On those summer weekends up on Phinney Ridge, I would sit at my local coffee shop and watch the overwhelming number of families, local and tourist alike, stream into the area to go to the zoo. What on earth were they thinking? The streets were packed. I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like inside. A concentrated area full of young children, long-distances to walk and sometimes extreme heat (for Seattle that is).
That is what I remember.
But for some reason, yesterday I decided to go.
The weather was wonderful. A perfect winter day in Seattle. Sunny but cold. I wrapped myself in multiple layers, grabbed my gloves and ventured off to the zoo.
I cannot begin to describe what an enjoyable day I had.
The zoo was quite. A few bundled up families here and there. They casually walked instead of stampeding through the grounds as I had imagined. There was no rush.
However, the best part wasn’t the scarce crowd but the fact that on the first sunny day in awhile, all the animals were out. And so were their caretakers.
I met Junior. A fifteen year old Jaguar. He was wondering around apparently trying to find all of the treats hidden around his area. He’s either a very charismatic Jaguar or the sun and lack of people made him less shy because he came right up to the glass and looked at us. Observing us the same way we were observing him
Then there was Mr. Morgan, a 13 year old Colobus monkey. He sat on a tree stump right up against the fence. His caretaker was performing a routine feeding where he would ask Mr. Morgan to do certain “tricks” in order to receive food. “Grab your tail.” “Where’s your ear?” “Put your feet up.” Nonchalantly, the monkey did as he was told. The man placed his hand on the monkey’s feet, shoulder, tail and mouth. Someone asked what he was looking for. The man said he wasn’t looking for anything in particular at the moment. These feeding practices were simply a way to train the monkeys so that they could easily be examined without the need to immobilize them.
I waved good-bye and headed for the savanna. On the eastside of the zoo, I met Chai, a 40 year old Asian elephant. She lived with an African elephant in the same enclosure. I can’t remember her name. I learned that Asian elephants are the calmer breed and are the ones used in film. They would even add paper to an Asian elephants ears to make it appear as an African. Chai was hilarious. Asian elephants prefer to search low for food so she had this very silly movement with her trunk where she almost looked like she was vacuuming. It was feeding time for her but her caretaker was distracted answering our questions. In order to get his attention, Chai made a very fun breathing sound through her trunk that resembled blowing air through your lips. He signed a command to and she begrudgingly did a quick 360, winning a handful of carrots once complete.
I remember at this point trying to think back to a time where I had received such a one-on-one experience with an animal and it’s caretaker. It was the best learning experience ever and made me more cognizant of each animal and it’s unique characteristics.
I know there are a lot of negative issues when it comes to zoos but the number of “Endangered” signs plaster over countless exhibits made me think more about the value of a zoo. It’s because of this zoo and many others like it, along with donors, volunteers, caretakers and scientist that certain species of animals still exist. They work with different organizations around the world to protect endangered species as well as educate the public.
I really appreciated this at that moment.
I continued around the zoo. Laughing at a lion sunbathing with his paws crossed the same way my dog Magic does, getting a rare glimpse of a Hippo out of the pool eating hay and even coming face-to-face with a grey wolf.
After a few hours, the sun sitting low in the sky to the southwest, I exited the Woodland Park Zoo. I was very happy that I finally went to this Seattle landmark and glad that I had picked this day to go. I would recommend to every local, who feels similar about overwhelming crowds but is curious, go to the Woodland Park Zoo. In the winter.
