Zoo hosts International Vulture Awareness Day
Event highlights nature's clean-up crew: vultures!

WHAT: Vultures are often depicted as harbingers of death, yet many vulture populations face threats of their own with some species facing extinction. Join Woodland Park Zoo at International Vulture Awareness Day and discover how vultures fill a vital ecological niche as nature's clean-up crew. Learn about the international efforts underway to help protect these often misunderstood birds.

WHEN: Saturday, September 3, noon-3:30 p.m.

10:30 Vulture talk
11:30 Raptor flight program
Noon-3:00 Olympic Vulture Study display with guest biologist Diann MacRae
12:30-2:00 Games and activities
2:30 Raptor flight program
3:30 Vulture talk

WHERE: Activities will take place at Woodland Park Zoo's Raptor Center

COST: International Vulture Awareness Day is free with zoo admission

INFO: Vultures are scavenging birds that help recycle and prevent the spread of disease. Woodland Park Zoo is home to the turkey vulture, a species that ranges from southern Canada to South America. Turkey vulture numbers declined in the 1950s and 1960s, most likely due to the mistaken belief that they spread diseases. Shooting and poisoned baits often targeted these useful birds. Populations have increased in recent years, due to less persecution and safer use of pesticides. Contaminants and habitat loss continue to threaten other vulture species, particularly in southern Asia, where some species have been nearly forced to extinction.

Diann MacRae is a writer, biologist, and coordinator of the Olympic Vulture Study, a research project on turkey vulture migration and demographics in the Pacific Northwest. She is a past chair of the Hawk Migration Association of North America.
Zoo summer hours: 9:30 a.m.-6:00 p.m. daily. Admission through September 30: Adult (13-64) $17.50; Child (3-12) $11.50; Toddler (0-2) Free. Seniors and people with physical disabilities receive a discount and zoo members receive free zoo admission year round. Parking: $5.25. Parking is limited. For bus service to the zoo, visit: www.metro.kingcounty.gov.

For more information and how to become a zoo member, visit www.zoo.org. Or call 206.548.2500 or 548.2599 (TTY).

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Eric Kowalczyk
North American regional Aceros studbook keeper
PMP for Aceros corrugatus

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Frodo: I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. .... And that is an encouraging thought.