Beyond the Rhetoric

There are many attractions that may draw you to the city of Seattle. Perhaps you want to visit Pike Place Market and see the vendors throwing around some fish. Maybe you want to get to the top of Space Needle. And then, there is the Woodland Park Zoo.

While it may not get the same kind of attention as a place like the San Diego Zoo, Woodland Park Zoo is easily one of the best zoos that I have ever visited. There are many different exhibits, a great variety of animals, and the facilities appear to be very well maintained. It’s certainly more attractive than the Greater Vancouver Zoo, I find.

Yes, there are people who object to the very idea of a zoo in the first place and I can certainly appreciate those arguments. As hard as they try to make “natural” environments for the animals, they will never be the same as living in the wild. At the same time, there are some great education, conservation and research efforts that may not be possible without places like Calgary Zoo or Valley Zoo. The caveman principle applies: we’ll feel more attached to something if we see it in person and zoos are a great way to educate children about the creatures of the world.

At Woodland Park Zoo, you’ll see everything from giraffes to gorillas, tapirs to tarantulas, wolves to warthogs. They have zookeeper talks and raptor free flight show is certainly enjoyable too. Here are some photos I took from my visit to the zoo last week.

Regular admission to Woodland Park Zoo is $17.75 for adults and $11.50 for kids (3-12 years) during the summer. Prices drop to $11.75 and $8.50, respectively, from October 1 to April 30. There was a 2-for-1 coupon in the (Vancouver) Entertainment Book for 2012, so I imagine it’ll be there for the 2013 book too.

Tags: animals, seattle, zoo

Filed under Travel.