Woodland Park Zoo

On February 25, 2018, I visited the Woodland park zoo. At 9:30 am the weather was overcast
and chilly, at least 35 degrees or it felt that cold, causing most of the animals to be out of their
enclosure. Between the hours of eleven and twelve the temperature increased and the sun
approached allowed the animals to emerge from their hiding places. I choose to go to the zoo
to get an up close view on animals I don’t see everyday and I haven’t been to the zoo for quite
some time.

The most interesting thing I saw in the brown bear exhibit was a duck because the way the
eyes are set on a bear makes them a predator, so seeing the duck float around and chill
was pretty cool. An adaptation that fascinated me was the diet the brown bears had. There
was information on the bulletin board that showed numerous of items the bear consumed
at the zoo that varied from fresh and dried fruit to biscuits to peanut butter to poultry and meats.
Looking at their skulls I would expect to see a sagittal crest, frontal orbitals, and long as well
as detailed nasal turbinates. In the picture above, the bear was sleeping possibly due to the cold
weather or he/she was trying to get a full eight hours of rest. The brown bear is very similar to
the sloth bear as having the same features overall; however, the sloth bear seems smaller in size
compared to the brown bear. In the past, brown bears used to be distributed along the west side
of North America, now the brown bears are limited to a small part of the continent. The difference
between a male and female bear is weight difference; the male bear will weigh about a 1,000
pounds compare to the female only weighing at the most 450 pounds. When a female bear is
pregnant, she usually gives birth to a set of twins that weigh less than a pound. Oddly enough
the brown bear is labeled as a carnivore but mostly eats berries and plants. A question that
reoccurs in my mind is do bears really hibernate and what is the reason for poaching?

Looking into the river otters exhibit, it was interesting to see that most of the enclosure was water.
Due to the river otter living in an aquatic environment, they have webbed feet, water repellent fur,
and a strong rubber like tail. If I were to examine an otters skull I would hope to see frontal orbitals,
small bullaes, and flat molars to smash and grind down food. Again, since is was a little early into
the day the otter was sleeping in its cute cuddly formation shown above. The river otter is closely
related to the asian small clawed otter by having the same frontal orbitals and rubber like tail.
On the other hand, the river otter has webbed feet while asian otter non webbed hands. In addition,
the river otter lives in the water in comparison to the asian otter living near the water and creating
different feeding habits. The river otter reverts to fish and the asian otter eats fish and shellfish.
The distribution of river otters now come from the northern part of America and Canada. Otters are
part of the mustelidae family, and like to build their homes along the shoreline of water. I’m not too
sure about this, but I do think otter are born as naturals swimmers. If not, they’ll learn very quickly.
What makes their fur repellent?

I really enjoyed seeing the three wolves in the enclosure, and thought it was interesting that there
wasn’t a area of water. I was fascinating to learn that a wolf can eat about seven to ten pounds of meat
and will travel ten to thirty miles to find it. When we first approached there was no wolves in site,
but then two wolves emerged and laid down near logs to show off their natural beauty.  There wasn’t
huskies in the zoo but I am acknowledging them for comparison purposes. Siberian huskies are a lot
smaller than wolves, the females I own are around 70 pounds where wolves can weigh up to at least
100 making. I not sure about the distribution of wolves but my guess would have to be the northern
parts of Canada and America. The three reasons why wolves howl is to communicate with other wolves
in their pack when hunting, to fend off other wolves  or recognized them, and lastly to find wolves
from their pack. In a day a wolf can eat up to ten pounds of meat, and has been successful at catching  
one out of sixteen mooses. In conclusion, do you think wolves hunt with their young?

I apologize for the terribly taken photo, to much cage not enough owl. I thought the most interesting  
thing was that there was no signs of nesting for the owl. In addition, I didn’t know there was two owls
present in the enclosure. The gray owl can hunt in the snow in comparison to the snow owl that migrates
south; however, the snow owl can live in the tundra for long periods of time. Some skull features on
the gray owl is large frontal orbital, large bullaes, and a curved beak for penetrating prey; the snow owl
would have slightly bigger bullaes. The distribution of gray owls is mostly from northern America and
Europe. I think the purpose of the owl’s face is to have the concave eyes direct sound to the ears to
make hunting easier. A gray owl can have a wingspan up to sixty inches and weigh two to three pounds.
In addition, an owl wants plumage to show the difference in subspecies.   How can you differentiate
a male from a female?

It was interesting to see a cave like structure created for the porcupine. I learned that the porcupine’s
quills are shedded and not shot off. In, addition, they eat inner bark, plants and leaves.  The porcupine’s
skull would have a short nasal turbinates, lateral orbitals, large incisors and small bullaes. The first time
I saw the porcupine it was sleeping because they usually sleep all day, but the second time around
he/she woke up to eat lunch. A porcupine is classifies as a rodent is related to a beaver sharing
large incisors. They are distributed from the mid and north America. I personally couldn’t smell
the stench off it’s exhibit, but it could be feces, and resides to the trees.. In the winter, the porcupine
looks towards bark and leaves to feast on. Quills are different from needle because there is a
microscopic barb that cause the quill to driven through the muscle of a predator. Why would the
porcupine reside in the trees?

 

The brown bear and sloth bear are similar, yet very different. The brown bear has canine teeth
and incisors while the sloth bear only has canines allowing sloth bear to suck up insects. The brown
bear is able to eat meat, plants and berries. In addition, the sloth bear lives in India and is very
vulnerable. The female brown bear is twice the size of a female sloth bear, but has the same number
of offsprings.

In bio 212 we were given the chance to learn about skulls and differentiate between preys and
predators which is extremely helpful. Learning about the animals in the zoo gives me the chance to
be aware of balance they give to the ecosystem, and without it we would have an unstable
environment and overpopulation. I also enjoyed learning the function of animals.