Media Resources

Flightless birds aren’t typically migratory, but don’t tell that to the 16 Humboldt penguins making their home at the Oregon Zoo. For much of the past two years, the penguins shared a divided portion of the zoo’s polar bear habitat while improvements were made to their own quarters. This week the sleek seabirds returned home, waddling over the familiar rocky terrain and darting through the clear water of the zoo’s Penguinarium. The popular exhibit will reopen to the public on Saturday, Nov. 17.

The Oregon Zoo turns 124 years old today, and staff members are already planning celebratory events for the months leading up to next year’s 125th anniversary.
“It’s quite an impressive milestone we’re coming up on,” said Kim Smith, zoo director. “This zoo has been community supported since 1888 — a time when there were no cars, no planes and only 38 states in the union.”
Heading into its “quasquicentennial” — a fancy word coined by Funk & Wagnalls editor Robert L. Chapman in 1962, the year the zoo’s iconic Asian elephant Packy was born — the zoo will partner with other local institutions to celebrate its roots in the community. Among plans for the coming year is a collaborative exhibit with the Oregon Historical Society, which will trace the zoo’s progress from a small collection of exotic animals at a downtown Portland pharmacy to a national leader conservation, education and animal welfare.

Biologists seek first photo evidence of species in western Oregon. Some will tell you it's a pygmy variety of bear. To others, it's a superhero with fierce sideburns. On the spectrum of enigmatic beasts, it's only slightly less mysterious than a sasquatch. But the wolverine is a very real animal, and biologists want to know whether the species is living in Oregon's Cascade Mountains.

Amur tigers Mikhail and Nicole turn 14 this week at the Oregon Zoo, and keepers plan to treat the brother-and-sister pair to a Halloween-themed birthday bounty: a meatball-studded cardboard birthday cake, scented papier-mâché party balloons, and some pumpkins stuffed with delicious carnivore snacks. The tigers, wearing orange and black for this (and every) occasion, will receive their goodies at 10:31 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31.