Persephone
Well-Known Member
MINNESOTA ZOO REVIEW
I enjoyed almost every minute of this trip. Is it one of my all time favorites? I don’t quite think so. The collection is smaller than the current top four conventional zoos on my list (NC, Cincinnati, Cleveland, St. Louis). Top ten? Certainly. Top five? There’s a case. I’ll have to think on it. In any case it’s certainly one of the most underrated zoos I’ve been to.
Most of this review will focus on the northern trail because that’s most of the zoo. The left entrance to the northern trail is Russia’s Grizzly Coast. The whole area has rock work and props designed to give the impression of a volcanic landscape. Throughout it there are carved out exhibits for five species: sea otters, grizzly bears, wild boar, Amur leopard, Amur Tiger. This might’ve been my first time seeing a wild boar in an AZA zoo. He was just sleeping, but was still surprisingly pretty. The sea otters were active. Bears were sleepy but one was adjusting his posture on top of a big rock. Amur leopard was sleepy. All of those exhibits are good. The absolute highlight wasn’t the eponymous grizzly bears, but the Tiger enclosure.
The Tiger enclosure has two viewing areas, one on each side of the trail. The Grizzly viewing area is a large bridge leading up to a platform. The exhibit is heavily planted and I could only see a couple square inches of the Tiger after someone else pointed it out. (Weird caps are because I’m on mobile and autocorrect thinks Tiger is a proper noun.) The other side is a somewhat smaller and more conventional but still excellent exhibit. Either one of them would be one of the best Tiger exhibits I’ve ever seen. Combined they’re easily the best. Oh, and on the planted side there’s a radio gun / binoculars to help figure out where the tiger is in the large, heavily planted exhibit.
The signage and props were also top tier in Russia’s Grizzly Coast, and most of the rest of the zoo for that matter. They wove together a narrative of the ecosystem, the indigenous people, conservation challenges, and the individual species. I really loved this exhibit complex.
Now we move onto Northern Trail, the bulk of the zoo. It feels like this was made as a Planet Zoo challenge: make a zoo with only temperate species outdoors. It limits their collection off the bat but I think the zoo more than rises to the challenge.
There’s something that’s lost in a lot of city zoos: majesty. Awe. Whatever you want to call it. Looking out at an exhibit and temporarily being amazed. Most of the northern trail, especially the southern half, is just very large decently planted pastures for a single hoofstock species apiece. The size of the enclosures, especially the camel and bison ones, was really refreshing to see. It let they have a pretty big bison herd (12 individuals, including four calves). They charged to another part of the exhibit while I was watching, which was wonderful and a little terrifying to see. Even the prairie dog exhibit was surprisingly big and they had a lot of them.
The camels, moose, and bison were all relaxing in the water. It was a warm, humid day. Couldn’t blame them. I’d have liked to join them.
One thing I don’t really get is the zoo’s insistence on single species exhibits on Northern Trail. Is it a breeding thing? Because the pronghorn and bison could’ve mixed. Probably the takin and camels, too. It’s weird to see so many single species hoofstock exhibits is all. I also don’t understand why there aren’t really any small animal areas. Red pandas in particular feel like a shoo in for the theme. Even Arctic foxes or Siberian Lynx could have mixed things up a little. They have macaques at the start of the trail, but those aren’t really on the trail proper.
One of the things holding the zoo back is that it doesn’t have as many species as it could given the property size. Feels like a Asian Highlands expansion with red pandas, Pallas Cats, snow leopards, goral or markhor, maybe the takin and camels could solve some of these problems. I don’t know. Just spitballing. I got through the zoo a lot faster than I was expecting to given its footprint.
The dhole was sleepy but I stayed and watched long enough to see them move. The building is visually appealing and has particularly good signage. Exhibit is well planted and lets them hide despite their bright coloration. It could be a long time before I see them again so I stayed for longer than I probably should have to watch a sleeping dog.
The farm was surprisingly good? They didn’t have to go to all of that effort. I’m glad they did, but still. The draft horse pasture was larger than some zoos mixed hoofstock exhibits. The cow yard was surprisingly small in comparison and all the cows were indoors in stalls. It was… a little depressing right after seeing the draft horses and other hoofstock in sweeping vistas.
The chickens, pigs, and goats/sheep have their own little barns. The goats and sheep were eager to be petted and pretty gentle. I’ll admit there was a little bit of childlike wonder being able to pet a sheep for a few minutes while she was quite happy to be touched (leaned into the fence and everything).
Chicken / rabbit exhibit was fine. Nothing too special.
There’s an ice cream shop just labeled “farmhouse” with no indication that’s what’s in there. Kind of weird. Oh, the zoo’s food is actually kind of really good? Bit pricey but it usually is. (Lake Superior’s was kind of cheap, actually.)
Don’t think I’ve forgotten you, Llama Trek. The zoo set aside a fairly large section for a walk through llama enclosure with dromedary camel rides (the only outdoor warm climate species) and an outdoor-indoor guinea pig enclosure. The pigs were all indoors and the biggest llama was sitting right in front of the viewing window so I didn’t get a great view.
Don’t get me wrong, I like llamas as much as the next girl. Just felt like there should have been something… more? Use the llamas as a hook. They kept talking about chinchilla conservations on their (excellent, as usual) signs but didn’t have any. It feels like they could’ve replaced the camel rides with a small mammal or nocturnal building and had chinchillas, as well as gone some way to fixing their species diversity issue.
They could’ve also at least had sections for the the rheas and/or condors the signage talked about. I don’t mind the idea in theory, I just wish there was something more than three domestic species in the area when they already have a barn. The species list works better as a gallery of domestic animals that are uncommon in the US more than an Andes area.
Right side of northern trail is less impressive than the left. Another Tiger viewing area, a moose exhibit that’s still big but smaller than the bison / takin / camel / horse ones on the right. A heavily planted caribou area. The amphitheater was closed despite being a holiday in peak season. Is the bird show actually still running?
The indoor areas were less stunning but helped with the species problem. The African penguin exhibit in the center was basic but functional. A good way to fill a room. On the right side of the entrance are two indoor / semi-indoor trails.
Tropic Trails was good. Semi-uncommon species included Asian Forest Turtle, silver langurs, and a signed cock of the rock I couldn’t see nothing was terribly uncommon. The exhibits were fine. Having Komodo dragons, rhinoceros hornbills, Malayan tapirs, red river hogs, lemurs, gibbons, flamingoes, a tropical reef with sea turtles and zebra sharks, and some surprisingly solid aviaries made the exhibit feel complete. The reef was also better than the one in Discovery Bay IMO.
Minnesota Trail wasn’t as good as I was expecting from Northern Trail. Most of the loop is actually indoors in an air conditioned tunnel while most of the exhibits themselves are outdoors. Props to the skunk / opossum exhibit for having a pretty clever concept of a backyard with enrichment objects / scenery to match.
For the first time on the trip some of the exhibits felt a bit small, particularly the Cougar. I also couldn’t see a lot of species (fox, wolverine, beavers on camera only). Fishers are always delightful, though. He was tucked into a log with only his head sticking outside of it, showing the guests his very good teeth.
Wolf, Coyote, and black bear exhibits (the ones on the outside of the loop) were quite good. The interior ones (Cougar, Canada Lynx, Wolverine, Fisher, red fox, river otter) were smaller. Sort of wish they moved some of those to northern trail and merged some exhibits. The wolverine and red fox being up there would add some smaller species while letting the cougar exhibit be more comparable to the coyote’s.
Discovery Bay was mostly a disappointment. By which I mean it was merely good and not excellent. There were a few smaller tanks, including a shark touch tank. Weedy sea dragons are always delightful. Just wasn’t as good as Great Lakes Aquarium the day before, I think, which undercut it a bit. The sand tiger tank mostly reused species from the reef aside from the moray and sand tiger. Oh, and an adorable blacktip reef shark that liked to swim just beneath the sand tigers and act like he was totally just as intimidating.
Highlight was the Hawaiian Monk Seal. The exhibit was a bit underwhelming. Still clearly just an outdated dolphin exhibit they put seals into without doing any major edits. I saw her swimming around in circles. Stayed for a long time because it might be the last time I ever see a monk seal in my life. I wish more US zoos replaced their cetacean exhibits with rare pinnipeds. Shame no one followed their lead on monk seals. Who knows, maybe someone can convince Disney execs that monk seals would be a good Moana IP tie in for Epcot whenever they decide Finding Nemo is too dated.
I hope they redo Discovery Bay at some point. Felt like the weak link in a lot of ways. Again, it isn’t even bad. Just not as good as the rest.
The monorail tracks hang over Northern Trail like a ghost. I know the zoo plans on making them a walking path, but I don’t understand why. There’s a walking path right beneath them. Unless they go someplace off the path? I don’t know. Seems like a lot of money for something not really beneficial. Especially since a lot of Northern Trail is already elevated over the exhibits it passed.
Solid zoo. One I would travel for. Incredibly underrated. Has room to grow, even if as a state institution they might not always have the budget.
I enjoyed almost every minute of this trip. Is it one of my all time favorites? I don’t quite think so. The collection is smaller than the current top four conventional zoos on my list (NC, Cincinnati, Cleveland, St. Louis). Top ten? Certainly. Top five? There’s a case. I’ll have to think on it. In any case it’s certainly one of the most underrated zoos I’ve been to.
Most of this review will focus on the northern trail because that’s most of the zoo. The left entrance to the northern trail is Russia’s Grizzly Coast. The whole area has rock work and props designed to give the impression of a volcanic landscape. Throughout it there are carved out exhibits for five species: sea otters, grizzly bears, wild boar, Amur leopard, Amur Tiger. This might’ve been my first time seeing a wild boar in an AZA zoo. He was just sleeping, but was still surprisingly pretty. The sea otters were active. Bears were sleepy but one was adjusting his posture on top of a big rock. Amur leopard was sleepy. All of those exhibits are good. The absolute highlight wasn’t the eponymous grizzly bears, but the Tiger enclosure.
The Tiger enclosure has two viewing areas, one on each side of the trail. The Grizzly viewing area is a large bridge leading up to a platform. The exhibit is heavily planted and I could only see a couple square inches of the Tiger after someone else pointed it out. (Weird caps are because I’m on mobile and autocorrect thinks Tiger is a proper noun.) The other side is a somewhat smaller and more conventional but still excellent exhibit. Either one of them would be one of the best Tiger exhibits I’ve ever seen. Combined they’re easily the best. Oh, and on the planted side there’s a radio gun / binoculars to help figure out where the tiger is in the large, heavily planted exhibit.
The signage and props were also top tier in Russia’s Grizzly Coast, and most of the rest of the zoo for that matter. They wove together a narrative of the ecosystem, the indigenous people, conservation challenges, and the individual species. I really loved this exhibit complex.
Now we move onto Northern Trail, the bulk of the zoo. It feels like this was made as a Planet Zoo challenge: make a zoo with only temperate species outdoors. It limits their collection off the bat but I think the zoo more than rises to the challenge.
There’s something that’s lost in a lot of city zoos: majesty. Awe. Whatever you want to call it. Looking out at an exhibit and temporarily being amazed. Most of the northern trail, especially the southern half, is just very large decently planted pastures for a single hoofstock species apiece. The size of the enclosures, especially the camel and bison ones, was really refreshing to see. It let they have a pretty big bison herd (12 individuals, including four calves). They charged to another part of the exhibit while I was watching, which was wonderful and a little terrifying to see. Even the prairie dog exhibit was surprisingly big and they had a lot of them.
The camels, moose, and bison were all relaxing in the water. It was a warm, humid day. Couldn’t blame them. I’d have liked to join them.
One thing I don’t really get is the zoo’s insistence on single species exhibits on Northern Trail. Is it a breeding thing? Because the pronghorn and bison could’ve mixed. Probably the takin and camels, too. It’s weird to see so many single species hoofstock exhibits is all. I also don’t understand why there aren’t really any small animal areas. Red pandas in particular feel like a shoo in for the theme. Even Arctic foxes or Siberian Lynx could have mixed things up a little. They have macaques at the start of the trail, but those aren’t really on the trail proper.
One of the things holding the zoo back is that it doesn’t have as many species as it could given the property size. Feels like a Asian Highlands expansion with red pandas, Pallas Cats, snow leopards, goral or markhor, maybe the takin and camels could solve some of these problems. I don’t know. Just spitballing. I got through the zoo a lot faster than I was expecting to given its footprint.
The dhole was sleepy but I stayed and watched long enough to see them move. The building is visually appealing and has particularly good signage. Exhibit is well planted and lets them hide despite their bright coloration. It could be a long time before I see them again so I stayed for longer than I probably should have to watch a sleeping dog.
The farm was surprisingly good? They didn’t have to go to all of that effort. I’m glad they did, but still. The draft horse pasture was larger than some zoos mixed hoofstock exhibits. The cow yard was surprisingly small in comparison and all the cows were indoors in stalls. It was… a little depressing right after seeing the draft horses and other hoofstock in sweeping vistas.
The chickens, pigs, and goats/sheep have their own little barns. The goats and sheep were eager to be petted and pretty gentle. I’ll admit there was a little bit of childlike wonder being able to pet a sheep for a few minutes while she was quite happy to be touched (leaned into the fence and everything).
Chicken / rabbit exhibit was fine. Nothing too special.
There’s an ice cream shop just labeled “farmhouse” with no indication that’s what’s in there. Kind of weird. Oh, the zoo’s food is actually kind of really good? Bit pricey but it usually is. (Lake Superior’s was kind of cheap, actually.)
Don’t think I’ve forgotten you, Llama Trek. The zoo set aside a fairly large section for a walk through llama enclosure with dromedary camel rides (the only outdoor warm climate species) and an outdoor-indoor guinea pig enclosure. The pigs were all indoors and the biggest llama was sitting right in front of the viewing window so I didn’t get a great view.
Don’t get me wrong, I like llamas as much as the next girl. Just felt like there should have been something… more? Use the llamas as a hook. They kept talking about chinchilla conservations on their (excellent, as usual) signs but didn’t have any. It feels like they could’ve replaced the camel rides with a small mammal or nocturnal building and had chinchillas, as well as gone some way to fixing their species diversity issue.
They could’ve also at least had sections for the the rheas and/or condors the signage talked about. I don’t mind the idea in theory, I just wish there was something more than three domestic species in the area when they already have a barn. The species list works better as a gallery of domestic animals that are uncommon in the US more than an Andes area.
Right side of northern trail is less impressive than the left. Another Tiger viewing area, a moose exhibit that’s still big but smaller than the bison / takin / camel / horse ones on the right. A heavily planted caribou area. The amphitheater was closed despite being a holiday in peak season. Is the bird show actually still running?
The indoor areas were less stunning but helped with the species problem. The African penguin exhibit in the center was basic but functional. A good way to fill a room. On the right side of the entrance are two indoor / semi-indoor trails.
Tropic Trails was good. Semi-uncommon species included Asian Forest Turtle, silver langurs, and a signed cock of the rock I couldn’t see nothing was terribly uncommon. The exhibits were fine. Having Komodo dragons, rhinoceros hornbills, Malayan tapirs, red river hogs, lemurs, gibbons, flamingoes, a tropical reef with sea turtles and zebra sharks, and some surprisingly solid aviaries made the exhibit feel complete. The reef was also better than the one in Discovery Bay IMO.
Minnesota Trail wasn’t as good as I was expecting from Northern Trail. Most of the loop is actually indoors in an air conditioned tunnel while most of the exhibits themselves are outdoors. Props to the skunk / opossum exhibit for having a pretty clever concept of a backyard with enrichment objects / scenery to match.
For the first time on the trip some of the exhibits felt a bit small, particularly the Cougar. I also couldn’t see a lot of species (fox, wolverine, beavers on camera only). Fishers are always delightful, though. He was tucked into a log with only his head sticking outside of it, showing the guests his very good teeth.
Wolf, Coyote, and black bear exhibits (the ones on the outside of the loop) were quite good. The interior ones (Cougar, Canada Lynx, Wolverine, Fisher, red fox, river otter) were smaller. Sort of wish they moved some of those to northern trail and merged some exhibits. The wolverine and red fox being up there would add some smaller species while letting the cougar exhibit be more comparable to the coyote’s.
Discovery Bay was mostly a disappointment. By which I mean it was merely good and not excellent. There were a few smaller tanks, including a shark touch tank. Weedy sea dragons are always delightful. Just wasn’t as good as Great Lakes Aquarium the day before, I think, which undercut it a bit. The sand tiger tank mostly reused species from the reef aside from the moray and sand tiger. Oh, and an adorable blacktip reef shark that liked to swim just beneath the sand tigers and act like he was totally just as intimidating.
Highlight was the Hawaiian Monk Seal. The exhibit was a bit underwhelming. Still clearly just an outdated dolphin exhibit they put seals into without doing any major edits. I saw her swimming around in circles. Stayed for a long time because it might be the last time I ever see a monk seal in my life. I wish more US zoos replaced their cetacean exhibits with rare pinnipeds. Shame no one followed their lead on monk seals. Who knows, maybe someone can convince Disney execs that monk seals would be a good Moana IP tie in for Epcot whenever they decide Finding Nemo is too dated.
I hope they redo Discovery Bay at some point. Felt like the weak link in a lot of ways. Again, it isn’t even bad. Just not as good as the rest.
The monorail tracks hang over Northern Trail like a ghost. I know the zoo plans on making them a walking path, but I don’t understand why. There’s a walking path right beneath them. Unless they go someplace off the path? I don’t know. Seems like a lot of money for something not really beneficial. Especially since a lot of Northern Trail is already elevated over the exhibits it passed.
Solid zoo. One I would travel for. Incredibly underrated. Has room to grow, even if as a state institution they might not always have the budget.
