In the 1960s, civic leaders in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul felt that St. Paul’s Como Zoo was too small to meet the demands of their community. Plans were made for a larger, more expansive facility to be located on the outskirts of the cities. The result was the Minnesota Zoo, one of two state-owned zoos in the country (the other being the North Carolina Zoo). Located in Apple Valley, just outside the Twin Cities, it is one of the newer major zoos in the US.
It is also one of the more unique facilities, lacking many
of the charismatic mega-fauna (especially of the African persuasion) that most
people think of when they phrase “zoo animals” is brought to mind. Instead, it could almost be thought of as two
zoos. One features animals of North
America and northern Eurasia, housed in paddocks so vast that, until recently,
a monorail was considered the best way to see them. The second is essentially one enormous
building that features an aquarium, rainforest, and an unusual indoor-visitor,
outdoor-animal trek through several species of native wildlife.
Minnesota also plays a special role in the history of zoos as the birth place of the Species Survival Plan. Sure, zoo-based breeding programs for endangered species had existed for decades earlier; in the US, you could say the William T. Hornaday’s efforts to save the American bison at the NationalZoo and Bronx Zoo were the prototype of the SSP. It was under the guidance and leadership of Dr. Ulysses Seal of the Minnesota Zoo that the scientific, genetically-managed breeding programs were officially developed, with the first being for the Amur (or Siberian) tiger, a species which Minnesota Zoo still works with today. Keepers, curators, vets, and especially registrars may also remember Dr. Seal as the founder of the International Species Information System (“ISIS,” today rebranded as Species360), which operates ZIMS, the recordkeeping software used by most zoos and aquariums.
The majority of the landscape at the Minnesota Zoo is taken up by the Northern Trail, a long, meandering pathway through the habitats of the north. Part of this trial is one of the Zoo’s more unusual exhibits, Russia’s Grizzly Coast, which highlights the wildlife of northeastern Russia. The brown bears here are actually American grizzlies, a subspecies stand-in for Russia’s brown bears, though I doubt many visitors will mind the switch. Also featured here are wild boar (a species that is very seldom seen in US zoos today, which is somewhat surprising considering its vast range and long history with humans) and Amur leopards, both seen from opposite sides of a viewing cabin. Sea otters may well be the visitor favorite, with a small amphitheater providing underwater viewing. The most impressive habitat, however, is for the Zoo’s famous Amur tigers. It’s vast and sprawling, seen from a pavilion towards the middle that guests reach from a boardwalk. In many ways it’s a very simple exhibit, with little gimmickry or fancy features. It’s essentially a large tract of northern forest, very comparable to that of East Asia, fenced in. In this, it works so, so much better than many tiger exhibits I’ve seen which I also feel like must have cost so much more to build.
The trail meanders past exhibits of a variety of Asian and American ungulates (including a few species which are found on both continents). The Asian species are takin, Bactrian camel, and Przewalski’s wild horse. The Americans represented are moose, caribou, pronghorn, and genetically-pure American bison (the bison seen in many US zoos have some cattle blood in them). Black-tailed prairie dogs and trumpeter swans can also be found here. The ungulate exhibits are quite spacious, to the point that I’d wished that I’d brought binoculars with me to get a better view of some of the animals. I was able to see every species, though some not as well as I would have liked, and I found the views of them wandering across their paddocks stunning. An additional yard houses dhole, rarely-seen wild dogs from Asia, visible from either across a watery moat or through the windows of a viewing cabin. A final, second habitat for Amur tigers, this one fronted with an enormous stone sculpture, rounds out the Northern Trail. Looming over much of the trail, crossing overhead, are the old monorail tracks, now unused.
A farmyard area and a seasonal, temporary exhibit space
(populated periodically by kangaroos, llamas, and other traveling exhibits) can
also be found outdoors.
Tomorrow, we’ll visit the indoor exhibits of the Minnesota Zoo.
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