Woodland Park Zoo Field Trip
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I love field trips. They are such a great way to make lessons come to life and create wonderful memories at the same time. One of the big benefits of homeschooling is having the freedom to take as many field trips as our budget allows.
We were wrapping up our animal study in biology, so it seemed like the perfect time to visit our local zoo. This allowed us to see lots of the animals we have studied this year – birds, insects, and mammals.
We were FONZ members at the National Zoo when we lived in VA, and were excited to check out a ‘new to us’ zoo. The Woodland Park Zoo has a few animals that we were not able to see in DC, and we loved the opportunity to see animals like hippos, giraffes, and brown bears up close. Ben did say he wished we could see a panda, though. We will have to check the pandas out the next time we are in DC.
Woodland Park Zoo Field Trip
The Woodland Park Zoo is divided into geographical areas. This ensures that animals from similar regions are grouped together.
Penguins
The penguins are the first animals you see after you pay and enter the zoo. We had never seen penguins in person before, so this was a nice treat so early on our trip.
Northern Trail
The Northern Trail area looks a lot like our part of the country, the Pacific Northwest. There are a lot of rocks, hills, and large evergreen trees.
In this portion of the zoo, you will find animals such as a brown bear, a goat, wolves, an eagle (with a MASSIVE nest), and elk.
Australasia
Australasia is a small section of the zoo with only a few varieties of animals. We saw wallaroos/wallabies, snow leopards, emus, and a huge variety of birds.
The wallabies were absolutely adorable. There was a wallaby nursery with huge windows so we could see the babies, toddlers, and mamas. Plaques along the railing explained the infant development stages so we could estimate the ages of the animals we were observing.
Tropical Asia
The Tropical Asia section is divided into two sections – Trail of Vines and Banyan Wilds. Here you will see orangutans, tapirs, pythons, komodo dragons, tigers, and sloth bears.
The exhibits are designed to really let you get a good view of the animals. We all decided we would much rather come across a sloth bear than a komodo dragon out in the wild.
African Savanna
The African Savanna was one of my favorite areas of Woodland Park Zoo. Much of the exhibit is a large grassy field, an area for many of the animals to roam together. Don’t worry, though, the animals that might prey on other animals are separated. This area contains animals such as giraffes, warthogs, lions, hippos, zebras, and monkeys.
There was also a replica of an African village. It was a fantastic way to show Hannah and Ben areas of the world we have only read about. Hannah read A Long Walk to Water in November, so it felt appropriate to be able to show her what the schoolhouse might look like. There were also two tiny houses to walk through. They were drastically different from any home we have ever lived in!
Temperate Forest
The temperate forest section contained animals that we have seen and loved before. This area houses farm animals, insects, cranes, wetland animals, and maned wolves.
The petting portion of the farm exhibit was closed, but an employee let Hannah and Ben feed the kunekune pigs lettuce. The pigs have a hard time seeing, so the kids had to verbally entice them over to collect their treat. One of the pigs began sitting for his treats…just like our dog!
The temperate forest contains Hannah and Ben’s favorite section of the Woodland Park Zoo – the Backyard Habitat playground. This shady spot had a trail dotted with naturally inspired play equipment. There was a woven web to climb, a huge mole tunnel, turtle shells, a nest to relax in, and a hollowed-out tree stump to climb through.
Tropical Rainforest
The tropical rainforest portion of the zoo is small, but full of awesome animals. We saw ring-tailed lemurs, colobus monkeys, and gorillas.
There was a newborn gorilla that was absolutely adorable. She was so curious! Her mama and aunt were sleeping, so she sat by the window, engaging with the zoo patrons. She especially liked people to turn their cameras and show her the pictures they took.
Woodland Park Field Trip Tips:
Parking is $6 for all-day parking in any of the zoo lots. There was plenty of parking when we went, but it was a weekday in February. Check out street parking in the residential neighborhoods nearby if the lots are full.
Bring snacks. There are food options available in a few places in the zoo, but they are pricey. Thankfully, there are quite a few grassy areas for a picnic.
Buy tickets for the carousel or feeding experiences when you purchase your admission tickets. You will need to decide ahead of time whether you want to participate in these events. We opted to save these events for another trip.
Print out a few zoo activity sheets before you visit. We enjoyed observing flamingo behavior at 15-second intervals.
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