JUNGLE PARTY
Tails of the Treetops
July 14, 2023
Fund Our Future
Thank you for your support of Jungle Party 2023!
Imagine a forest...lush green surroundings, sounds of birds calling through the rustling leaves, a misty canopy overhead. The forest canopy is home and habitat to myriad animals at Woodland Park Zoo—from the red pandas of the Himalayan temperate forests to the toucans of South American rain forests. Protecting forests allows these canopy-dwelling endangered species to thrive, and forests protect the health and well-being of all living creatures.
The trees that form the forest canopy provide precious habitat for wildlife, offer us nutritious food, support industries that sustain local communities and clean the air we breathe. Forests are nature's solution to our changing climate as trees absorb carbon and harmful pollutants from the atmosphere while releasing oxygen. The future of forests is inextricably linked to ours.
In fall 2022, Woodland Park Zoo reinforced our commitment to forests and marked a milestone in our Forests For All campaign with the opening of the Living Northwest Trail exhibit. This reimagined exhibit features iconic local species while highlighting conservation successes and actions you can take to ensure a healthy, thriving Northwest for animals and people, alike. Dynamic animal experiences, interactive learning, and local indigenous art empower visitors to discover nature, recover threatened wildlife and their habitats, and coexist with wildlife and each other. Now, the zoo is embarking on the next phase of the campaign, which is a new Forest Trailhead exhibit anticipated in 2026, featuring treetop-dwelling animals like red pandas and Matchie’s tree kangaroos.
Each “tail”—at the zoo and around the world, in the forest treetops and in all the other layers of the forest—has its own unique story.
Tales of Conservation
Community-driven solutions are necessary to protect forests locally and around the world. Woodland Park Zoo takes direct action to help save wildlife around the world through our conservation initiatives, which all advance effective wildlife conservation strategies in partnership with local and indigenous communities.
Your Fund Our Future contributions will help support critical work saving canopy-dwelling species such as:
Training local community members as Forest Guardians to monitor wildlife and stop poaching with Red Panda Network. These anti-poaching patrols for Endangered red pandas in Nepal have reduced traps and snares by 65% since 2015.
Restoring habitat corridors that have been disconnected due to worldwide demand for palm oil in Borneo with HUTAN, protecting species like the wrinkled hornbill.
Conserving lemur species found only on the island of Madagascar with The Madagascar Fauna and Flora Group.
Protecting the Critically Endangered Bali Myna with Silent Forest: Asian Songbird Crisis by improving knowledge and understanding of the threats to these birds and engaging zoos to help save their species.
Tales of Community
Woodland Park Zoo is also ensuring the future of forests and the animals within them here at home. The zoo believes that everyone in our community should have an opportunity to build powerful, emotional connections with the unique animals and habitats of the world. These experiences build empathy for wildlife and inspire personal actions to protect these animals and their habitats.
Through your Fund Our Future gift, you will help increase opportunities for equitable access to the zoo and zoo programs, including:
Developing new programs, expanding existing experiences, and leveraging those experiences to deepen connections with nature, wildlife and habitat conservation and climate resilience.
Offering $35 Explorer Pass Memberships and $5 Discover Tickets for foster and kinship families or recipients of EBT/Washington Quest, P-EBT or WIC assistance and 100,000 free tickets to community partners to help alleviate the financial barrier to zoo attendance.
Investing in staff and volunteer development, public programming adaptations for learners of all types and facilities upgrades to make the zoo a more welcoming and accessible space.
Tales of Care
Since our founding in 1899, Woodland Park Zoo’s evergreen guiding principle is providing exceptional care for every animal residing with us. We are ensuring that each animal at the zoo is thriving mentally, emotionally and physically.
By contributing generously to Woodland Park Zoo’s 2023 Fund Our Future campaign, you will help the zoo:
Improve exhibits for our hoofed animals. After noticing some concerns with rhinos Taj and Glenn’s foot health, the zoo recently installed a new custom wood chip substrate in their exhibit, becoming the first zoo in the nation to use this kind of substrate throughout their habitat. This change has been successfully alleviating pressure on their feet and contributing to some amazing positive changes. The Zoo continues to collect data on the positive changes we are tracking in our rhinos and is assuming a leadership position in the care of greater one-horned rhino feet in the US. We are investigating applying novel substrate approaches to other hoofed mammals such as tapir and warthog.
Regulate water temperatures for our Humboldt penguins. In their natural habitat along the coast of Peru and Chile, these penguins enjoy cold Antarctic waters brought up by the Humboldt current. By installing a heat pump on the water filtration system in the Humboldt penguin habitat, we will be able to better mitigate the water temperature to achieve the preferred temperatures for the penguins.
Thank You
You Make it Possible
Your generous Fund Our Future investment will help ensure the success of Woodland Park Zoo’s continued efforts to care for our animals and protect their wild counterparts. It’s thanks to YOU that our zoo advances as a beloved anchor of our Pacific Northwest community that saves species and inspires conservation action—empowering everyone in our community to join us in protecting forests locally and around the world. Thank you!