EARLY CLOSURE
The zoo will close early at 2:00 p.m., Thursday, November 27, 2025 for the Thanksgiving holiday.

ALL FOR WILDLIFE

About Our Strategic Plan, Mission and Values

STRATEGIC PLAN

 

All Wildlife and Wild Places Are Now in Human Care

Our impact on this planet is profound and pervasive, affecting all life, lands, waters and air, near and far. Consider then how we can use this influence for good, to power positive and collective change that lasts.

Woodland Park Zoo’s commitment is clear: we are in a unique position to propel a broad social commitment for wildlife conservation that redefines the relationships between people, our planet and all its creatures.

The 2025 – 2030 Strategic Plan carries forward and strengthens our ambition to rethink and redefine Woodland Park Zoo and all zoos to do no less than to inspire, educate, innovate, and act to create a broad social movement for wildlife conservation. This plan is also an open invitation to our community, our partners, our members and visitors, and our talented staff and volunteers, to believe in and act with us.


READ THE STRATEGIC PLAN

 


VISION

Woodland Park Zoo envisions a world where everyone lives sustainably with wildlife and their habitats.


MISSION

Woodland Park Zoo saves wildlife and inspires everyone to make conservation a priority in their lives.

 

OUR VALUES

In all our work, we are driven by core values that describe both our institutional character and our aspirations for the ways in which visitors and all members of our community will experience Woodland Park Zoo.

TRUST | RESPECT | COLLABORATION | INCLUSION | TRANSFORMATION | HOPE

OUR IMPACT

As we carry out our Strategic Plan, our impact will be felt by the animals, communities and causes we serve in our commitment to CARE, INSPIRE and ACT.

 

Care



The zoo will be a model of sustainable ecosystems and an exemplar of animal care, wellness, and scientific research for the benefit of each individual animal and every generation of wildlife in zoo care.

Inspire



The zoo will broaden access and welcome all to experience nature, creating unforgettable moments with emotional and social bonds that build life-long empathy for wildlife, motivating environmental values and conservation connections that can power lasting change

Act

An aerial view of a river surrounded by trees that fade in the distance into a deforested landscape

The zoo will help to reverse species and habitat loss, invest in climate mitigation and resiliency, and create lasting conservation solutions in the Pacific Northwest and around the world, while collaborating with and equipping individuals, communities and policy makers with the tools and capacity to boost this impact locally and globally

Our Mission

Woodland Park Zoo saves wildlife and inspires everyone to make conservation a priority in their lives.

Land Acknowledgment

Woodland Park Zoo recognizes that these are the lands of the Tribal signatories of the Treaty of Point Elliott. We acknowledge their stewardship of this place continues to this day and that it is our responsibility to join them to restore the relationship with the living world around us.


5500 Phinney Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103   |  206.548.2500  |   zooinfo@zoo.org