Woodland Park Zoo Press Release

What:
Everybody knows that Pike Place Fish Market is world famous for their best quality, fresh seafood and, of course, their animated aerial stunts with fish. On Thursday, September 21, the fishmongers are bringing their salmon and fun to Woodland Park Zoo as they throw salmon to the zoo’s 850-pound grizzly bears.

Grizzly Bear

The special seafood delivery is to gear up the bears for Bear Affair, a special event to promote public awareness of bears in the wild. Bear Affair is Saturday-Sunday, September 23-24.

When:
Pike Place Fish Market salmon toss: Thursday, September 21, 10:00-10:15 a.m.

Where:
The photo op takes place at the grizzly bear exhibit at the zoo’s Northern Trail. Enter the zoo through the NORTH ENTRANCE off N. 59th St. & Phinney Ave. N.

Who:
Pike Place Fish Market; 12-year-old grizzly bears Keema and Denali, both males. The siblings arrived at the zoo in 1994 from Washington State University, which maintains a small collection to conduct a long-term study on bear nutrition.

Info:
Bear Affair is Saturday-Sunday, September 23-24, 9:30 a.m.-3:00 p.m. Free with zoo admission or zoo membership

Bear Affair celebrates our bear friends with a variety of opportunities to learn more about them – from grizzly bears to Malayan sun and sloth bears. Visitors will enjoy keeper talks, enrichment activities for the bears, mini-presentations by the Grizzly Bear Outreach Project on grizzly bear conservation, booths represented by wildlife and conservation organizations concerned with bears and bear habitat, bear discovery boxes and more.

Special demonstrations – involving the zoo’s own grizzlies – will show how disastrous it can be to store food in a tent in bear country and how using proper Bear Resistant Food Containers is a preventive measure.

Grizzly bears are brown bears, which range throughout North America, Asia and Europe. Brown bears are considered threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in the lower 48 states. Fewer than 20 grizzly bears range in the North Cascades. They are not protected in Alaska.

For a full schedule visit the Bear Affair page on the zoo's Web site or call 206.684.4800. For more information about the Grizzly Bear Outreach Project, visit www.bearinfo.org.

Accredited by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, award-winning Woodland Park Zoo is famed for pioneering naturalistic exhibits and setting a standard for zoos all over the world. With conservation, education and excellent animal care at the core of the zoo’s mission, the zoo is helping to save endangered species in Washington state and around the world including tree kangaroos, snow leopards, red-crowned cranes, African wild dogs, western pond turtles and Oregon silverspot butterflies. By inspiring visitors and others to care and act, Woodland Park Zoo is making a difference in our planet’s future.