WINTER WILDLAND AT NORTHWEST TREK DESERVES A SPOT ON EVERY HOLIDAY SEASON CALENDAR
The annual winter-break event is set Dec. 29-30, and animals throughout the wildlife park will get seasonal treats featuring natural items like fruit cut into ornament shapes and evergreen trees and wreaths to explore
It’s the season of giving, and animals need treats and interesting items like evergreen trees, wreaths, and ice piles to enrich their lives.
Northwest Trek Wildlife Park’s annual Winter Wildland event is coming up Dec. 29-30, and it’s not too early to do a bit of calendar-marking and planning for post-holiday fun with family and friends.
Look there! A raccoon shimmies up a tree branch to get to pieces of fruit in a treat-stuffed evergreen wreath. Over there, a Canada lynx pokes his nose in, under and around a similarly decorated tree, fresh with scents and goodies especially for him.
Zookeepers put their imaginations to work to find materials and create enrichments that interest and engage animals large and small, including omnivores and carnivores.
In addition to watching raccoons, Canada lynx, wolves and other native Northwest animals enjoy these treats, visitors can hop aboard heated trams for a 50-minute, naturalist-narrated tour of the wildlife park’s 435-acre Free-Roaming Area.
It is home to herds of American bison, Roosevelt elk and bighorn sheep, plus three moose, deer, and other animals, and there is nowhere else like it in the Northwest a cozy outing of animal watching.
Northwest Trek is conveniently located off Highway 161 near Eatonville and is less than an hour’s drive from just about anywhere in the Puget Sound area.
For more information, go to www.nwtrek.org.
Northwest Trek, accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, is a 725-acre zoological park dedicated to conservation, education and recreation by displaying, interpreting and researching native Northwest wildlife and their natural habitats. The wildlife park is a facility of Metro Parks Tacoma and is located 35 miles southeast of Tacoma off State Highway 161.
