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>> Kevin Schofield: Welcome, got kind of a small, cozy crowd here today. I imagine probably
because of the weather outside and people coming, but hopefully there's a bunch of people
watching live and of course we're recording this so people can watch it after the fact, which is
awesome. So we'll get a bigger crowd later for this. I'm Kevin Schofield, work here at Microsoft
Research. And we're delighted to have some fantastic folks from the Woodland Park Zoo with us
today to talk about some of the great programs at the zoo, education programs, some new
exhibits, conservation programs at the zoo, as well as we have an animal friend with us today,
and that's going to be fantastic, too.
Probably get to hear from you more in a little bit about some of my involvement but I've been
working with the zoo for probably almost 15 years now in various things and it kind of surprised
me it's that long, too, but it's just a wonderful organization that I can't help getting involved in it.
We have Paul Balle from the development office with us and we have Lisa Dabek, Director of
Conservation. And Karen Ofsthus who, I always get your title wrong here. I'll read it here.
Education Programming and Animal Presenter and brought along a wonderful special guest with
us.
And we've got some great information for you. So with that I'm going to turn it over to Lisa. I'm
going to turn it over to Lisa to tell us about what's been going on with some of the conservation
programs. And you're micced up.
>> Lisa Dabek: Great. Thank you so much, Kevin, and thanks again for having us out here.
I'm just going to get my talk up here. All right. So since we're a small crowd, we can -- if you
have any questions during what I'm talking about, feel free. And I know some of you have heard
these talks before. And actually today I'm going to be talking about the Woodland Park Zoo's
partners for Wildlife Program and then specifically the tree kangaroo conservation program, which
is our signature program.
So Woodland Park Zoo, you may not know, but we have kind of behind the scenes we have a
whole connection to wildlife, and we connect our zoo animals with work on the ground around the
world.
And so these are some examples of some of the animals and some of the programs that we
support around the world. And what we say about our program is we're partnering with local
communities for the future of wildlife.
And that means that all of our work and all of the work that we support is community-based
conservation. And the way we define that community-based conservation is that we care about
the animals. So we're all about species protection. We care about the habitat that the wildlife live
in. So we care about habitat protection.
But we also care about communities. And so usually the big focus for community benefits is
health issues for humans, and also education benefits.
And with the health we say you know how can you look after your wildlife or your forests if you're
not looking after your own health or your community's health. And with education, of course, it's
all about kids and teaching kids so they can teach their parents for the future.
And we care very much about capacity building. So providing the tools and the information for
local communities to manage protected areas or look after their wildlife. So all of these
components are a part of the tree kangaroo conservation program which has been at Woodland
Park Zoo for a long time. It's our signature program in the sense that it's Woodland Park Zoo
staff working in Papua New Guinea doing this work. So I'm going to give you updates about this
work because I know a lot of you have already heard about this program.
The Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program is all about the Matschie's tree kangaroo. And we
currently at the zoo have a Matschie's tree kangaroo and we're getting two more and we're
hoping to breed them. We're part of what is a called a Tree Kangaroo Species Survival Plan
which means that all the zoos in North America that have tree kangaroos in their collections,
about 25 of them, work together for the health of the captive population.
So we link the tree kangaroo that we have at the zoo with this work in Papua New Guinea and
I've been working over in Papua New Guinea. I direct the program since 1996. And it has been
an incredible relationship with the community. I'll just point out right here, this was at our ten-year
anniversary with the community and they had just given me a gift of a pig. And it was a baby pig,
and they told me -- and pigs are very important to them, culturally. I had never been given a pig
before. I was quite excited.
And they told me they would look after it for the next time I came. So who knows what happened
to the pig. But anyway it was a very nice gesture. And in many ways this signifies the
relationship between our program and the community that it really is about the relationship of
people.
So we focus on endangered species research. Tree kangaroos and other endangered species.
As I said, we focus on schools and healthcare support, and then also educational opportunities
for Papua New Guinea students.
And this is Gabial Porlock one of our graduate students who we've been funding. He's now
finished his masters. We're hoping he'll then go on for a Ph.D., but he is the scientist of the
group. And then we've also really been focusing on creating a conservation area, a protected
area, and that's what I'm going to focus on today.
Because I'm really happy to say that we've been really successful in creating this. It's called YUS
Conservation Area, and what that means is YUS stands for the three large rivers in this area. So
it's the Yopno, Uruwa and Som rivers. I don't know if this works.
Is there a -- I don't know if there's a pointer. Anyway, this is where we work. We work on the
Huon Peninsula, where the box is it's the YUS Conservation Area. And this is the protected area
now that's the local landowners have set aside for conservation.
So this is the big push of our work, and what's unique about Papua New Guinea is that over 95
percent of all the land is in the hands of the local people. And that's incredibly significant
because what it means is to do conservation work is you are working directly with the local
communities, the landowners.
So we are not taking the land away or selling it or anything like that. So it absolutely relies on
landowner participation.
And so over the 13 years that this has gone on, we have worked with the landowners in terms of
management, land management, GIS mapping to make sure we know the boundaries of the
conservation area. They make their own maps, and then they have decisions to make about the
rules of this conservation area.
But what's most exciting is all the landowners agreed to do this. But then it had to go up the
levels of the government in Papua New Guinea starting from landowners to the district, to the
province and then to the national government. And in January of this year, last year when I came
here I talked a little bit about how we were working towards this, but it actually was declared as
the first national conservation area for Papua New Guinea.
And this was through the conservation areas act of 1978. So it was put on the books in 1978 but
no one had ever been able to successfully create a conservation area in Papua New Guinea.
So Woodland Park Zoo has helped to create the first conservation area in Papua New Guinea.
And that will help with others as well.
We got a lot of exposure from that and that was really exciting. And what was more exciting was
in April I went back to Papua New Guinea because the community wanted to have a celebration.
And that was really big for them. So we had a celebration. I'm going to show you a short video
about the celebration. But I just wanted to tell you who attended the celebration.
So it was over a thousand of the community members that were there to celebrate. And then it
was the highest level government officials in the country. So it was the acting prime minister,
minister for the environment, and minister of defense, members of parliament, the governor, they
were all there. And this is no small feat, because this is -- we're talking about a remote
community that you can only fly into on a small plane or helicopter.
So all these people decided it was important enough that they would fly in for the day to have a
celebration. My field manager Toby Ross almost went cross trying to do all the logistics for it
because you can imagine. But we got them all there.
And it was also the local level government that were incredibly proud and so we had a two-day
celebration. And then we also had international people from Conservation International, which is
our partner in all of this, and from the global Conservation Fund of Conservation International and
also James Cook University in Australia who is another partner.
Then all of the tree kangaroo program staff, we were all there. So I'm going to attempt to show
you the video. So that gives you a taste of the importance to the community of this area and the
partnership between the zoo and this project.
So what I wanted to let you know is sort of what's next. We've created this conservation area, the
zoo is really happy about that and what's next is creating the long-term monitoring of the tree
kangaroos and I wanted to tell you a little bit about that and also that we're creating a
conservation trust or an endowment to help support the long-term management of the
conservation area.
So this is the science part. And one of the things that we're working on right now with National
Geographic is Critter Cam, I don't know if any of you heard of Critter Cam, do you know their
project?
It's an arm of National Geographic. And they actually put cameras on animals so you can see the
animal perspective. And they've done it mostly with marine animals, and we've now joined up
with them to try it out on a tree kangaroo. So because tree kangaroos spend so much of their
time up high in the canopy that you don't know what they're doing and you also can't see what
they're feeding on, et cetera.
So this would open up a huge window into the world of and ecology of tree kangaroos. So we
were able to -- we've been working with them for a couple of years, and we were able -- they
were able to put together a very lightweight camera that goes around the neck of a tree kangaroo.
Sort of like the radio collar that we use when we're tracking them.
And we tried it out on an animal at the Oregon Zoo in August, and she was great because she
allowed us to put the collar on her. And then what happens is it's actually recorded on board the
camera. And then we have to take the collar off and then we can download the video.
And so I wanted to show you just a smidgen of what we actually -- oops -- saw. So this is never
seen before. But this is what we can see in the wild. So that's the mouth of the tree kangaroo.
And then that's her looking down at us.
So fortunately this camera's really wide angle, has a wide angle lens. So we're going to be able
to see what the animal sees and then what she starts feeding on. And this is still in the testing
stage. Tomorrow I'm leaving for Papua New Guinea. And we're going with the staff of National
Geographic as well as ABC News has decided they want to cover this. We're going to test it out,
see whether it can work -- actually it's going to be on this animal, her name is Trish. We've been
collaring her and tracking her for the last few years. She's going to be our test animal.
So we'll put the collar on her. We'll let it go for three days. It will be a total of about four hours of
filming. It will be intermittent. And then we'll capture her again and be able to download. And if
this works, this will both be fantastic for learning about the ecology of the animals, but then also
National Geographic will use this as a model for other aboreal and other smaller animals. So
we're super psyched about that so next time I come back I'll be able to talk about that.
So I wanted to come back to, in closing, the conservation trust, because that actually is the
biggest need right now is to set up -- I think it's really important for conservation that if you set up
a conservation area or a program, you then have to think long term.
And so what we've decided in partnership with Conservation International is to create a
conservation trust so the local community has the support, has the funding, to look after this
conservation area for the long term. And so we are also very lucky that Conservation
International, through their global conservation fund, has pledged a million dollars for this fund for
us to match. And so that's what we're doing right now is trying to raise support for the trust.
And this is very new innovative for community-based conservation programs. I've seen many
programs that get to this point and fail because they don't have a long-term strategy. So we're
trying to do it right by learning from so many other programs in the past.
So that's the bulk of the work for the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program for the next few
years, actually. But this match is for this next year that we're looking to support.
So I think I'm going to stop there and I think I'm turning it over to Paul -- to Kevin?
>>: What's the definition of conservation area? What constraints are placed on this land?
>> Lisa Dabek: That's a great question. Because there are other protected areas in Papua New
Guinea, but conservation area means that both the wildlife is protected and the land, the habitat,
the forests.
And so the landowners have to all agree to that, which means every clan. And what that means
is no mining companies can come in, no logging companies can come in, and those are the two
biggest threats for forests in Papua New Guinea. And because it had to go through all the levels
of government, the national government is also agreeing to that.
So they can't go behind the community back and say: Yes, we're going to bring in logging
companies. And previously what was the model for protected areas was wildlife management
areas. And originally, 13 years ago, that's what I thought we would do. But that only protects the
wildlife but not the habitat.
And that's -- so there was a loophole. So this is the strongest form of protection in the country.
And actually the department of environment and conservation is very excited about this. And
excited -- and there are several other areas in Papua New Guinea that are ready to do this as
well. Any other questions?
Okay. Thanks.
>>: Kevin Schofield: Thank you, Lisa.
>> Lisa Dabek: You're welcome.
>>: Kevin Schofield: Super exciting program and it's one that I've actually been personally
involved with a little bit and had the chance to help financially support as well. This is a giving
campaign event. So I wanted to give you a couple of minutes why I'm involved with the zoo.
Why it's important to me. And this organization I've been involved with as I said before a very
long time. And this is one of the best zoos in the world. I've traveled around. I've seen a lot of
the zoos all over the world. This is really one of the best zoos, and it's because this is actually a
visionary zoo that wants to make a difference.
You go all -- and you see it time after time that Woodland Park Zoo is thoughtful about what they
do. They think about the hard issues and they try to make things better. Back in the early '70s
the standard for zoos in the world was animals in cages. And the Woodland Park Zoo said, you
know, if you really want to teach people about animals, you have to show them their habitats,
because that's the only way you understand how animals are really living and how they relate to
their habitat.
So they started changing over the zoo to be animals and habitats. And now almost all the zoo,
30 years later, 35 years later, is like that. And it's one of the best zoos in the world for just
walking around and learning about the animals because of that.
They care -- the zoo said environmental sustainability is important. We have to walk the walk as
well as talking the talk. So everything from the way they run the concessions program at the zoo
to the exhibits they build now and the penguin exhibit that opened recently is the perfect example
of how they've really built environmental sustainability into the way they design an exhibit.
The zoo said: We can't just talk about the importance of conservation. We have to be involved
with it. And in fact, hey, we have a lot of experts in animals on habitat. If anybody is going to
figure out what's the right way to get involved we're a great organization to do that.
And we really have to walk the walk on that as well. But as Lisa described, they were thoughtful
about how to do that as well and said if you look at the successes and failures of conservation
programs, the successful ones are the ones that work for the community. And the inverse is
equally important, is that if it doesn't work for the community, the conservation program is not
going to stick.
So they're really a leader in getting involved in designing conservation programs that work for the
community as well and can be long-term sustainably. Not just working and being compatible with
them but having real benefits for the community so the people living there feel like they want to
support it because they're getting something out of it as well.
This is an organization that really makes a difference, and that's why I support them. And as a
part of that, understanding that being a visionary and being out there and taking risks in these
sort of things is hard. And it makes a lot of people who take a conservative approach to what
they decide to support financially or with their own time say, you know, I'm not so sure about that.
But they've really made successes happen time after time. They've shown a good track record of
being thoughtful and careful about what they do. But really trying to be out there and make a
difference. And that's why I've thrown my support behind this organization, is because time after
time they really try to make this kind of difference with smart, thoughtful efforts that really get out
there to try to address the big problems.
And I just think personally what it means to be sort of be here in Seattle. I want a zoo here in our
hometown that does this kind of thing. There are an awful lot of places in this country in the world
that don't have zoos like this. And we're very fortunate to have it here. It would be an incredible
loss to our community if we didn't have a zoo. And yet the taxes in the city of Seattle don't pay for
all the expenses of the zoo. Not even close. Donations are a big part of actually financially
keeping the zoo here and supporting the wide variety of programs.
So if we together feel like this is something we want to have as part of our community, we have to
step up and do something about it because otherwise it will be gone. In 1971 it was almost gone.
There was a tax at the city of Seattle, just a regular one to support the zoo, and it failed. They
almost closed the zoo because of that. We're fortunate it's here. It's an incredible contribution to
our community, and we really feel like we should be doing our part to make sure that it stays
here.
And with that I'm going to turn it over to Paul and he can tell you about some of the specific ways
that you can support the zoo.
>> Paul Balle: Turn myself on here. So thank you, Kevin, and thank you, Lisa, both really great
examples of why zoos are a great place to put your giving dollar. Not only during the giving
campaign but all through the year.
So what I wanted to do was give you a sense of what are a couple of ways that maybe you could
support the zoo this year, it being the giving campaign and all.
And I did also want to encourage you, if you haven't signed in, we've got a couple of clip boards
around. Please do. Let us know that you came. Let us no he what you're interested in at the
zoo. If you want to sign up for our e-news, please do that, we'd love to have you become more
informed about the zoo and the things that we do every day.
So what's going to happen here is I'm going to tell you about some ways you can support the zoo
and I'm going to give you another sneak peak of another thing coming to the zoo, another exhibit
coming next year.
So as you showed up here for the zoo today and to hear what the zoo has to offer, I'm sure you're
wondering to yourself: Hmmm what kind of investment would I like to make here at Woodland
Park Zoo and what do I get out of it. Well, first off every gift of $300 or more you actually do get a
family membership to the zoo.
So for the course of the next year you will be able to bring your spouse and your kids and
additional guests to come and experience some of the great natural exhibitory that Kevin told you
about.
Now, there are obviously a number of different ways that you could support the zoo. One way
that we're hoping, since we were talking specifically about Lisa's conservation programs today,
specifically about the tree kangaroo conservation program and the conservation trust, is that you
might consider actually supporting that particular program. Not only is it saving habitat and
wildlife in Papua New Guinea, but it's also working and helping the local people providing a
livelihood, giving them access to medical care, giving them access to education that they wouldn't
otherwise have because the conservation program is there. So I think those are some great
reasons.
But another great reason, something that I know myself as a donor and other Microsoft donors
that I have known have liked the idea of getting a match.
So Lisa talked about the conservation trust. You can get a match not only for your donated dollar
but also for the Microsoft match dollar. So you have a potential of raising $4 for every $1 you
donate. And to me that sounds like pretty amazing leverage. So if you're looking for the best
leverage for your conservation dollar, I don't think you're really going to be able to find a better
deal than that.
So think about that option. If perhaps maybe you're thinking about other ways you might want to
support if zoo. General fund gifts, just a general gift to the zoo. I really think of it as kind of a
diversified investment, because we have some of the greatest education programs around that
are award-winning. We have award-winning conservation programs. We have animal care.
Obviously we take some excellent care of our animals. So your donation did dollar can be used
in a multiple of ways if you just give a general gift to the zoo.
We also have what we call the Your Name Here campaign. I don't know how many of you got
involved with helping to fund the penguin exhibit last year but you had the opportunity to put your
name or your family's name or dog's name or whomever on a fish plaque that was in the pathway
at the exhibit. And people really get a kick out of that. Well, we're doing that again this year,
because next year we're opening a new west entry and we are also going to have the opportunity
for people put their names on anchovy plaques on the new entry as well.
What does that take? It takes a gift of $1,000. Now think to yourself how could you make that
happen? Well you could do $1,000 gift. You could do a $500 gift plus Microsoft match. You
could do $1,000 gift plus a thousand dollar match. Multiple of ways you could do it. So think
about that option. And then we also have a giving catalog that's at the back of the room. There's
also a link from our website, which I'll put down here at the bottom.
And we also have a raffle coming up that I'll tell you about in a second. But the giving catalog
tells you about different areas around zoo that you could support for animal care, for the
education for the conservation. So that's another possible way that you might want to do that.
And then we do actually have a raffle at two levels. So if you're one of those that kind of gives at
the leadership level, which not only gets recognized here at Microsoft. You know you get to go, I
understand, to special events here at Microsoft with Steve B and other execs. But if you give at
the thousand dollar level to the zoo with a match this year we'll put you in a drawing for a tour for
four at the zoo behind the scenes, either at the elephant exhibit or over at the day house or night
house.
So if you're an elephant fan, if you're a reptile fan, if you really like the night house, you can pick
one of those and you can bring three of your friends with you to come to that.
So we'll have a raffle at the end of the campaign for that. At the $500 level, how many of you go
to zoo tunes. Anybody go check out concerts at the zoos occasionally?
We had great artists last year including Emmy Lou Harris and we've had other great artists over
the years. VIP tickets to the concert of your choice if you give $500 plus match. Of course we'll
have to draw your name but we'll have a raffle for that as well.
Those are two opportunities for you to win and support one of the best zoos in the world. Any
information you need, feel free to contact me. My business card is in back. We also have a
website zoo.org/Microsoft. That's pretty easy to remember. If you want to come to another
presentation, learn about some of the things I talked about here, please feel free to access that
site.
So one other thing we're going to do today that I just realized I hadn't said a word about, we're
going to do a little raffle today, and we have a couple of fun items to raffle off.
So what I'm asking everyone to do, if you're interested, is to grab a raffle ticket and throw your
stub. I do have a bag over there. And we'll draw the name at the end of this event.
The two items we have is a Zoorica Cranium game, which is pretty fun from I understand. Since
this is the year of the snow leopard cub, we have a snow leopard to give away as well. I see
some members in the audience particularly interested in that. With that why don't I go ahead and
hand out the raffle tickets. And what we would like to do is introduce Karen Ofsthus from the zoo
who is one of the most fun presenters at the zoo, because she gets to bring all the coolest
animals.
And so she has a special guest with her today. So what I want to do is I'll leave it up to Karen
and we'll hand out the raffle tickets while we're doing that.
>>: Karen Ofsthus: I do actually have one of the best jobs on zoo grounds because I work with a
lot of different types of animals. And I've done a lot of Microsoft events. I've come here many,
many years to the gift giving campaign.
Usually you have something to say, something organized. But I have to tell you that I changed
my mind today. I changed my mind when I was listening to Lisa talk.
I know why it is that I work at the zoo. I personally from a very organic and a personal
experience, I know the impact that the zoo has had on me. I'm born and raised here in Seattle.
And Woodland Park Zoo was the zoo of my childhood I remember in 1971 with the threats of the
zoo closing, you mentioned that, with the threats of the zoo closing I remember being 11 years
old being absolutely panicked that my zoo, the place that I loved to go to see animals where I
wasn't going to be able to see them anywhere else, the thought of that closing -- I was 11 and I
can remember the impact that I had, that that had on me.
And as Lisa was talking, one of the things that really struck me was the idea of this woman who I
kind of see Lisa as this shrunken down girl, she's this little girl, and at some point she had to have
really profound and very significant experiences in nature in order to get her to the successes, to
point where literally she has helped -- she's the driving force. Woodland Park Zoo, yes, but it was
because of the relationships that Lisa built with community members in Papua New Guinea is it's
because of that that we have been able to succeed as building a conservation area. The first
time ever in a country.
So that's a huge, huge success. When I think about that, I think about this little person, this little
girl who must have had some experiences growing up that helped her to build a foundation of
appreciation for nature.
Not only for wildlife, with kangaroos, she started her research going to college, which is very
importantly. She started her research on tree kangaroos has risen to success and taken the zoo
with her. I think about my experience and Lisa's experience getting out in nature and having
teachers that can affect children in little ways that hopefully will help them build conservation
stewardship. And that's one of the pillars of intent that the education department has.
And one of the ways that we do that, a mechanism that we use to do that is to create
opportunities for kids and their families. 75 percent of our visitation at the zoo is families with
children under the age of eight.
So huge, huge family population at the zoo. And an intention is to create opportunities where
they can get close up with animals. Because it's pretty cool, Brianna, when you're standing over
there and you get to see a really beautiful bird or tiger and it's something very different when you
get to get super, super, super close to the tiger and maybe even get a chance to touch it, right?
It's a very different experience. So we create those experiences at the zoo. And the animal that I
brought here today is, he's a veteran. He's a veteran of programming and presenting.
He's literally done thousands and thousands and thousands of programs and he's part of that
resource. He's a mechanism by which we help to build stewardship at the zoo. Stewardship or
conservation.
Oh, handsome boy. I'll give him a second to get used to being where he is. He'll see that light
over there. There we go, Coba. . So as I said he's a mechanism. He's a resource, this charming
little creature is a resource we use ultimately to help children and their families build relationships
with animals.
You have to build -- you know, Lisa had to have built a relationship with animals, wildlife, natural
places, in order to be able to do any of the things she's accomplished in her life.
And so the zoo is a huge driver of that intention. We really have a very strong commitment at our
management level at the zoo, certainly in our education department, to be able to allow people to
access animals like Coba. Coba is a bird, he's done thousands of programs, off site programs
and also programs there on zoo grounds. This is a bird who is 17 years old.
He was actually hand raised at the zoo. We would his parents. We didn't know if they would be
very good parents. It is not uncommon for first-time owl parents, if there's stresses in the
environment or they're new, they don't have the experience, it's not uncommon for them to
commit infanticide. They'll sometimes abandon their nests or even kick their chicks out of the
nest. We pulled the eggs and hand raised him. He's an imprinted bird. Means he's fully bonded
to people.
Coba is a little special in that he kind of thinks I'm his girlfriend. No. It's true. Because he's
bonded. He's imprinted. He receives his food and his attention and his confidence from the
people who help take care of him.
He's just finishing the breeding season, just starting at the end of it. But when he starts the
breeding season he chooses someone who he rather likes. For about eight years now I have
been the one he has liked very specially. Not like I have an issue with that.
It's an okay thing. But what it means for Coba is he starts getting a little, a little territorial. He
doesn't like especially men. If men come up close to me and I'm handling him. He stands up
really tall. He raises up his crest a little bit like he's saying, okay, don't you get to close to my
girlfriend.
That's the communication. And when I finish a program at the end of the day or something and
he's going to be fed, we have this little dance that we have to do.
Now, in the wild, a spectacled owl in the wild, South America, tropical rain forest, when they find a
mate, what they do is go catch a mouse or lizard or bug or something like, the males give the
females a gift like wow what a great hunter I am, I'm just a great hunter.
If she likes him and thinks he'll make a good mate she'll accept the gift and they'll do this dance
and it's a whole big thing. When I'm done with the program, when I'm feeding him at the end of
the day, we have to do this whole thing when he's in the breeding season. It's like this. I've got a
mouse. It's dead. I'm going to give it to him.
He takes it in his beak and he starts bouncing up and down [owl noise] he brings his wings out.
He's like I'm such a great hunter, Karen take this mouse because I want you to be my mate.
Seriously, then my job is to -- he's got it in his beak, and it's to take it and say Coba you're such
handsome handsome bird, and he gets even more excited because his mate is taking the gift.
And only then after this like 15-minute thing will he eat the mouse.
Now, that is not a problem. It's not a problem, because we provide quality animal care at
Woodland Park Zoo. That's part of it. It's not a problem except he starts the breeding season
around January and he ends about mid-September. [laughter].
So I never take vacation until October. I never take vacation. If I'm doing a lot of programming,
especially in the summer, right, because he needs this whole thing in order to the dance, the
thing.
It's part of our quality animal care. But really it's part of the charm of this animal. And those
stories, right, A, help you see him as something different. He's not just an anonymous bird, right,
sitting on the glove. He is a little character. He has a personality. That's how we start to teach
people to build relationships with animals.
We have little Lisa, right, she's hanging out on Cape Cod. She was born in New York. So even
someone who lives in the heart of a city can go on to create those relationships with nature and
go on as a conservationist working in a zoo, working in a national park, working wherever so we
can help to protect these areas to help protect animals like Coba.
So he's just one of the animals that we use. I do have some things I want to pass out. If you
guys have any questions I can take a few questions right off the bat and is it Brianna? Brianna?
I'm going to have Brianna help me with something. Want to help me with something? Because I
love this part. Everybody knows that when owls fly -- stand right there. Everyone knows when
owls fly, they're very, very quiet.
That's because they don't want every mouse and every lizard and every snake to know they're
coming and trying to hunt them, right? They don't. They have to be sneaky and very quiet in
order to be successful.
So I'm going to prove to you that owls are very quiet. I want you to take this feather. This is a
feather from a bird who is not an owl. This is from a turkey vulture. Take that feather and flap it
as if you were flying to Alaska or something, flap it really hard. Listen.
Is that noisy or is that quiet? What do you think?
>>: Noisy.
>>: Karen Ofsthus: Noisy. You're such a scientist. You know that one. It's from a bird that's not
an owl. Now I'm going to give you a whole wing, a whole wing from an owl. This is any entire owl
wing. Flap that hard as if you were flying to Alaska. Listen. Harder.
Yep, you can't hear it. You can't hear it, right? So he's really, really quiet when he flies, which
makes him a very, very successful predator. And then I want you to feel that.
>>: Smooth.
>>: Karen Ofsthus: It's really smooth. What does it feel like?
>>: Feels like velvet.
>>: Karen Ofsthus: Feels like velvet. Give me five. That's how I would have designed it. Look
at the edge of the wing, see this edge right here, can you see what it looks there on the edge of
the wing? Does it look like kind of a comb? And if you look at the end of the feathers, do the end
of the feathers look fluffy and buffy to you? Pet it like a cat all the way down the top. You said it
feels kind of like velvet. If you were to put a microscope on this and looked at it sideways, you'd
see tiny filaments sticking up that make this really soft.
So that's how he's able to be so quiet because his wings are built that way. What I want you to
do, since I know all these other big people which are really little people in big body, I know it, I
want you to take that around and let everybody else feel what you felt. You can be my helper.
You rock. They can feel this one, too.
Thank you. Does anyone have any questions about Coba or any of the education programs at
the zoo? We have so many education programs that are designed for different things, but all of
them ultimately are intended to create environmental stewards like her.
How many of you are parents with kids? Lots of parents. Yeah. Yeah, so you're parents, right?
We have great camps, classes and camps, and also we have Zoomasium but it's a building we
opened just a couple of years ago which is a indoor nature space place for kids and there's tons,
tons of things to do inside there all related to building those relationships with nature.
And of course it's also a place where you can get in contact with animals too like Coba or others.
Does anybody have any questions? You can go ahead, stump the panel. Stump the panel,
make it hard.
>>: How many students go through your education programs every year?
>>: Karen Ofsthus: If you were to count, most of the numbers we get really are for our on-site
school programs or our off-site say wild-wise is an award-winning off site regional all over
Washington State. And we get over 10,000 a year. That's a guaranteed. But that doesn't cover
any of the numbers of kids that come to Zoomasium. We'll literally have 10 to 15,000 a year
since the building opened. It's increasing every year. We have literally thousands and thousands
of kids we reach every single year. And their programs, obviously we are funded mostly by grant
money or by private donations.
So we can't do this work without support from community. Community support is critical. It's
critical. So we're building little conservation stewards like Brianna.
That saying, I'm not sure who the saying was Indian chief self, you won't protect what it is that
you don't appreciate. And it's logical. Makes logical sense to it that we have to learn how to
appreciate something before we'll take any steps. Whether they're financial steps or whether
they're volunteering our time, whether they're making sure that we get our children out in nature.
It's critical.
It's not only critical to the world in terms of her future protection of it, but it's critical in terms of her
development, her emotional and mental development. It affects how well she learns. It affects a
great deal of things with kids.
And so getting them out in nature is really, really critical. And you end up with people like Lisa.
Right? And then she takes us along for the ride. Woodland Park Zoo. And that benefits local
communities and it benefits education and health for people who we will never meet. We will
never meet those people, but they live there and they're helping to take care of a part of the world
that's really, really critical to Matschie's tree kangaroos and other species. It's a big success.
I invite all of you to come to the zoo. Check out our programs. I know in the gift giving is the
catalog, there are some education programs that are really desperate to have public funding to
keep them going, to meet the needs of school kids all over the State of Washington, and so you
can actually donate to those programs if you choose to earmark.
I encourage that, or CCS, make a commitment to consistently support somebody. We hope it's
Woodland Park Zoo. If not, somebody in the conservation in wild life nature environment
because that's what we need in this world doing that.
So what I'll do, I know you have a little bit more you're going to do but after you finished, just a
little bit, I'll take Coba out afterwards. If you want to come up and see him closely he doesn't
mind that. I'll take him out again after we're finished.
>>: Did everybody get a chance to fill out their raffle ticket? Very nice, all for about 30 seconds
here. But I did promise to tell you a little bit about a new exhibit that is coming to the zoo in 2010.
So 2009 of course we had the penguin exhibit. Has everyone seen the penguin exhibit hopefully
by now. It's been incredibly popular. I think 94 percent people walking through the front gate or
any of our gates went to see the penguin exhibit.
That shows you how popular it is. So in 2010 the Meerkats are coming back to the zoo. We had
Meerkats a number of years ago, but it was certainly before my time. I've been with the zoo five
years, and I think it was back in, what, the '80s, '70s or I didn't say that we had Meerkats.
So the fun news is that in May 2010, if you're a fan of Meerkats, if you watch Meerkat Manor on
Animal Planet or you just like fun, cool critters that look like Meerkats then you're going to like this
exhibit.
Opens May 2010, and it's going to be in the Adaptations Building which is kitty corner from where
the raptors are. If you ever heard the squawking of the Akias, the Alpine parrots, right around the
corner from there.
We'll have a family of up to 10 Meerkats. It should be pretty fun. So just wanted to give you that
little Sneak Peak. At that I think the next thing simply is to draw two names, who's going to win
the Zoorica game and the other game will be for the snow leopard cub.
Let's see, we don't have a name but we have a number. And it's 273. Last three digits 273.
[applause]
>>: You're starting to accumulate for the family. Very nice.
>>: Can you do my second one for me for the snow leopard cub? Those who don't know what
we're talking about, the snow leopard cubs were just born at the zoo four and a half months ago.
If you haven't been to see them, you should see them. Then while you're there you should go
see [inaudible] the tree kangaroo over at the day house so you can see one of these tree
kangaroos up close and personal.
Thomas Wise. Thomas Wise come on down you're the winner of a snow leopard cub. If you
don't like having it in your office, I'm sure your kid would.
>>: Snow leopard.
>>: I think that pretty much wraps it up unless anyone has any questions for me, Lisa, Kevin or
Karen, for Coba. I think Karen can answer for Coba.
>>: Where are the Meerkats coming from?
>>: Coming from different zoos. My understanding Point Defiance is one of them. We should be
getting at least one or two Meerkats from POINT Defiance and possibly one or two other zoos.
>>: When you look at zoos around the country, where is it you -- where do you see the need for
improvement?
>>: Where do we see?
>>: What should we change about the zoo that you would like to change? Obviously thinking
about new exhibits and ->>: Our zoo, in particular, what would we like to do?
>>: Yeah.
>>: Well, it is a given that -- and you mentioned it too, there are a few exhibits at the zoo that we
do want to improve. Some of the things we'll be working on in the future is working on our tiger
and Asian bear exhibits and improving those.
That's probably one of the oldest areas left in the zoo that's not been included. 1950s. That was
state of the art. It's my understanding Marlin Perkins was there at the time from United Kingdom
to roll out, to basically raise the curtain on those exhibits when they were new. They were
considered state of the art back then so they're sorely needed.
I think expanding our education and our conservation programs is always something we're
striving for. Ultimately you saw our mission. I think Kevin actually read it to you when we first
started. Ultimately what we want to do is inspire conservation action, whether that is going home
and planting a native plant in your backyard, whether you decide that you want to volunteer for a
conservation organization or maybe you want to donate to the tree kangaroo conservation
program or the grizzly bear outreach project or any of the projects we support.
So I think there's always something to strive for because we're trying to raise awareness, raise
awareness about the loss of habitat, the loss of species it's happening every day, certainly with
climate change it's going to become more of an issue to monitor species and make sure we're
protecting them before we lose them all together. And I've given you a pretty broad answer, but
there are so many things that we as a zoo can do to continue to inspire people.
And we're lucky to have people like Karen and the education department to help inspire people
that come and visit the zoo every day and through our education programs not only on the
grounds but we take them around Washington State.
So any particular ->>: I have a little dream. My little dream is -- me and a few other people in the education
department, that I have been with Woodland Park Zoo for 25 years. 25 years, and we started out
with no, so little education. There was so little education, I have to say.
And we started doing programs using animals and we use a snake and a snake -- and we use
some snakes. And that was great. And slowly we started to build up and slowly starred to build
up but there's a bunch of us.
We know at the top levels that we're very interested in having the support but we would like to
build a much bigger animal education and animal holding facility.
Right now we have bugs and reptiles and some birds. Not everyone handles these birds and
some mammals but we want more. We want raccoons we want more native life possum. We
want more species we can utilize for programs, because we have long, long understood that
probably one of the most profound experiences that anybody has at the zoo, they enjoy
themselves. They have quality time with their family. But the most profound experiences for kids
is having hands-on close-up contacts with animals.
It's so huge, I can't even tell you it's so huge. It not only affects their knowledge but it also
another intention we have is to build empathy and compassion.
It seems that sort of like it's loading out there in the ethers but it's a tangible thing. And I think
that benefits the planet in ways that we don't really know yet and are trying to learn how to
measure.
So having animals to do that is really important. So that's my dream that we have a larger
education animal holding facility and, thus, more animals to use for education programs and
keepers to care for them. That would be mine.
>>: My dream before I die.
>>: That's good because I know how profound it is.
>>: That's great.
>>: Two questions, is there a petting zoo?
>>: Yes our family contact area. We have a petting zoo. We have all domestic farm animals,
sheep and goats and cows and small, miniature horses and miniature cattle. You can go there.
It's very, very busy in the summertime. And usually they open on the weekends during the
offseason, rather than in the fall. You go [inaudible], there's animal programs all the time.
>>: How old do you have to be [indiscernible].
>>: You have to be a sophomore in high school. To join the Zoo Corps program, 15. It's a teen
development, it's a teen development program. It's an amazing program. If I had Zoo Corps as a
kid, get out of my way, it would have been amazing for me. I had to learn myself and drive
myself. But having that is really, really amazing.
And to be an intern, it's usually third year Zoo Corps volunteer. They've gone through the
program for three years and they compete to have intern positions they're paid positions and they
do all kinds of things on zoo grounds. Something you can aspire to. It's really fun.
>>: One other hands-on idea -- sorry I didn't mean to interrupt you -- in the summertime you can
come and feed our giraffes, too. It's not a petting opportunity because giraffes don't like to be
petted real well but they love to stick out their long tongue and grab branches out of your hand.
We have a feeding platform that's op. Just closed September 30th but opens in May, June?
>>: Opens in May.
>>: That's another fun opportunity to get up close.
>>: Yeah, very close.
>>: Any other questions? Thank you all for coming.
>>: Feel free to stick around if you want. Answer some questions or chat.
>>: Thank you all.
[applause]