Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo
An orangutan at Woodland Park Zoo nibbles on a heart-shaped ice pop.

Zoo offers animals Valentine's Day treats

By Robinson Newspapers Staff
02/01/2010

Woodland Park Zoo’s animals will celebrate Valentine’s Day the wild way when otters, red pandas, gorillas, snow leopards and more will enjoy heart-shaped ice pops made of fruit juice, honey, strawberries and cranberries, herbal bouquets, heart-shaped steaks and more.

The special treats are part of the zookeepers’ ongoing program to help enrich the lives of the zoo’s animals, promote natural animal behavior, keep animals mentally stimulated and engage zoo visitors.

The Valentine's Day treats will be distributed from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Feb. 13.

Following is the scheduled Feb. 13 feedings times for the animals:

Golden lion tamarins 10 a.m.
Snow leopards 10:30 a.m.
Otters 10:30 a.m.
Orangutans 11 a.m.
Goats 11 a.m.
Pigs 11 a.m.
Willawong Station 11:30 a.m.
Sloth bear 11:30 a.m.
Jaguar 1 p.m.
Gorillas 1:20 p.m.
Penguins 1:30 p.m.
Lemurs 1:30 p.m.
Keas 1:30 p.m.
Tiger 2 p.m.
Elephants 2 p.m.
Red pandas 3 p.m.

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Comments

Zoo Animals Need Help

Submitted by Guest (not verified) on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 08:02.

The animals, especially the elephants, need their freedom, not frozen, heart-shaped fruit. These zoo photo-ops are a poor substitute for space and autonomy that they would have at a sanctuary.

Help Zoo's Elephants

Submitted by Guest (not verified) on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 18:29.

I heard that Woodland Park Zoo was named to the "Hall of Shame" by the international animal protection group, In Defense of Animals. That's an "honor" reserved for zoos that have made little or no progress in improving the welfare of their elephants. IDA releases its "10 Worst Zoos for Elephants" list each year, to highlight the zoos where elephants suffer the most. Woodland Park was on the "10 Worst" list twice and got a Dishonorable Mention once.

Giving the elephants Valentine popsicles is really lame. They do this kind of thing about 4 times a year and call it "enrichment". Really lame! Why don't you guys let the elephants retire to that sanctuary that the animal rights folks have been asking you to do? If you're not willing to give them what they need, why not let them go someplace that is? Seems logical to me.

Nothing shows the absurdity

Submitted by Guest (not verified) on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 21:08.

Nothing shows the absurdity of the zoo's claims that they are "helping the elephants" better than these stagy so-called enrichment activities. Let's call it what it is: entertainment for people. The elephants want one thing: to live like elephants - something they can't do at WPZ in their tiny barn stalls or their barren 1-acre outdoor yard. Stop printing these puff pieces sent by the zoo and encourage Seattlites to demand that our elephants be released to the 2700 acre Sanctuary in Tennessee (elephants.com) where they can heal from the abuses of captivity and live like elephants.

Valentine's treat at zoo

Submitted by Claudine Erlandson (not verified) on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 12:11.

The very best Valentine for the Elephants would be indeed to finally let them go to the Sanctuary in Tennessee. The WPZ should have a heart, a big heart for them and give them their long overdue freedom. If they love them so much then prove it by letting them go!

So unnatural

Submitted by Guest (not verified) on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 13:16.

They have valentines in the wild? The animals must feel so at home.

Close the animal prison, send those that we can to a sanctuary, and turn Woodland Park Zoo into a zoo sanctuary for local animals who cannot remain in the wild.

Zoo Elephant Valentine? Freedom!!

Submitted by Guest (not verified) on Sat, 02/06/2010 - 18:12.

Give the Woodland Park Zoo elephants the Valentine they truly deserve. Let them retire to The Elephant Sanctuary so they don't have to live in a less than 1 acre yard and small barn cells for the rest of their lives. The zoo can't claim to care about these creatures and continue to keep them in this small, deprived existence just so people can make money off of them.

It's time for the zoo to get real. Either come into the 21st century or become irrelevant to this century. Keeping these endangered animals at the zoo has nothing to do with elephant conservation and you know it. Your phoney 'SHOW" is just that, a show. Your head elephant keeper admitted "It's all show business." How true.