Lions and Tigers and...Oh My!

Things you can learn at the zoo:

1. Never attempt to have a staring contest with a gorilla. He will win.
2. Even more abundant than flies at the zoo are little kids with yuppy names like Mason.
3. Polar bears play with a steel barrel like its a tennis ball. In other words, it's a very good thing that there's a thick panel of glass between the two of you.
For Father's Day last weekend my dad and I went to Como Zoo. I thought watching baby animals misbehave would remind him what an exemplary daughter I am. Just kidding. Regardless of my motivations for going to the zoo its always a good animal and people watching experience. Besides watching ostriches mistake a fence for food, you can also find little kids mistaking the ostrich for a duck.
Ostrich versus duck. You decide.

Sometimes I wonder if the baby orangutans are more evolved than human children after eavesdropping a few too many ridiculous conversations at the zoo. That's not the only area in which animals and humans are scarily similar. For example, see the depressed looking zebra below. Although he may be pictured alone, he is actually one of three zebras in this exhibit. His specific role is third wheel as I observed last Sunday. While attempting to hang out with the zebra couple, he was angrily chased away by the other male. I think we're all familiar with that situation. The animals at Como Zoo never cease to surprise me even though I've been going there since age eight. As a little girl I wasn't one for canoeing and crafting at summer camp, but learning. (I've always been a nerd.) So instead of swimming in the lake at summer camp, I went to zoo camp where we learned about the animals and did several disgusting activities to do so. My favorite was reconstructing a mouse skeleton from an owl pellet, a "craft" that I had the good fortune to do several times throughout my childhood. I even have a mouse skeleton laminated on to a bookmark made out of construction paper somewhere. Why, Minnesota educators, why?

[Probably the most accurate view of animals.]
Before I told you that charmingly gross anecdote, my point is that the zoo has always been a consistent part of my life. Even after basic biology courses tried to ruin the fun of animals by learning about every species nervous system and despite the potential ethical concerns of zoos, I still love them and so does my dad. Going to the zoo has been a consistent father/daughter bonding activity since the time he took me to the Minnesota Zoo at age five even though I had the stomach flu. Since then we've been to the two Twin Cities zoos too many times to count as well as the Seattle, Dublin, and DC zoos.

Como Zoo has also been a consistent staple of St. Paul since 1897. However it was more significant during the 1930s when it was given federal funding by the WPA (one of FDR's Alphabet Programs) to construct Monkey Island and other prominent zoo buildings. Today's visitor center used to be the main attraction with cages equivalent to those seen on a Nabisco animal crackers box. The animal exhibits are a lot larger now and overall the Como Zoo has a much better reputation for animal safety than the Minnesota Zoo. Did I mention its free too? Definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in St. Paul.