There is no signs or anything by it, I only found it 2 years ago
Minnesota Zoo Minnesota Zoo News 2020
- Thread starter Zooplantman
- Start date
One question I've Had for a while is if the zoo phased out cotton topped tamarins. Does anyone know if there gone or are just of exhibit?
What is the species overlap between Como Zoo and Minnesota Zoo? Both zoos have tigers, African penguins, wolves, and seals (albeit different species)? Anything else?
Bison immediately come to mind but I suspect I'm missing some.
In addition to these and the bison mentioned by @Okapi Lover , both zoos also exhibit reindeer, puma, sunbittern, and maybe 1-2 duck species. There are also a few pairs of similar species (lion tamarins, sloths, flamingos) but overall the two zoos have much less overlap than, for example, Brookfield and Lincoln Park.
The frog exhibit in Como is in the young children's play room so it is easy to miss, though it is labeled on the map.
I don't have any inside information on the Minnesota Zoo's bird exhibit but my guess is several factors went into the switch. The bird exhibits at the zoo are almost all in the Tropics Trail meaning consolidating simplifies management for the bird keepers. The wild birds at the feeder deck, while free to leave, are pretty much always present and visible. And, at some point in the last couple years, I believe the last woodpecker died, and the zoo might have felt that the other birds were not of enough general interest to anchor an exhibit.
The only overlapped species are American Bison, Tiger, Gray Wolf, Caribou, Cougar, African Penguin, White-faced Whistling Duck, and a few species of native freshwater fish. The two zoos do have many similar species (both have seals, lemurs, small monkeys, ect.) but in all of these cases the two zoos hold different species. It's also worth noting that Minnesota's bison are pure while Como's are not.
That makes sense, I’m guessing after the woodpecker died they decided to close it because everything else in the aviary can be commonly found on the wild bird boardwalk.
I’m guessing since the cotton topped tamarins where phased out, that they plan on moving the tamandua back into creatures beneath the canopy again. The zoo has around 2-4 tamandua and odiously not all of them can be animal ambassadors so I’m guessing at least one is going on exhibit to replace the tamarins. Currently one is one exhibit in a cage by the monorail.
I don't think that Como currently has any Harbor Seals. I think they plan to re-exhibit the species once their new exhibit opens, but I think their last seal died.
Yeh I haven’t seen the seals for a while. I think the last seal was from the Lake Superior zoo.
If you managed to take photos of any of the updates like the tamandua cage, aviary renovation, or tiger renovation it would be great to see them in the gallery.
I do have photos of all three, but they might take a few days to load but I’ll post them soon!
I can’t upload the photos of the tamandua exhibit though .The exhibit is to far back to get a good shot of it.
I’ll go be walk through of the new tiger lair renovation & tropics trail aviaries renovation. As you enter from the moose exhibit, there is a split of from the path with some pine trees and large, unique rock structures that looks like a giant tiger scratched it, there is a viewing window next to that which looks out out on the tiger exhibit. The waterfall was renovated to crash into a flat rock shaped like a giant tiger paw. Behind that is a giant tiger statue called “Zeus” dedicated to the zoos tiger keepers. The existing viewing to the pool was renovated to add a large viewing shelter.
All of the aviarys in the zoo where renovated. The South American aviary was renovated too add some new birds too the aviary, but there was a wait up so I couldn’t identify them. The entrance to the aviary was enlarged. Also inside the aviary is more perches for the birds, new railings, and a new observation deck for the keepers, I’m guessing that there will be a paid experience to feed the birds. I’d like to mention that I got to see what the warty pig holding area, and it looks fine, a bit odd seeing that the exhibit once held clouded leopards(i think) I also noticed that the zoos kemp’s Ridley sea turtle moved to the indo-pacific tropical reef in the tropics trail. The large tree in the rhinoceros hornbill exhibit was removed and replaced buy a temple ruin structure with many perches for the birds. Although it was not finished when I went. Two new climbing structures where added to the small clawed otter exhibit. And finally, the Bali myah/ bamboo partridge/ Indian star tortoise exhibit was expanded and now also contains emerald doves & Sri Lankan junglefowl.
That’s all I have for now. I’m currently going through the photos I took to check there quality, but I will post them soon.
All of the aviarys in the zoo where renovated. The South American aviary was renovated too add some new birds too the aviary, but there was a wait up so I couldn’t identify them. The entrance to the aviary was enlarged. Also inside the aviary is more perches for the birds, new railings, and a new observation deck for the keepers, I’m guessing that there will be a paid experience to feed the birds. I’d like to mention that I got to see what the warty pig holding area, and it looks fine, a bit odd seeing that the exhibit once held clouded leopards(i think) I also noticed that the zoos kemp’s Ridley sea turtle moved to the indo-pacific tropical reef in the tropics trail. The large tree in the rhinoceros hornbill exhibit was removed and replaced buy a temple ruin structure with many perches for the birds. Although it was not finished when I went. Two new climbing structures where added to the small clawed otter exhibit. And finally, the Bali myah/ bamboo partridge/ Indian star tortoise exhibit was expanded and now also contains emerald doves & Sri Lankan junglefowl.
That’s all I have for now. I’m currently going through the photos I took to check there quality, but I will post them soon.
Neat little fact I didn’t know about. The zoo displayed malabar giant squirrels where the current dwarf crocodile exhibit is. I first whent to the zoo around 2009 and I was really young at the time. So I may have seen them. It’s a real shame they don’t have such a beautiful species anymore. Does anyone know what happened to them?
With only 0.2 Hawaiian Monk Seals remaining (Ola and Paki), what will happen to the exhibit in Discovery Bay once they die? They are both geriatric animals. Nani was euthanized 5/3/19 (cancer), Opua was euthanized 11/24/18 (renaliths, cardiac disease), and Koa was euthanized 12/15/19 (cancer).
Unless they can secure an additional cohort of rescued individuals from Hawaii, it may just end up being a seal or sea lion exhibit. My guess is during long term strategic planning for the exhibit, they envisioned keeping some sort of pinniped species, regardless if they could keep monk seals long term.
Do you have a rough idea of when the squirrels were at the zoo? I don't remember seeing them around 2008-2009 nor earlier (mid 2000's). Now I'm trying to figure out when I went to the MN Zoo for the first time. It was before Russia's Grizzly Coast when the Meerkats were still around.
It wasn't an exhibit of Malabar Giant Squirrels, it was Prevost's Squirrels. Before the Dwarf Crocodile renovation this part of the Tropics Trail had a glass-fronted enclosure that partially surrounded another smaller glass enclosure. It was originally a predator/prey exhibit with the bigger enclosure housing Burmese Python and the smaller one housing chevrotains. In the 1980s the python moved to the nocturnal section of the tropics trail, and a series of other species were held in the bigger enclosure, including Purple Gallinule and Star Tortoise. Prevost's Squirrels were exhibited there from the late 1990s until about 2009. When the dwarf croc exhibit was being built they were moved to the small chunk of the nocturnal area that is still in use, but were displaced by the sloths (as were lorises) around 2011.
I wouldn't be surprised if they got Harbor Seals. They're cute, so I wouldn't complain.
