The Nature of Play in the New Bamboo Forest Reserve MYZOO Summer 2013 Dear Members
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MYZOO FOR MEMBERS OF WOODLAND PARK ZOO SUMMER 2013 THE NATURE OF PLAY IN THE NEW BAMBOO FOREST RESERVE MYZOO SUMMER 2013 DEAR MEMBERS, Summer in Puget Sound brings us all outside to enjoy the beauty and wonder of our great region and its many treasures. Many new members have joined the zoo family – lions, sloth ON THE COVER bears and jaguars were all born here this winter and spring. Please come introduce your Two Asian small-clawed family to our new additions. otters have joined the LETTER Bamboo Forest Reserve. Ryan Hawk, WPZ May 4 heralds the opening of the first phase of our Bamboo Forest Reserve, brought to FROM THE life by generous zoo members and community donors like you. Asian small-clawed otters are the highlight of this new wildlife journey. The world’s smallest otter will bring a smile to PRESIDENT your face. The exhibit also immerses you in a new tropical aviary while a nature play space tests your youngest adventurer’s physical, cognitive and ecological skills. Join You will learn about the health of Asian tropical forest ecosystems and other species, such Matt Hagan as the sloth bear and the endangered Malayan tiger, and how scientists and communities ZOOACTION CONTENTS are collaborating to protect them. In phase two of our exhibit transformation, these two THE NATURE OF PLAY species will also enjoy new, naturalistic homes. Meanwhile, our new partnership with Are you interested in public policy and Nature-play space sparks wonder in the new Bamboo Forest Reserve ..........4 Panthera is underway working to save wild tigers in Peninsular Malaysia. politics? Woodland Park Zoo needs you! We are launching a new effort, ZooAction ZOO EXPERIENCES .....................................6 Accredited zoos are primary points of public engagement with science. In our living encouraging supporters to take action at ELECTRIC COLORS, LYRICAL NOTES. ......................8 classrooms, families and children of all backgrounds learn about animals and habitats the local, state and federal level to sup- while exploring scientific concepts. Employers and educators, policy makers and parents CONSERVATION EDUCATION: port the zoo. agree that getting young people hooked early on the skills of STEM – science, technology, FROM SEATTLE TO BORNEO ............................10 engineering and math – is a crucial priority. As demand for these skills increases, informal Decisions being made at all levels of THRIVING ON SCIENCE ................................12 science centers such as zoos play a vital role in the STEM learning ecosystem. government affect our education and WOODLAND PARK ZOO AND PANTHERA conservation programs and our ongoing That’s why I’m pleased to tell you that Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle Aquarium, Burke JOIN FORCES TO SAVE TIGERS ...........................14 quest to save wildlife and their habitats. Museum, IslandWood, Museum of Flight, and Pacific Science Center have joined to create SLOTH BEAR CUBS POSTER PULL OUT ...................16 the Informal Science Education Consortium. Leveraging the power of our collaboration, If you are interested in advocating for these we’ll reach more Washington children and teachers with hands-on, inquiry-based science important efforts and making your voice SOMETHING FOUL IN THE TROPICAL FOREST .............20 learning than our individual institutions could alone. I look forward to sharing more with heard, sign up now for ZooAction. GO BEHIND THE SCENES WITH you as our success story unfolds. THE TREE KANGAROO JOEY ............................22 You can find ZooAction at Sincerely, www.zoo.org/zooaction. Taking action CHECK OUT NEW WPZ MOBILE APP .....................24 and sharing the zoo’s mission with com- CLASSES AND CAMPS ..................................26 munity leaders and elected officials will MYZOO KIDS: SECRETS OF THE FOREST RESERVE ..........28 support the zoo in a powerful way! Deborah B. Jensen, Ph.D. President and CEO WOODLAND PARK ZOO Deborah B. Jensen Ph.D. BOARD MEMBERS ZOO HOURS MyZoo Spring 2013. Volume 15. Issue 2. OUR MISSION: FIND US ON Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle, WA 601 NORTH 59TH STREET President and CEO Linda Allen Glenn Kawasaki Bryan Slinker General Information: 206.548.2500 Membership Department Bruce Bohmke Rick Alvord Cammi Libby Gretchen Sorensen SPRING/SUMMER and Address Changes: 206.548.2400, [email protected] SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 98103 WOODLAND PARK ZOO SAVES Editor in Chief: Laura Lockard, [email protected] David S. Anderson Chief Operations Officer Rob Liddell Jay Tejera May 1 – September 30 Associate Editor: Kirsten Pisto, [email protected] Anthony Bay Steve Liffick Ed Thomas Design Editor: Misty Fried, [email protected] MAIN ZOO LINE ANIMALS AND THEIR HABITATS 9:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Photo Editor: Ryan Hawk, [email protected] Bruce Bentley 206.548.2500 Leigh McMillan Andrew Wappler Contributing Writers: Bettina Woodford, Jenny Mears, Sarah 2013 BOARD OF Marianne Bichsel Ann Moe Margaret Wetherald Valentine, Caileigh Robertson, Bobbi Miller, Rebecca Whitham THROUGH CONSERVATION CLOSED CHRISTMAS DAY For Advertising Information: [email protected] or 206.548.2625 GENERAL EMAIL DIRECTORS OFFICERS Kristi Branch Jane Nelson Kathy Williams Lisa Caputo Laura Peterson Robert Williams Comments or questions? Write 601 N. 59th St. Seattle, WA [email protected] Nancy Pellegrino, Chair LEADERSHIP AND ENGAGING FALL/WINTER 98103-5858 or e-mail [email protected] Janet Faulkner Larry Phillips Susie Wyckoff Woodland Park Zoo is a City of Seattle facility managed and Laurie Stewart, Vice Chair David Goldberg Patti Savoy Deborah Jensen, ex officio October 1 – April 30 operated by the non-profit Woodland Park Zoological Society. MEMBERSHIP EMAIL EXPERIENCES, INSPIRING PEOPLE MyZoo (ISSN 2153-45659) is published quarterly for $6.00 Kenneth Eakes, Treasurer Lisa Graumlich Greg Schwartz Christopher Williams, ex officio 9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. per year for Woodland Park Zoo (WPZ) members from [email protected] Jason Hamlin Rob Short membership dues by WPZ at 601 N. 59th St. Seattle, WA Jeff Leppo, Secretary TO LEARN, CARE AND ACT. 98103-5858. Periodicals postage paid at Seattle WA. Leslie Hanauer Elizabeth Sicktich Stuart Williams, POSTMASTER send address change to: www.zoo.org Debora Horvath Ron Siegle MyZoo, WPZ 601 N. 59th St. Seattle, WA 98103-5858 Immediate Past Chair All photos are property of Woodland Park Zoo unless otherwise noted. 2 Woodland Park Zoo is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization 3 MYZOO SUMMER 2013 THE NATURE Dennis Dow, WPZ Every summer Woodland Park Zoo in- troduces delightful new experiences and animals to our community. With phase OF PLAY one of the Bamboo Forest Reserve now unveiled, our littlest zoo adventurers Nature play space sparks wonder can enjoy a new nature play space next to the new Asian small-clawed otter in the new Bamboo Forest Reserve exhibit and forest aviary. For young kids, what could be more Unknown fun than balancing on logs, crossing a Ryan Hawk, WPZ PLAY AND LEARNING wobble bridge, or flying along a mini zipline? For kids at heart (parents and Nature play is an activity shared by animals caregivers, that is) what’s better than and humans alike. Asian small-clawed a nature playscape designed with their otters, a new species joining the zoo family, early learners’ needs in mind? According are particularly playful, social animals. Their to neuroscientists and developmental intriguing vocalizations as they splash and psychologists, play is not only our cavort near a musical waterfall make the creative drive; it’s a fundamental mode visit irresistible. The new otter exhibit is of learning. Child-directed, or unstruc- the first animal area visitors encounter tured, nature play stimulates the brain’s upon entering the Bamboo Forest Reserve Ryan Hawk, WPZ neural pathways, leveraging thinking – a fitting introduction to the wildlife of and physical skills, problem solving, and tropical Asia. As a conservation indicator language expression. species, these otters’ survival in the wild depends on the health of the forest and Amidst the stress and rush of modern DID YOU KNOW? interconnected waterways. life, children need the chance to simply • Play is an underappreciated, misun- • Play fosters the acquisition of play – using their own ideas, initiative Complementing the free-form nature derstood concept in our culture. life skills and stimulates the and make believe. Modeled on a real play space, educator and docent-guided It is a primary way people, and more evolved part of our brains, conservation site, the Bamboo Forest experiential activities at the exhibit help many animals, learn. the cortex. Reserve evokes a setting where the kids connect their learning to actions that boundaries between humans and wildlife help wildlife and habitats. For many, it begins • Children playing together practice • Play enables us to discover our Play is an exercise in self-definition; it reveals what we are blurred. Bodies and imaginations can by collecting and trading artifacts at a new focus and self-control, make most essential selves, to find run wild, and storytelling opportunities Nature Exchange outpost. Others flex their connections, imagine creatively fulfillment and growth. choose to do, not what we have to do. We not only play abound. By feeling more comfortable in physical and mental skill playing Ecotower, a and think critically. • In natural settings, play promotes because we are. We play the way we are. And the ways “wild” settings, children are more likely Jenga-like game in which kids see how many • Play is a survival instinct. Like all the intelligences – intellectual, to develop a lasting love affair with the elements they can remove or change in a eating or sleeping, it is vital to our social and ecological – and can we could be. Play is our free connection to pure possibility. outdoors and embrace an ethic of care system, such as a forest, until it becomes mental and physical well-being. spark a lifelong fascination with for the planet, people and animals. unstable. Kids of all ages will enjoy seeing nature’s wonders.