exit the Night building, you are right where you entered the Day. Go to your left and you will find the next section, award-winning Tropical Forest.
The Tropical Forest section has both an outdoor loop and and indoor rain forest building. The first exhibit you see as you go towards the main building's entrance is the new Jaguar Cove habitat, opened on June 28, 2003. This is a wonderful new area, especially considering that the zoo's jaguar formerly lived in a small concrete area near the tigers (Now occupied by the cougars). The focal point of the exhibit is a large "fallen kapok tree", a giant tree which lives in the jungle. You enter the exhibit through the tree's roots, and peer under the trunk to see if you can catch a glimpse of the zoo's sole jaguar. The exhibit is lushly planted, and has a small stream running through it. At the end of the exhibit, there is a waterfall which feeds the stream and the large pool where you may get to see the jaguar swim in (This also has underwater viewing and fish for the big cat to catch). There is also a jaguar research tent, where you can see information on jaguar conservation in addition to artifacts from researchers in South America including hammocks and even two jaguar skulls.
Just past this you enter the main rain forest building, which won the "best new zoo exhibit of the year" award when it opened in 1992. Once inside, you are taken to the dark, steamy world of the South American Tropical Forests, from the ground up. On the forest floor you first see a bird area with sunbittern birds, which look like miniature cranes. Look for these pretty birds near the back of the exhibit, where there is a small pond. Across the path, in an exhibit that looks as if it's just part of the tree roots lives a colony of leafcutter ants, which you can see scurrying to and fro, collecting leaves for the colony. They have prodigious strength, lifting and carrying on their backs for more than a mile slices of leaf that weigh more than they do. It's the equilvalent of a man strapping a grand piano on his back and going for a two-mile walk.
Just beyond the ants is a larger jungle habitat for ocelots, small but gorgeous cats which range from Texas to the Amazon. Their fur is a blessing and a curse, as it makes them beautiful (And attracts attention from conservationists - the public will support projects that save "cute", well-known species) but also attracts unwanted attention from the fur trade. Across from the ocelots are two bird species, turquoise tanagers and blue crowned motmots. The latter species builds it's nests in mud banks, and you can see a pretend motmot nest in front of their exhibit. Two other animals on the forest floor are beautiful but deadly poison arow frogs and the bushmaster, the largest venemous snake in South America.
The section of this exhibit that highlights tropical rivers in South America is fairly small. The first animals you see here are baby sideneck turtles (you can see adult sideneck turtles in the Day building). Past them is an exhibit for yellow anacondas. Yellow anacondas are the smaller of two species of anaconda. Their larger cousins the green anacondas are the heaviest snakes on earth. The last animals in the rivers are red pirahnas, one of the few pirahna species that actually eats meat (most eat plants, fruit, or fish scales).
You start going up a boardwalk now and enter the inderstory section. This is the part of the forest between the ground and the top of the trees, and is home to most of the rinforest's animals. The first exhibit here is s small exhibit on orchids, the most common flowering plant in the rainforest. Just past that is an exhibit home to spangled cotingas and white tailed trogons, both bird species from South America. Next are the emerald tree boas, which on first examination look just like a clump of moss on a stick. They have a very effective disguise, and you have to look carefully to find them. The green vine snakes in the next habitat also practice mimicry, they look like nothing more than an innocent vine until they start to move (just like the classic jungle movie scene where some poor person grabs a vine and realizes it's a venemous snake). In the next habitat are the extremely rare golden lion tamarins from brazil's Atlantic rainforest. The zoo's tamarins had a pair of babies in December of 2003, which are now full-grown and on display.
The green aracaris, miniature toucans, are also very fun to look at. Usually you think of toucans as being fairly big birds, but these birds are absolutely minute little bundles of feathers. The zoo's male aracari is minus one of his legs. Crested orapendolas, a type of blackbird, in the exhibit over are very impressive, not to mention BIG! Like a number of other species, orapendolas weave their own nests out of various plant parts. Past them is an exhibit for turquoise and blue-gray tanager birds. Finally there are keel billed toucans, one of the largest and most impressive toucan species. The keel billed toucan is also the national bird of Belize, probably the most conservation-minded of all neotropical countries. It's the smallest country in Central and South America, yet has put over one-third of it's country's wild lands into wildlife reserves, preserving the natural places for future generations.
The canopy section of the Tropical Rainforest is very neat - a free-flight aviary. Many of the bird species here are quite colorful and neat to watch. One of the most noticeable birds is the aptly named yellow rumped cacique. On the ground you may also see sunbitterns, which also live in the exhibit by the ants on the forest floor section. Two birds to keep a special eye out for are lesser kiskadee flycatchers and tropical mockingbirds, both of which are found only in a few zoos, including Woodland Park.
As you exit the aviary, directly ahead of you is Lemur Island, which houses the shocking red ruffed lemurs. This particular species only lives in one small patch of forest in Madagascar, which, though protected, is under serious threat of being lost totally to the logging industry. Don't get your hopes up for seeing the lemurs - I probably only see them on one in five visits, and they rarely seem to be out. Past the lemurs is another island. This houses Debrazza's guenon, a kind of monkey. A baby guenon was born on Christmas, 2002. This island is very spacious, so you have to know where the animals like to hang out - the guenons are in the middle of the trees on either the right or left side, very rarely in the middle, and the duikers like the den and bushes on the exhibit's left edge.
After crossing a bridge, take the left fork and you will see colobus monkeys, which are one of the most common African monkey species and a beautiful black-and white, with long, shaggy hair. After walking down the trail a ways, you see the gorilla habitats. The first you view through a series of glass panels, to watch a small gorilla troop roam and frolic, often close to the glass. A second gorilla troop resides next door in what was THE FIRST NATURALIZED GORILLA EXHIBIT IN THE WORLD. This also helped coin the term "immersion exhibit" - where the human feels that she or he is part of the animal's natural habitat. This exhibit is really nice, one of my favorites. It isn't West Africa, but it's close - fallen and standing trees, a stream, and lots of bushes and grass, as well and straw-bedded den where you can usually find one or more gorillas, especially on colder days. After this you can go back towards the jaguars and back to the main loop.
After seeing the gorillas, you end up at the beginning of the jaguar habitat. Here, go on the main loop and around the food court and turn left at the primate house. This old structure was built in 1911 and no longer houses animals. It will be torn down sometime in the next year and turned into a new "Family Science Learning Center" which sounds like it will be very nice, with a few animal exhibits and lots of educational opportunities geared towards families. A ways past the old Primate House you enter the Temperate Forest.
The Temperate Forest is the place to go when looking for rare, not-well-known species, as well as a quiet place to sit and perhaps reflect. The first species you see here are Chilean pudus in two moderately sized yards. Pudu are the world's smallest deer species, and live in South America. The zoo often has baby pudu, so be on the lookout when you visit. Across the path from the pudu is a covered habitat with a large pond with several duck species - cape teals, white afced whistling ducks, and hottentot teals from Africa, ringed teals from South America, and northern shovelers, lesser scaups, and ring necked ducks from North America.
The zoo's sole tufted deer (a small deer with tusks from Asia) occupies a large yard with bamboo and snags, and across the path crested screamers from South America, which are the waterfowl's closest relatives, have another yard to themselves. Across the path are red pandas in a large yard with several trees. Hopefully you will be lucky to see these gorgeous animals o the ground, but if you don't then look in the trees. They are extremely adept climbers and spend much of their time in the trees. In the next yard over are Japanese serows, rare goat-antelopes that are only found in a few other zoos in the world (Vienna, L.A, San Diego, the Trevor Zoo in New York State). The government of Japan has declared serows a national treasure since 1955, and they are rigidly protected in their native lands. Across the path from the serows is a large, grassy, treed yard which houses a pair of demoiselle cranes. These are the smallest cranes in the world, and are found over a good range in Eurasia.
Just beyond the demoiselle cranes, white naped cranes live in two seperate yards (previously hooded cranes were in one of the yards). These strikingly beautiful crane species are very endangered in their native habitat (the northern Orient) but luckily there is a good breeding program for these birds in captivity. Right past the white naped cranes, there is a small shelter which gives information about wetland conservation. There is a movie and displays about Woodland Park Zoo's conservation program, in cooperation with the Oregon Zoo in Portland, to save the Western pond turtle, an endangered Northwest species, from extinction and return captive-bred individuals to the wild.
In 2001, snow collapsed the aviary netting over what had been the Swamp & Marsh exhibit. After abput a year and a half as a wild bird exhibit, this habitat has been remodeled to be stronger and better than before. Originally constructed in the 1970's along with the gorilla habitat and African Savannah, the adjacent waterfowl ponds were remodeled as well.
As you enter this section (now called Wetlands) you may not be too impressed - just some ducks in an aviary. But ducks are very fascinating species. These are ducks with brigt plumage and their own unique habits, not just mallards that you see everywhere. At the very least, don't walk through this wonderful exhibit to go see your favorite elephants or lions - it's a little-known but great exhibit and should be appreciated.
The Wetlands aviary has a bunch of fascinating duck species and large ponds. If you are lucky, all the ducks will be swimming around and you will really have a chance to appreciate them. They all have their own unique traits, and there are a bunch here. There are three diving duck species. One, the bufflehead, is all black and white. The hooded mergansers (merganser = fish eating duck) look like the buffleheads at a glance but have more brown. They are very pretty and is is great fun to watch them swimming around. The smews are another merganser species and, although primarily found in Eurasia, do occasionally turn up on the East Coast. Wood ducks, generally considered to be the most beautiful duck species, are here as well, along with blue-billed ruddy ducks. The canvasback, which is said to have the best flavor of any duck, is also in the exhibit along with northern shovelers, which supposedly are the worst-tasting duck. There are also a number of other species - pintails, lesser scaups, black ducks, redhead ducks, and cinnamon teals. In addition to the ducks, the aviary houses green backed herons and black crowned night herons, two other fascinating wetland birds.
After exiting the Wetlands Aviary, you come to a large pond surrounded by cattails and tall maple trees. This is home to a pair of absolutely beautiful tundra swans, pure-white birds with lovely yellow bills and a very cool call. Past them is a brand-new crane habitat for red crowned cranes. This species of crane is one of the main reasons some conservationists want to turn the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) between North and South Korea into a wildlife refuge - a large flock of these birds winters inbetween the two countries (the conservationists' dreams may come true if it can be proven that Amur a.k.a. Siberian tigers are living here as well).
Just past this lies one of my favorite places in the whole zoo. This is the little-known Conservation Aviary. Actually one of the oldest buildings in the zoo (originally a pheasantry), it exhibits rare & endangered bird species from all over the world. Among the more endangered ones are sichuan white-eared pheasants and blue whistling thrushes, which share an exhibit. Palawan peacock pheasants, Bali mynahs, and victoria crowned pigeons (the largest pigeons in the world), all found here, are also in peril. Also to be found here are wrinkled hornbills, turkey-sized northern helmeted currassows from South America, one of the oddest birds I've ever seen, and gray-winged trumpeters. The Woodland Park Zoo bred the first captive members of this small avian species, and has done a lot of propogation work with them as well. In the aviary, there are also a number of freeroaming species - tragopans, lady amherst's pheasants, and white-crested laughing thrushes. Sharing an exhibit with Himalayan monal pheasants is a peacock who got too old to be freeroaming on zoo grounds and had to be "retired" in order to save his health.
The "Bug" World exhibit has much more than just insects. It showcases numerous habitats where arthropods can be found, and mixes many species. Some especially good exhibits are American cockroaches, desert hairy scorpions mixed with dung beetles, madagascar hissing cockroaches, honeybees, and crayfish. It's small, but well worth it. Changed over to a temporary spider exhibit for summer 2004, Bug World will be re-opening soon
Nearby Bug World is a habitat discovery loop, which is a playground that showcases animal homes - a mole den, spider web, turtle shell, and otter slides. It's a lot of fun for all ages, especially youngsters.
The Family Farm is one of the most popular exhibits, especially with children. Great grey owls are the first exhibit if entering from Bug World. Next is a hummingbird/butterfly garden. Now you find an outdoor yard and barn for miniature horses (cute), miniature donkeys (neat), but, most importantly of all, kingshire miniature cattle. These tiny cattle are a breed developed in Covington, Washington. The farmer who pionereed the breed donated a pair to the zoo. In May 2002, the zoo had three baby cattle, bringing the WORLD population up to FOURTEEN. The cattle, horses, and donkeys are housed in a barn which you can enter. This also houses barn owls (look up). Also, especially in the mornings, look on the barn's roof for peacocks. Near the cattle yard is the discovery barn, open weekends from noon to three.
Continuing through the farm, you find a small, rocky yard for Nigerian dwarf goats, and on the other side of the path, a shelter for chickens (barred rock, rhode island red, and australop) and rabbits, as well as a compost garden. A small yard is home to kinder goats (a mix of Nubian and pygmy goats), Katahdin sheep, and the zoo's old, mixed-breed sheep, Mary. Next to them are ossabaw island pigs. The contact yard, just past the pigs, is open during the summer and fall. Continue down the path and you find yourself back at the South Gate plaza.
The zoo does a lot of conservation work, especially with rare and little-known species: a number of Asian hornbill species, Malayan sun bears, Egyptian tortoises, turtles (yellow-spotted sideneck and western pond turtles), tree kangaroos, and apes (gorillas and orangutans).
Also be sure to check out the wonderful zoo history signs around the zoo. The Zoo has a rich past, and these signs highlight it well.
The family farm is a good way to end or start a zoo visit, and also be sure to check out the wonderful zoo shop before leaving. A reasonably good zoo map is provided at the entrance.
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