As Mountain Goats are Moved From the Olympics, Zoos Provide Homes for Goat Kids Without Known Mothers   PORT ANGELES – As state and federal agencies move non-native mountain goats from Olympic National Park to the northern Cascade Mountains, Northwest Trek is partnering with Woodland Park Zoo and Oregon Zoo to provide permanent homes to goat kids without known mothers.   “Our plan is to translocate nanny-kid pairs when possible,” said Rich Harris, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife statewide mountain goat manager. “But when young goats cannot be paired up with their mothers, experience from other mountain goat translocation …

How do you give two grizzly bear cubs their first physicals? With equal measures of intense preparation, precision timing, and the caring and compassion that can be provided only by an expert team of veterinary and animal-care staff members. Oh, and you need two adorable grizzly bear cubs, too. Check. Check. And check! Fortunately the pair, one orphaned in Alaska, one orphaned in Montana, have a new permanent home at Northwest Trek. Both were so young they needed human care to survive. Following their first full physicals in our Veterinary Clinic this week, Dr. Allison Case declared both to be …

We welcomed a second orphaned grizzly bear cub to Northwest Trek Wildlife Park over the weekend. He arrived from Montana, where he was rescued on the Blackfeet Nation lands after his mother was legally killed. She had been attacking pigs on a farm, wildlife officials said.   Staff at Montana Wild, where he was cared for since the end of June, estimate him to be a yearling cub, born in the winter of 2017.   He joins a 6-month-old cub from Alaska in our recently renovated grizzly bear habitat. That cub flew in last week from Anchorage. He was rescued …

He’s here – and he’s beautiful! And now he’s home. Our orphaned grizzly bear cub arrived at Northwest Trek on Wednesday morning, following an overnight flight from Anchorage. (Read curator Marc Heinzman’s story on his journey.) There was a beautiful sunrise and optimism in the air on this first day of August – and the first day of a new life for this 6-month-old cub in his new home. He’s growing fast. The as-yet-unnamed cub already weighs 89 pounds, thanks to the care and nurturing he received from keepers at Alaska Zoo, who bottle fed him several times a day …

By Marc Heinzman, Zoological Curator Northwest Trek Day 1, 3:00 p.m. I’ve arrived for my first ever visit to Alaska, and I was immediately struck by the expansiveness and beauty of the landscape. As soon as my plane broke through the low clouds during our descent into Anchorage, I had my first views of the emerald green coastal waters and a backdrop of dark mountains looming in the distance. Even before we touched down, the far too fleeting glance of that amazing landscape had me thinking about why I was here. I couldn’t help but picture bears splashing about as …

He’s just a little guy – for a grizzly bear. He weighs only about 75 pounds and stands just about 2 feet tall. But by the time he’s an adult, this little orphan from Alaska could reach up to 11 feet tall, standing on his hind legs – and weigh into the hundreds of pounds. And on Aug. 1, the six-month-old grizzly bear cub who was orphaned near Nome and fostered by caring keepers at Alaska Zoo over the last few months, will have a home at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park. He’ll soon be joined by a yearling cub from …

Bison grunt and snort. A caribou calf nurses noisily, its mother calmly munching on grass. The sweet scents of the meadow mingle with more earthy smells as herds of animals pass by. And Northwest Trek Wildlife Park guests are amazingly in the middle of the action, getting closer to the animals of the Free-Roaming Area than ever before aboard a specially equipped Jeep. They’re on a brand new Keeper Adventure Tour. This intimate experience, which takes wildlife park guests on the paved roads rarely traveled, on gravel tracks and occasionally even off-road, opens to the public on Thursday, July 26. …

The mission began at sunset. After a quick briefing to receive assignments and equipment, 26 staff and volunteers spread silently out to their locations. In the entrance breezeway, near the tram garage and underneath trees, they hunkered low on the ground as darkness grew. They waited, breath hushed. And then, with a chattering and creaking overhead, the mission began: The Great Trek Bat Count of 2018. As bats began to fly out from their roosts into the night to hunt, the humans sitting quietly below them began to click their counters, one for each outgoing bat. One staff member had …

Northwest Trek Wildlife Park’s two new snowy owl siblings received their first wellness exams at Northwest Trek. The exams included a complete hands-on physical inspection from beak to toe, including radiographs, weight, eye and ear exams, and blood work. And keeper Wendi Mello, veterinarian Dr. Allison Case and technician Sara Dunleavy even included a beak trim and claw clipping. All of these tests provide a good picture of overall health and allow veterinary and animal care staff to monitor any changes over time. Both snowy owls are in great condition and received extra TLC following their exams.  

Just a few weeks ago, they were orphaned near Ellensburg. Their mother was killed by a car. And the two young badgers were being fed by a kindly landowner who worked to keep the foundlings alive until rescuers from the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife could arrive. Today, badger sisters Poppy and Lavender, named for flowering Northwest plants, are at home in a new habitat at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park. “They likely could not have survived in the wild and were in need of care and feeding when they were rescued,” Northwest Trek Zoological Curator Marc Heinzman said. “We …