Tag Archives: kunekune

Environment, News

Woodland Park Zoo Lowers the Temperature (with Icy Treats)

A New Zealand Kunekune pig takes a cool bath in a kiddie pool. (Photo: Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo)

When it gets hot! hot! hot! like this, zoo animals swelter, too. Woodland Park Zoo finds ways of helping them have fun, as well as cope with the heat. Today, Friday, if you swing by the zoo’s Family Farm at 1 p.m., you can watch Kunekune pigs from New Zealand living it up in their kiddie pool. (They’re only seven months old so it’s age appropriate.) At 1:30 p.m. on the Northern Trail, grizzly bears and otters get icy treats (juice and mixed fruits, and fish). If you can’t make it, it might be viewable on their bear cam.

The zoo also holds daily feedings that the public can participate in; getting up close with a giraffe or an elephant will set you back $5.

The Woodland Park Zoo’s summer hours are 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. Admission (through September 30) is $17.75 for adults, $11.50 for children (3-12), and if you can pull off being a toddler, you get in free.

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Announcements, Environment, News

A Red, White & Zoo Weekend Pig Out is in the Works

A kunekune pig from New Zealand (Photo: Ryan Hawk)

The Woodland Park Zoo has been pigging out lately, first with Visayan warty pigs and warthogs, now with a pair of new kunekune pigs from New Zealand named Baxter and Barkley. Glance again at the photo and you will not be surprised to learn that “kunekune” means “fat and round” in Māori. The short-legged, short-snouted, and pot-bellied pigs, says the zoo, “are known to be very friendly, sociable, and intelligent and thrive on human company.”

The kunekune duo have their zoo debut during the annual Red, White & Zoo celebration, held at the zoo from June 30 to July 1 this year. The Zoo animals take a break from feeding-time routine with a menu of Fourth of July-themed treats–star-shaped popsicles, watermelon, corn on the cob and “other picnic fare”–which is supposed to “enrich the lives of the zoo’s animals, promote natural animal behavior, keep animals mentally stimulated, and engage zoo visitors.”

Drop in each day from 10 a.m. to about 3 p.m. for the mental stimulation of seeing an otter or orangutan feast like it’s the Fourth. It may not be quite as stimulating at the Pike Place Fish Market guys’ experience, tossing to grizzlies–look at the wary eye they keep on where the bears are: