Point Defiance Zoo’s Newest Visitors Are Made From Things People Threw Away

Four unusual visitors are about to join the animals at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. Beginning Thursday, October 15, the zoo will host wooden troll sculptures created by Danish artist Thomas Dambo for Trolls: A Field Study. Tacoma’s four trolls are part of a 12-sculpture exhibition shared with Northwest Trek Wildlife Park in Eatonville, which will host the other eight. The exhibition runs through January 24, 2027.

The trolls come with a story: they’re on a research trip to understand humans and the world we’ve made. Dambo builds his sculptures from reclaimed materials, including scrap wood, discarded pallets, branches and twigs, giving things headed for the waste pile a very different future. That approach carries the exhibition’s environmental message into the artwork itself. Visitors get a reason to explore outdoors while considering what people use, keep and throw away.

At Point Defiance, the characters include Boge, a welcoming troll with outstretched arms near the front entrance, and Poppy, a collector who studies objects humans leave behind. Poppy’s particular puzzle is why people make so many things intended to be used only once. Other trolls will be waiting near animal habitats elsewhere in the zoo, turning a familiar visit into a search for characters with different interests and stories.

The zoo lists the sculptures as seven to nine feet tall, and visitors can take photos, hug them and explore them through gentle, respectful touch. Climbing or standing on the trolls is prohibited. The zoo also says all four can be reached from accessible paved pathways, making the hunt an option for visitors who use wheelchairs or other mobility aids.

Their opening comes just ahead of Zoo Boo on October 17–18, so families attending the costume-and-candy weekend can add troll spotting to their plans. Later in the season, three of the four sculptures will be visible during Zoolights, which runs November 27–January 3. A daytime visit is the way to find all four; the evening lights event offers a different setting for meeting some of them.

The exhibition is included with regular daytime zoo admission or membership, and parking is free. Current hours are 9 AM–3:30 PM Thursday through Monday, with the zoo closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. There’s also an optional Wild Zoo Tour that begins before public opening for visitors who want a guided introduction. Find the troll map, character stories and visit information on the zoo’s exhibition page before setting out to see what these wooden researchers have discovered about us.