Zoo of the Week

Good afternoon zookeepers,
it's time for the zoo of the week. This week, our Modern Zookeeper mobile took a short trip from last week's Zoo of the Week in St. Paul Minnesota up north to the Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth Minnesota.

The Lake Superior Zoo has long been considered one of the top forty five zoos of the upper midwest(not counting Michigan) and features several habitats to engage young and old. There's an Australian Outback, African Savanna, and Nocturnal Trail.

Zookeeper Diego is partial to the Asian Caravan, featuring a snow leopard, siberian tiger and Pere David's Deer.

The deer are no longer actually seen by bedouins traveling across the Silk Road, as they have gone extinct in their native habitat of China. The last deer were reportedly killed and eaten by foreign troops during the time of the Boxer Rebellion.

Apparently a herd was bred in captivity while in England and have now been re-released into the wild in China.

There are several theories about how the Pere David's Deer got to the Lake Superior Zoo, but most zoologists believe that the deer came over with explorer Leif Erikson to Newfoundland. Then after tiring of the bland Viking diet, they migrated westward, traversing the St. Lawrence Seaway before hitching a ride with local voyageurs down to the Great Lakes port in Duluth.

The zoo welcomed them with open arms.

The Lake Superior Zoo also offers a Zookeeper for a Day program for only 12 dollars and a Zoo Snooze where you can sleep in one of the animal cages at the zoo. Modern Zookeeper particularly recommends sleeping with the kinkajous.