Zoo Review: Minnesota Zoo, Part II

Continuing with the Minnesota Zoo...

As befits a zoo at such a northern latitude, a large portion of the Minnesota Zoo is indoors.  The indoor spaces are taken up with three main areas, though they are all accessible as one building.

The first, and perhaps the weakest of the three, is the aquarium, Discovery Bay.  It’s the smallest of the main indoor areas, and essentially tries to hit all of the aquarium highlights in a small space.   There is a sand tiger shark and sea turtle exhibit, a few small aquarium tanks with various fish, and, the highlight, the marine mammal tank.  When Minnesota Zoo opened, this was home to a pair of beluga whales, long since gone.  A few years back, the exhibit attracted special attention among the zoo community when Minnesota became the only facility outside of Hawaii to display endangered Hawaiian monk seals.  Today, only one aged member of that group remains – the plan had been for Minnesota to serve as a holding facility for non-releasable animals, but it turns out that there really aren’t many in need of placement – so I have no idea what will happen to this space when that last seal passes – I would suspect it would be given over to another, more commonly kept species, such as harbor seal or gray seal… so, if you really want to see a Hawaiian monk seal, better get going sooner than later.

One of the more unusual exhibits at the Zoo is Minnesota Trail, which visitors access after passing through a small cabin that houses a small number of reptiles and amphibians, as well as a nocturnal exhibit for skunks.  Minnesota’s wildlife is well-adapted for cold weather for much of the year; many people aren’t.  In an interesting twist, visitors roam this trail completely enclosed in a hallway, facing out at outdoor exhibits of a variety of animals on either side.  Included here are beavers and North American river otters, both with underwater viewing (along with fish of the Great Lakes), great horned owls, bald eagles, and North American porcupines.  Carnivores really dominate the gallery, however.  There are gray wolves, coyotes, wolverine, fishers, puma, and Canada lynx.  A final habitat offers a series of great views (including a peek inside a den) for American black bears in one of the best habitats that I’ve ever seen for that species – plenty of room, natural vegetation, climbing and digging opportunities.  The bear and wolf exhibits have small cabins, similar to those seen on Northern Trail, that serve as specialized educational centers for those species, with lots of signage and hands-on educational opportunities.  If Minnesota Trail has a weakness, it’s that, like many zoo native exhibits, it really overlooks the smaller residents.  I wish there had been an aviary of Minnesota birds (which I’m told there used to be), more reptiles and amphibians (I know, it’s not like there are many there), and more of the smaller mammals.  I’d heard that the trail used to have a really cool least weasel exhibit.  I’d have loved to have seen that.

When winter comes, what Minnesotan wouldn’t dream of being somewhere warm?  Tropics Trail is the Zoo’s solution to that challenge.  Originally exclusively Southeast Asian in theme, the 1.5 acre building is now divided into galleries for Malagasy, Africa, Asian, and American animals.  Species found along the winding, well-planted trail include DeBrazza’s monkeys (cohabbing with red river hogs), Komodo dragon, Rhinoceros hornbill, fruit bats, African dwarf crocodile, Malayan tapir, and small-clawed otter (yep – this zoo has three otter species).  In one of the exhibit highlights, white-cheeked gibbons swing about an island habitat, while the surrounding lagoon is populated by a flock of lesser flamingos and a variety of Asian waterfowl.  I was disappointed by the limited view of an aviary I saw through heavy-mesh… until I eventually followed the path into it later and found myself surrounded with a wide assortment of beautiful birds.  

Similarly, I found myself peering down at an Indo-Pacific reef tank, home to zebra sharks, Hawksbill sea turtle, and more, before entering an underwater gallery that provided beautiful views of the display, which I spent some time watching (and found much more enjoyable than Discovery Bay.  I enjoyed the underwater view, but I also liked the aesthetic of having a natural view of the top of the tank (usually when you get a tank-top view in an aquarium, it's a very artificial environment).  It sort of created a vibe of walking through the forest, suddenly coming to the end of the land and looking out over a clear tropical sea.

There were parts of Tropics Trail which felt like animals were being warehoused, or that an exhibit was empty and the Zoo had just looked for something to put there – urial (mountain sheep from the Caucuses) seemed somewhat out of place here, for example.  Your ability to enjoy this gallery will also be influenced by your feelings about large animals kept inside year-round… though I can understand why Minnesota might be reluctant to build a tapir exhibit that only gets used a few months of the year.  I enjoyed it, anyway, though a few parts, like the nocturnal gallery, seemed a little dated.  I went through three times, and each time felt like I saw something new.

The main entry building also features two of the Zoo’s newest exhibits, African penguins (indoors) and Japanese macaques (outdoors, but visible from indoors).  I really liked the macaque exhibit.  The penguin exhibit… kind of meh, especially if you’ve seen bigger penguin colonies in other zoos with more space and more birds.  Given the choice, I’d have replaced the penguins with puffins, both to better use the height of the exhibit and to have smaller birds in the enclosure.  But hey, to each their own.

Minnesota Zoo is no conventional zoo – at no other zoo do members wait with excitement for the first snowfall of the winter so they can come to see their favorites frolicking in the snow.  It complements the Como Zoo, with its more conventional collection, nicely, while still striking a balance between popular zoo animals and unusual ones, many of which would not do as well at more southerly zoos (even Minnesota Zoo is having troubles with climate change – the decision had recently been made to phase out their last muskox, a species I’d really hoped to see, due to increasingly warmer Minnesota summers). 

Future plans call for the expansion of the Northern Trail to add more Himalayan species, such as snow leopards, red pandas, and pheasants (I was surprised by the lack of birds on that trail – cranes, waterfowl, pheasants).  Plans also call for turning the old monorail tracks into an elevated hiking trail.

A visit to the Twin Cities would be greatly improved by a visit to both of the area’s zoos.