The Woodland Park Zoo is in Seattle Washington, near the University of Washington. Unlike the other zoos I’ve visited, it only has a large sign at the entrance to the parking lot. However, these wonderful pieces of art get you ready to enjoy a day at the zoo.

I have very fond memories of the Woodland Park Zoo. When I was going to college at the University of Washington, I would take my daughter to this zoo. We would sometimes be joined by friends I had at the University of Washington. It was nice to stroll through the zoo and not think about school.

After nearly 30 years, the zoo has had major changes, however the African savanna area has stayed about the same. I followed the path I followed 30 years ago, with some of the same animals (giraffe, zebra, hippo) and brand new animals (Indian rhino, kea, Kodomodo dragon). So lets start this new trek.

When I come in from the Hippo parking lot, the African Savanna is right in front of me. So, of course I had to take a look. To my surprise all I saw were a pair of plains zebras.

In open areas, it is not unusual to miss some of the animals from one vantage point. However, I expected to see the giraffes, since they kind of stick out.

I next head over to the Savanna Aviary. There are a few birds in this exhibit.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the spur-winged lapwing had a chick. It was so cute walking around on what seemed like over sized legs. Weaver birds are common in Africa, and some are colorful like the African golden weaver bird.

The Lady Ross’s turaco was especially attractive to me. Though the Taveta golden weaver bird was nice too.

I continue my trek and come upon the hippopotamus, with a giraffe in the African Savanna area behind the hippos.

When I lived in the Seattle area, the Woodland Park Zoo had a neat community event after Halloween. People could bring their pumpkins/Jack-o’-lanterns for the hippopotami to eat. When we went with our Jack-o’-lantern, it was feeding time so my daughter got to toss her pumpkin into the mouth of the hippo! Two or three bites later the whole pumpkin was gone! My daughter has continued to love hippos.

Continuing with the Africa area, I come upon the lions. I guess I should say lioness, because I did not see the male lion. This is just the opposite to what happened at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

These are two different lionesses.

I head over to the area which is newer: The Tropical Asia. It starts with Assam Rhino Reserve. The first animal is a warty pig, but soon there are Indian rhinos.

The Visayan warty pig is critically endangered. The Woodland Park Zoo is part of a breeding program with other zoos. Good going Woodland Park Zoo! The Indian rhino is considered threatened, but is doing better than than they were several years ago. However, the Indian rhino range is much smaller than what it used to be. The Indian rhinoceros may have been the animal that started the myth of the unicorn. What do you think, does it look like a unicorn?

From the tank looking Indian rhinoceros we move to the Malaysian tapir, and other animals of tropical Asia.

The Asian brown tortoise had a fairly large habitat for a relatively small tortoise. I find tapirs interesting. They look a bit like they should be related to elephants, but their closest relative is the animal we just saw, the rhinoceros! Also, the most different of the tapirs is the Malayan tapir. It is still closely related to the South American tapirs. I also like the black and white coloration of the Malayan tapir.

I now head over to some apes, and a snake. The first ape is the siamang, a type of gibbon.

Siamang can be a very loud ape. In fact, they are one of the loudest mammals in the world. The zookeeper who was there told me they were the loudest land mammal. When I was at another zoo, I was told the howler monkey was the loudest. Both make very loud sounds! The loudest land mammal? Probably the bulldog bat, which makes a very loud sound (>140 decibels, the measure of loudness of sound), but it is of such a high frequency we can’t hear it. Should they count?

Next I see the orangutan. Woodland Park Zoo has crosses between the Sumatran or Borneo orangutan. There are actually three species, but the Tapanuli orangutan is so rare, I don’t know of any zoo in the United States that have them. The bronze sculpture provides a good look at the difference between the Sumatran and Borneo orangutans. Up until a few years ago, I thought there was a single species of orangutan. All species of orangutan are critically endangered.

The big snake is a reticulated python. A reticulated python is probably the longest snake in the world, and can also get very heavy. The accepted longest reticulated python was 32 ft 10 in. A reticulated python at the Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens in England weighed 350 lbs! These are very big snakes!

I have to loop back due to construction to the building called Adaptation. The first animal I see is the famous Komodo dragon. We just saw one of the largest snakes, now the largest lizard.

The Komodo dragon is famous because of how big it is but also how toxic their bite is. Scientists are still studying their venom/toxin, the important thing is you don’t want to get bit by these huge lizards! Next to them is an Indian flying fox, which isn’t really a fox but a bat. If you look at their face they kind of have a fox muzzle.

At the end of the Adaptation area is the kea. As you know from my stroll in Tracy Aviary, I really like keas. There was a zookeeper there when I visited, and we had a lovely discussion about the keas, specifically the Woodland Park Zoo keas. I do not remember the zookeepers name but she was a pleasure to talk with, as most zookeepers are. She really liked working with the keas. One of the things she told me was that though the beak looks dangerous, the keas are very gentle when using their beaks.

I still need to get a photo with the keas wings spread. Underneath of the wings are orange!!

Now I head to the Living Northwest Trail. All the animals in this area can be seen in different areas of the Northwest, except for the Steller’s sea eagle. The Steller’s sea eagle lives in Russia, with the highest concentrations of Steller’s sea eagles on the Kamchatka Peninsula. That is the area just north of Japan (maybe you would like to check it out on a globe or map).

Okay, the wolves are probably arctic wolves, closely related to the timber wolf. Timber wolves or gray wolves can sometimes be seen in eastern Washington. The elk habitat is right next to the wolf habitat. I wonder if the elk ever get nervous when the wolves start to howl?

It’s obvious that the mountain goat is shedding. It was June when I visited, so the days were warmer and the thick body hair would make the mountain goat really hot. It would be like putting on your winter coat then walking around on a summers day!

The grizzly bear seemed very interested by what was in the water. Or, maybe it was just looking at its reflection. What do you think?

The Steller’s sea eagle is one of my favorite eagles. They have a beautiful black and white coloration. When they’re flying it is more obvious that the tail and legs are white as well. They are also the largest eagle by weight. They can weigh up to 22 lbs which is very heavy for a bird. On average, the harpy eagle is only a little smaller than the Steller’s sea eagle, by weight.

There were also some smaller animals in this area.

I think the snowy owl is probably the most beautiful owl. I never saw a snowy owl in the wild, though I lived in Alaska for over 20 years. They tend to live further north than where I was. Still, I would love to see one on a brisk snowy evening.

I really enjoy watching otters swim around. They seem to just love to play in the water. Do you like to swim and play in the water? I have learned recently there are quite a few different types of otters, many look a bit like the North American river otter. We will see one of those later in this stroll.

Now I turn and go down to the Australasia area, then I will go to the Banyan Wilds area. Due to construction, I could not make it to the Banyan Wilds when I was over near the rest of Tropical Asia. However, construction is necessary at zoos to keep the animals and people happy and safe.

The first stop in the Australasia area is the emu. It was playing hide and go seek.

You can’t talk about Australia without having some kangaroos, wallaroos, or wallabies. When resting or eating the tail lies on the ground, but when moving it is out behind them, giving them the balance they need to make long hops.

In the aviary associated with the Australasia area there is of course a kookaburra. There is another lapwing, the masked lapwing and a ground pigeon called the wonga pigeon. I thought the name wonga sounded amusing.

Now I cross into the Banyan Wilds, where I am met by a Bengal tiger and a pair of sloth bears. The Bengal tiger is probably the least endangered of the mainland tigers. The sloth bear was the bear in the book The Jungle Book. If you saw the Jungle Book movie, Baloo was supposed to be a sloth bear.

You look at the Asian small-clawed otter, and they look a lot like the North American river otter. However, they are quite different, for example they are smaller and have very small claws. This group of otters has another species called the African clawless otter. As you might guess, these otters are also great swimmers.

I now go back through the Australasia area, past the carousel, past the west entrance and to the penguin exhibit. The Humboldt penguins dig burrows for themselves in the wild, so that is why the Woodland Park Zoo has made some burrows for them.

Like the St. Louis Zoo these penguins are fine with the warmer weather. They do have a cool pool they can swim in, so that is nice for them. I enjoy watching them swim underwater, just like I enjoy watching the otters. I wonder which is faster underwater a Humboldt penguin or a North American otter?

After the penguins I stop and have lunch at the Grove (see Visiting Woodland Park Zoo). It has been a long walk so I am thirsty and hungry.

Refreshed I head to the Tropical Rain Forest area, starting with the indoor exhibit. This exhibit had mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and lots of birds.

The coatis are sometimes call coatimundis. The coati is closely related to the raccoon. They are also mischievous like the raccoon. The saki monkey almost looks like a kind of tamarin. Both are very active, jumping to and from branches.

The false water cobra is venomous however its venom isn’t nearly as strong as real cobra venom. In fact, all real cobras occur in Africa and Asia and the false water cobra occurs in South America. In the wild the poison arrow frogs are very poisoness with the poison coming out their skin. Kind of like poison sweat. Like the orangutan I thought there was a single kind of poison arrow/dart frog. There are almost 200 kinds of poison arrow/dart frogs! They all live in the jungles of South America.

One of the things I really like about tropical birds is how colorful they are. I should note that the male Andean cock-of-the-rock is bright orange. I tried to get photos but he wasn’t cooperating.

I exit the indoor tropical rain forest and I quickly see some ring-tailed lemurs.

When I see ring-tailed lemurs, I sometimes think of King Julien from the movie Madagascar. When these lemurs are active they can be quite fun to watch.

The colobus monkey is on the mainland of Africa, not on the island (big island) of Madagascar. For many years I thought they were “Columbus”, as in the founder of America, monkey. I wondered how the Italian explorer got a monkey named after him. Remember to read the word, not jump to what you think it is.

The place I visit next in the Tropical Rain Forest area is the gorilla habitat.

You can see why the male gorilla is sometimes called the silver-back. The enclosure seemed nice for the gorillas, and I enjoyed watching the silver-back walking around. When I am near the glass of an ape enclosure, it sometimes seems they’re watching me as I watch them. What do you suppose they think of us?

I now head into the Temperate Forest area. We start with some birds, actually a lot of birds.

Some of the birds are quite colorful like the threee turaco’s. I think the argus looks like a peacock that’s lost its color. I had a hard time figuring out what kind of bird was in a nest in the pine tree. It is a red-billed blue magpie, and away from the nest they are quite handsome. If you look carefully you can see a pair of long feathers on the red-billed blue magpie’s tail.

Though at first glance it may not be obvious, but the seriema is classified as a type of raptor. There most closely living relatives are falcons. With those long legs it doesn’t look like a falcon to me. How about you?

The last bird is called a Nene or Hawaiian goose. It is the only naturally occurring waterfowl in the Hawaiian Islands. I do not know why they (there were two) were walking outside their cage.

I now head to the Temperate Forest Wetlands area. Once again we start with birds, specifically a red-crowned crane, followed by a tundra swan, then ducks and geese.

I have trouble telling the difference between the tundra swan and the trumpeter swan. I was surprised the white-headed duck was named after it’s white head and not it’s bright blue bill. When I lived in Alaska I would sometimes see bufflehead ducks and in the winter I see them in Missouri. The mergansers and smew are some the few birds that have teeth. They don’t look like mammal teeth, rather a part of their bill. The teeth are not made for defense, but for holding fish. The red-breasted goose, which I think is very handsome, coloration reminds me of the Harlequin duck.

I continue through the Temperate Forest area with a series of birds that are in individual enclosures. Once again we start with a crane, specifically the white-naped crane, which I thought at first was a sarus crane that I saw at the St. Louis Zoo. The sarus crane has much more red on it’s face.

The swan goose is a wild species, which is different than the crosses on farms of a goose and a swan. With the much larger bill than most geese, I can see why it is called a swan goose. I had never seen a Demoiselle crane except in books. The Demoiselle crane is a very handsome bird I think. Next are barnacle geese, which eat shellfish from rocks. A crow decided to photo bomb my barnacle goose picture. When I saw the hooded crane I thought it was a sandhill crane or the red-crowned crane I saw earlier. I guess I need to learn my cranes better.

The last area of the Temperate Forest is called the Wildlife Survival Zone. This starts with mammals rather than birds, starting with a maned wolf.

The maned wolf looks like a very long legged red fox to me. However they are also much larger. Though endangered in the wild the red panda is fairly common in zoos. Having many red pandas in zoos may be important for the red pandas the future. I think the pudu looks a bit like some of the small African antelope like the duiker or dik-dik, however the pudu is a type of deer. A very small deer.

There was once again some more waterfowl. I do not believe I have ever seen an Orinoco goose before. It looks a bit like an Egyptian goose, but lives in South America. Now that I am paying more attention to the waterfowl, the white-faced whistling duck seems pretty common in zoos.

For the longest time I thought, like I did with the orangutan, there was only one kind of flamingo but there are six kinds. The Chilean flamingo seems popular in zoos.

All the animals in this last area, except for the red panda, come from South America.

I now head to the south exit, but make one more quick stop to look over the African Savanna area. I am greeted by some Grant’s gazelles.

These are some of the fastest antelopes in Africa. So it is a nice end to the day.

So this concludes my walk through the Woodland Park Zoo. I am very tired, and as I exit the person at the gate asks if I’d been there all day. I answer yes. There were animals I had not seen at zoos recently, including the Indian rhinoceros, the siamang, Grant’s gazelle, the tundra swan, the Wonga pigeon, the white-nosed coati, and the Bengal tiger. The Woodland Park Zoo also had some animals I have not seen in other zoos like the Visayan warty pig, the mountain goat, the red-billed blue magpie, the nene, the Demoiselle crane, the southern pudu, and the Orinoco goose. I have also learned things while visiting this zoo.

This is Ivan the Zoo Guy to all the Zoo Folk out there, I hope you have time to visit a zoo, maybe the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington.