Woodland Park Zoo One Of The 5 Best Zoos In North America

Thanks for thel link, nice to see that you are once again posting valuable and interesting information!

 

More Wonder. More Wild

This is the new fundraising appeal from Woodland Park Zoo http://www.zoo.org/page.aspx?pid=1571.

It features an introduction and endorsement from Betty White and, interestingly, the new logo of the zoo.

 

Not so sure there is a new zoo logo. Fundraisers often feel they need to create a distinctive "identity" for their campaigns, and my guess is this logo is specific to the capital campaign.

I would offer that the money spent on this "branding" would have been better spent on a more imaginative design for the new exhibit: the artist's rendering looks boringly similar to many other "Asian-themed" exhibit complexes all over the US.

Do we always have to look at "temples" and "pagodas" to make us think we're in some generic "Asia?"

 

The zoo's bold new fundraising campaign is the first public campaign for many years, and sections of the $80 million project have already been completed. The true centerpiece will be the $21 million Asian Tropical Forest, replacing 60 year-old exhibits for Sumatran tigers, sun bears and sloth bears as well as possibly adding various other Asian animals. The zoo has announced that the aim is for Phase 1 to open in 2013, and donations from single individuals (like the anonymous $4 million that the zoo recently received) should aid in reaching that target. I'm sure that when it is complete the Asian Tropical Forest will be yet another AZA award-winning complex that will only better an already terrific zoo. What is interesting to me is how the zoo intends to somehow connect the existing Asian habitats with the new area, as in the extensive document the orangutan and elephant enclosures are mentioned a few times.

 

They may well be phasing in a new logo as some time ago I completed an online survey on their website regarding designs for a new logo and branding.

 

The answer to the new logo question:

Phinney Bischoff Creates New Identity and Campaign for Woodland Park Zoo

 

This is rather amusing

The only thing the new logo communicates to me is that it is a zoo in Woodland Park, which may or may not have at least a part of a zebra.

 

Ituri, I concur, it looks like the WPZ got sold a bill of goods by snake oil salesmen.

 

Logo design is like that, there's only so much you can say with a small vector image. Nike's logo is successful because we all recognize it as Nike, when really the image says nothing to any normal person.

 

Here is the annual report for 2010, a 4-page document, that was released on May 2nd, 2011: (The official new logo has slowly infiltrated all of the zoo's press releases)

http://www.zoo.org/document.doc?id=325

 

From the zoo's summer 2011 newsletter: the "new logo and colors express our emerging focus on preserving animals and activities in a more intimate, personal manner designed to inspire action to save animals and habitat. The logo itself weaves together elements that evoke nature: the stripes could represent the stripes of a tiger or zebra, or the tall grasses of the savanna depending on your perspective". I'm still not sure about the logo myself, but it is certainly much simplified in comparison to the older logo.

In other news, the first phase of the Asian Tropical Forest complex will open (as long as everything goes according to plan) in 2013. If I were a betting man I'd put my money on a brand-new Sumatran tiger habitat that will replace the 60 year-old grotto that is currently in use by the tigers. In subsequent years the Asian bears will also receive new exhibits as part of the $21 million overhaul. The zoo has now raised almost $60 million of the total $80 million in the "More Wonder. More Wild" campaign.

 

So when you argue about what zoo is best in America (or best in anything and anywhere), what exactly are you looking for to determine where it ranks? Of course you look for attractive exhibits that actually reflect the animals' requirements (like the jaguar cove ), exhibits that educate guests and entertain them while providing a naturalistic environment for the inhabitants, you look for exhibit maintenance, guest satisfaction, but anything else in particular? What would the ultimate zoo (or what does) have to have in order to be great?

 

When I began this thread more than two years ago I claimed that Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo was one of the 5 best zoos in North America, but since then I've visited what seems like a million more zoos and when I eventually put together a list of my favorite zoos I downgraded Woodland Park to one of the 8 best zoos in North America. Reading Shirokuma's review on that individual's "Pacific Northwest" thread and also learning that Sun Wukong is a huge fan I wonder if many Europeans consider the zoo to be a top 5-10 contender?

 

@snowleopard: I see that there is a pretty vocal movement up in Seattle to shut down the elephant exhibit on the basis of it being too small.
http://www.ballardnewstribune.com/2009/06/20/news/26-protest-zoo-entrance-remove-elephants
I remember seeing this exhibit when it was brand new in 1989, and it was then a model exhibit. Does zoo management have any plans to expand the exhibit, or is the elephant protest up there mostly a fringe that gets ignored by the mainstream zoo supporters?

It seems like the elephant "problem" (if there really is one) could be a major thorn in the side of this great zoo. Do they have room to build a bigger modern elephant exhibit?

 

Seattle's elephant exhibit is a perfect example of how the "times they are a changin'" in regards to zoo management ideas. The 1.5 acre habitat opened in 1989 and was immediately given the AZA Award for Best New Exhibit and it must have seemed spectacular for its era. With the proliferation of fantastic elephant exhibits that have been constructed in the past decade suddenly Woodland Park has a once or twice a year protesting group and the elephant exhibit is clearly on the small side for such a great zoo. To make matters worse Hansa the 6 year-old died of the herpesvirus, Chai has been inseminated innumerable times and simply cannot get pregnant again, Watoto is an African elephant, and Bamboo is supposedly a volatile female who cannot be put together with both of the other elephants at the same time. She was even sent to Point Defiance Zoo for a brief spell but was then returned as she did not get along with the equally cranky females there. There is always an elephant separated from the other two, even though they can all see each other, and I've seen many signs of stereotypy from all 3 elephants.

A few years ago there were plans to partition off part of the elephant exhibit for Indian rhinos but that never came to fruitition, and in my personal opinion as soon as one of the elephants dies the zoo should send its remaining two away and have Indian rhinos on exhibit. Point Defiance is already going to phase out elephants for Indian rhinos and a breeding program would be easy to set up between the two zoos as they are only half an hour apart from each other and the current exhibits would be glorious for rhinos. Oregon Zoo is only a few hours away and that zoo already has plans and funding in place for a 6-acre Asian elephant habitat to be built in the next few years, with rumors of a 100-acre off-site breeding facility for elephants.

Detroit Zoo sent away its two elephants and there was a worry that attendance would drop and the public would stay away in droves. Interestingly enough that zoo broke its all-time attendance record 4 times in 5 years with zero elephants so I'm convinced that Woodland Park would not miss out by not having elephants and I don't believe that the zoo has the space or funding to dramatically overhaul its current enclosure. At the moment the zoo is doggedly committed to its elephant program but the "herd" of three is dysfunctional at best and the logical thing to do would be to phase the species out.

 

Wouldn't it make sense if the zoo simply sent Chai to naturally breed with Packy/Tusko at the Portland zoo, since artificial insemination clearly isn't working? As I'm writing, I just realized the Portland zoo probably doesn't want her to bring EEHV1 to the zoo...

 

I've posted a link to plans for the future Asian Tropical Forest complex at Woodland Park Zoo. Species list in the document: Malayan tiger, sloth bear, Asian small-clawed otter, Indian giant squirrel, Indian hornbill, chevrotain and Asian turtles.

This is a 27-page document with a wealth of information, including blueprints and maps from 1949 and 1951:

http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/AppDocs/...ear-Exhibit-Woodland-Park-ZooAgendaID3264.pdf