Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Northwest Trek Wildlife Park and other local partners recently won the 2023 Certificate of Excellence in Public Service from the Public Relations Society of America Puget Sound chapter for their anti-wildlife trafficking display at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The Certificate of Excellence is awarded to an organization that advances the public understanding of a social issue, problem, or concern. Point Defiance Zoo and Northwest Trek, along with Woodland Park Zoo, Association of Zoos & Aquariums Wildlife Trafficking Alliance, Port of Seattle and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, unveiled a first-of-its-kind interactive installation in 2022 to …

Nearly 300 endangered northern leopard frogs raised at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park hopped back into the wild at the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge in Grant County at the end of August. The releases are made possible by a partnership of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, Oregon Zoo, and Washington State University (WSU). Since early spring, when WDFW collected northern leopard frog eggs, the frogs have grown from egg masses to tadpoles to froglets at Northwest Trek and Oregon Zoo, growing large enough to have a fighting chance …

Endangered northern leopard frogs have been growing at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park! We first received the frogs as eggs in early May from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) officials. Since then, we’ve seen them evolve into tadpoles and froglets. In their latest growth stage, experts at Northwest Trek came together to tag the frogs with a blue “dot” inserted into one foot. This method will allow scientists to spot them in the future and assess the success of this conservation project. Northern leopard frogs are an endangered species. Once thriving in the Pacific Northwest, they are vanishing due …

It’s a chilly spring evening and the sun is sinking as nighttime begins. It’s darker here in rural Eatonville, away from city lights and cocooned in a blanket of clouds that hide the moon’s light. The illumination now comes only in beams from headlamps worn by a dozen or so scientists, students, researchers, and volunteers waiting for tiny bats to emerge from their slumber. They are at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, home to more than 350 bats and one of the largest colonies in South Puget Sound. The goal tonight is to capture 50 bats to further their work toward …

Hundreds of endangered northern leopard frogs will leap back into the wild soon, thanks to a recovery effort at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) officials delivered the frog eggs to the Eatonville wildlife park in early May. “We’ve watched them hatch and then grow from tadpoles to froglets in a short amount of time,” said Northwest Trek Zoological Curator Marc Heinzman. “At this rate, the frogs should be ready to hop back into the wild this summer.” Once abundant throughout North America, northern leopard frogs are rapidly disappearing from their native ranges in Washington, …

Nearly 800 observers took part in this year’s City Nature Challenge spanning King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties, including Everett, Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, Snohomish and any place in between. From April 28 through May 1, community scientists submitted 10,057 nature observations and identified 1,437 species, showing the world the incredible biodiversity in the region’s home turf. That’s the region’s all-time record! “This year we had more observers participate, more observations made and more species identified in the Seattle-Tacoma area than we have since our region joined the City Nature Challenge in 2017,” said Zach Hawn, conservation engagement coordinator at Point Defiance …

What species of amphibians are thriving in the Pacific Northwest? One way to find out is to locate and identify their egg masses, and March is a perfect month to get outside and search. A 4-acre wetland mitigation site in a behind-the-scenes area of Northwest Trek is where this search frequently occurs. “This is an ideal place for monitoring egg masses,“ says Northwest Trek’s Conservation Program Coordinator Rachael. “Since the wetland’s restoration, we’ve identified eggs from seven of the eight monitored species of stillwater-breeding amphibians.” From previous years, we know the first few weeks of March are typically the best …

Once upon a time there were two wolf species: red wolves and gray wolves. Neither of them were “big and bad,” but they were often feared by humans. Over time, more and more were hunted. By 1940 gray wolves were decimated in the American wild and by the 1970s, so were red wolves. It was time for the story’s hero to step in. “Humans have a long history of blaming predators for problems, like wolves and grizzly bears,” says Marc Heinzman, zoological curator at Northwest Trek. “But scientific data shows that’s just not true in all cases.” While it’s true …

Northwest Trek Wildlife Park and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) are partnering with scientists from Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (WCSC) to test the effectiveness of a promising new bat-saving treatment to help wild bats survive the effects of white-nose syndrome. White-nose syndrome has killed millions of hibernating bats in eastern North America and was first discovered in Washington in 2016. State wildlife officials have confirmed white-nose syndrome in King, Chelan, Kittitas, and Pierce counties. The fungus that causes white-nose syndrome has also been confirmed in Lewis, Mason, Snohomish, and Yakima counties. “If this innovative probiotic spray is effective, …

Update, August 18th: Northwest Trek Wildlife Park released 124 endangered Northern leopard frogs earlier this week at the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge in Grant County. Keepers at Northwest Trek raised the frogs for 3 months from eggs through tadpole stage to froglets. This is a multi-agency partnership to help save this species that faces challenges like habitat loss, disease, non-native species, and climate change. By giving the frogs a head start and raising them free of predators, they are given a better chance of survival in the wild with the hope of establishing a new population of northern leopard frogs …