• TL;DR: Woodland Park Zoo is the ONLY zoo in WA, OR, or ID with gorillas! Don’t pay full price—everyone gets child rates on upcoming ‘Kid at Heart’ days! Details here.

Remember that adorable monkey named Punch who stole our hearts when we learned he had been abandoned by his mom at a zoo in Japan? The reason his story got to me (and so many others across the globe) was because he held onto that little plushie for dear life; it was his only little friend until the other monkeys finally decided to accept him into the fold.

Humans are primates too, which explains our need for intimacy, connection, and bonding, and when I stumbled across this adorable pic of these two gorillas, Jamani and Oku at their protected habitat in Woodland Park Zoo, it started to warm my cold, jaded heart, too.

Here’s an adorable photo of Jamani and Oku from this past June.

Read More: Relaxing Washington Getaways Worth the Drive

Seeing Great Ape Dynamics Up Close in Seattle

There’s only one zoo in Washington where you can see gorillas, and that’s at the Woodland Park Zoo. There’s an accredited gorilla conservation program that zoos have to seek in order to house them.

Gorillas are one of the five types of great apes along with chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos, and humans. – Gorilla Species Survival Plan

You can find the gorillas in the Tropical Rain Forest section of the Woodland Park Zoo (5500 Phinney Ave North, Seattle). You won’t find gorillas at any other zoo inside Washington, Oregon, or even Idaho.

Here’s another adorable photo of one of Woodland Park Zoo’s gorillas. His name is Kitoko.

How to Save Big on Woodland Park Zoo Admission With ‘Kid at Heart’ Days

Did you know you can save big money when you visit Woodland Park Zoo on ‘Kid at Heart‘ days? That’s where everyone can get into the zoo paying the kid’s price of admission.

The next round of Kid at Heart Days is coming up in October and November before the year ends.

• October 4-5
• October 18-19
• November 1-2

Other zoos worth a visit in Washington include Northwest Trek Wildlife Park (my fave zoo), Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Cougar Mountain Zoo, the Northwest Wildlife Sanctuary, and others found on Zoospedia.com.