As students throughout the region prepare to graduate to the next level, Woodland Park Zoo (WPZ) is getting its own class of 2025 ready for graduation: baby Western pond turtles! The tiny reptiles arrived at the zoo as eggs last summer, hatched, and will return to the wild in June.
This week, biologists from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) were at WPZ to weigh and measure each of the juvenile turtles to confirm they have grown big enough to escape the mouths of the invasive bullfrogs that prey on them out in the wild.
The collaborative Western Pond Turtle Recovery Project is one of the oldest animal restoration efforts in the state and has brought the species back from near extinction. They’ve helped grow the state’s population from just 150 turtles in the early 1990s to more than 1,500 today. While the species remains endangered in Washington, every hatchling that survives and returns to protected wetlands marks progress in restoring a once-vanishing native.
You can be part of that recovery, too. From keeping local waterways clean to adopting a turtle through the zoo’s ZooParent program, small actions can make a big impact for wildlife. Learn more about how to help at zoo.org/turtles, and consider visiting the zoo to meet the next class of conservation grads — proof that with care, and science, even the tiniest turtles can make a big comeback.
On a baby animal kick? Meet the rescued cougar cubs at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park who are helping eachother recover, settle and begin a fresh chapter.
