To start off let me just say I'm a zoo lover. I think the majority are doing good things and are helping endangered animal species. There are some that make me sad for the big animals if they are in small enclosures, but most times I love visiting. I've been to many zoos...Reid Park in Tucson, National Zoo DC, Chicago zoo (can't remember the name), Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland, Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, and we can't forget Animal Kingdom for our honeymoon.
This year we got a membership to the Minnesota Zoo. Once we went 4 times it was paid off. The great thing is they have so many indoor exhibits that even in the winter we can spend a good two hours wandering around the tropics or the sea life exhibits. I would never expect a zoo this size to have a dolphin show, but they do:
This guy is 47 years old! He was pretty exciting to watch. They also have a mommy and a baby dolphin. The trainer did a great job sharing facts and environmental tips so it was very conservation oriented. Here's Penny visiting with some of the newest additions to the MN zoo.
They also have tons of animals I've never seen or heard of at other zoos like the tree kangaroo and the red panda. Check out this guy
He's a binturong. He looked like a mix between a cat and a bear and is probably around 50 lbs. He can hang by his tail. We've actually never seen him on any of our other visits. He was pretty active walking around the exhibit he shares with the tapirs.
So Penelope will know what a binturong is, but has never seen an elephant or a hippopotamus in person. I respect the MN zoo for knowing that it doesn't make sense to bring these big african animals to Minnesota. The other zoo here has chimps and orangutangs and giraffes, and they stay in small indoor enclosures from October through March. I find that very sad.
For their outdoor exhibits they have a Minnesota themed exhibit complete with raccoons, porcupines, coyotes and wolves. We saw the wolverine in action.
And we saw a Fisher eat a mouse.
Have you ever head of a Fisher? Me neither. Funny thing is they don't eat fish, only small rodents.
Since it was a cool 33 degrees the animals of the Russia Grizzly Coast were hopping about like crazy. The wild boars were chasing each other around and making a ton of noise:
When we've visited in the summer the most movement we've seen from these guys is a twitch of the ear as they wallowed in the mud.
The grizzly bears were pretty active too. We also heard the snow leopard roar a few times and the otters play with a ball.
Penelope likes to get close to all the statues for her picture. This is a bear cub...kind of hard to tell in the photo.
A great way to spend a chilly Minnesota morning!
