Explore the Shore
Owen Beach, Point Defiance Park.
Free.
Underwater, revealed
The beloved Zoolights event at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium is back and brighter than ever! The dedicated Zoolights crew is busy preparing for Pierce County’s largest and most enchanting holiday celebration, and timed online tickets are now available. From November 29 to January 5, this annual holiday spectacular will light up the zoo with over one million dazzling lights—a record-setting display! For 37 years, Zoolights has brought joy to the South Sound community, and this year promises to continue…
Black cats, pumpkins, ghosts… skulls and skeletons. They’re all symbols of the Halloween season. We asked Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium’s veterinarians, Dr. Karen Wolf and Dr. Kadie Anderson, to give us an “inside” look at a few of the Zoo’s animals and their not-so-spooky skeletons. The veterinarians regularly take radiographs or X-rays of the animals to check on their health and care for them. Walnut the Beaver In this X-ray, you can see Walnut the beaver’s long incisor teeth.…
Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium is home to three endangered sea otters in the Rocky Shores habitat. Every year, Sea Otter Awareness Week takes place during the last full week of September to celebrate and inspire deeper awareness of these marine mammals. Now protected, sea otters are still at significant risk from oil spills, parasites that reach the ocean via storm drains, and plastic ocean trash. All three sea otters living at Point Defiance Zoo were rescued from the wild and deemed…