If you are looking for a fun time for your family, a trip to Seattle isn't the worst way to go. My daughter takes after her mother, especially over their mutual love for animals. Our little one had been begging us for weeks to go to the zoo. Have you ever tried to explain the concept of different cities to a four-year-old? When we finally asked her if she wanted to go to Seattle, her eyes lit up. In her little kid brain, the gears started turning. There's a zoo in Seattle. MOM AND DAD ARE TAKING ME TO THE ZOO!

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Is Woodland Park Zoo the best zoo in Seattle?

Pete Christensen
Pete Christensen
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Opened in 1899, Woodland Park Zoo is one of the Pacific Northwest's premier zoos.

Pete Christensen
Pete Christensen
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The 96-acre zoo is home to over 1,000 animals across 300 species such as this kookaburra that came right up to us for a few pictures.

Pete Christensen
Pete Christensen
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You will encounter sleeping kangaroos.

Pete Christensen
Pete Christensen
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Not to be confused with the wallaroos, which my six-month-old took a liking to.

Pete Christensen
Pete Christensen
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I almost missed the hippos entirely. We were walking away when I heard a loud snort.

Pete Christensen
Pete Christensen
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If you needed any confirmation that lions are cats, this shot of a lion licking itself clean will hammer the point home.

Pete Christensen
Pete Christensen
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My oldest daughter was in hog heaven. We couldn't decide between two-hour parking or four. Four hours ended up being perfect, even though she could have stayed for much longer.

Pete Christensen
Pete Christensen
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Did you know that a rhino's horn is made from the same material as your fingernails? It takes a rhino six years to grow its horn completely.

But the star of Woodland Park Zoo is Zuna.

Pete Christensen
Pete Christensen
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Zuna is a baby gorilla at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo.

Canva, Pete Christensen
Canva, Pete Christensen
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Zuna was just over two months old when we met her, having been born on February 1, 2022.

Is Woodland Park Zoo better than Point Defiance?

Even though I really like Point Defiance's aquarium, I think I prefer Woodland Park and its sprawling layout. What's really wild to me is how such a big zoo can fit snugly in Seattle's Phinney Ridge neighborhood. The zoo sees an average of one million people each year.

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