A day in Minot

Well, Monday we decided to spend the day in Minot at the Roosevelt Park Zoo.  We decided to take the trip up north and see what the zoo had to offer.  We’ve been to the Bismarck Dakota Zoo and it is a nice quaint little place – considering we’re accustomed to major zoos – Columbus Zoo & Aquarium (#1 in the country), the Denver Zoo, Omaha Henry Dooly Zoo, and the St.Louis Zoo - we were a little disappointed in the animals.  I understand the climate around here probably limits what animals they can have on display, but when I go to a zoo I am more interested in seeing animals that I can’t see running across a field, digging in my trash, scurrying across the prairie, or living in the thicket in the back field. 

After some research, we learned that the Minot Roosevelt Park Zoo has some other animals besides the native wildlife. So we decided to venture north and check it out.

We had planned the two hour drive, figured we would spend at least two hours at the zoo, and then drive back two hours. Based on our time schedule we figured we would arrive back to Biz to catch an early dinner.  Well, it took just under two hours to get to Minot. So, we ate lunch and then went to the zoo. 

We were excited to see a different variety of animals.  I have to admit the exhibit conditions were a little lacking.  I felt like I was viewing more of circus animals in the wire cages they had these poor animals enclosed in. The lemurs were so cute, but they were curled up in balls.

Their enclosure included three cages that were connected by passages.  Which was nice because it gave them more room to roam, but it was so not like any true habitat you would find a lemur in. 

As you can see, the bears were in a more modern exhibit that was more reflective of what we are use to seeing in a bigger zoo.  The exhibit looked like it mimicked more of a bear’s actually habitat.  The lions, tigers, leopards, and several other animals were kept in these small areas surrounded by chain link fence. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The animals that need more room to roam, the zebras, giraffes, kangaroos, and llamas had open fenced-in areas.  So, they were a little more enjoyable to observe.  I really felt bad for the animals in the cages because I know they are not in an environment similar to the wild.  I believe these conditions would be ones that would aggravate an animal activist causing them to hoot and holler about unacceptable exhibit of these animals.  Now, don’t get me wrong – from what I could see, these animals seemed to be cared for and I didn’t witness any animal abuse – I’m just thinking and stating how this particular zoo visit made me question why we think we need to cage animals for the pure amusement of going to see what they look like up close and in person. 

After we got to see one side of the zoo, we crossed a bridge to visit the petting area and the North America side.  Mackenzie was so excited about feeding the goat . . .

Once we had walked around and saw EVERY animal, we started back to the front to leave, but we made one last stop at the bear exhibit.  They actually had dispensers where you could purchase food to feed the bears – we swear it was just dog food, at least that is what it smelled like.  Anyway, the kids got a couple of handfuls and threw pieces into the bear.  Now, that is something we have never had that opportunity to do before. 

We were glad we didn’t have to pay a fee to visit the zoo – it was free because we have a Dakota Zoo membership – because it took us just under an hour to walk the entire zoo and see all the animals they had on exhibit.  ONE HOUR!  Yes, we saw it all in one hour. UGH!  We spent more time driving there than we did visiting the zoo.  No, we didn’t miss anything we walked the entire zoo, which if I might add was a nice casual walk.  That is crazy. Our last visit to the Omaha Henry Dooly zoo, we spent four and one-half hours and didn’t see or walk the whole zoo.  Our typical visit to the Columbus Zoo – we’d spend three hours and only see a third of the zoo.

I’m not sure if we will make the trip there again specifically to visit the zoo.  I think next time I would go I would plan to visit something else also in that area to help justify the drive, not because of the distance but because of the cost of gas!

I do have to say, we did enjoy the drive and we enjoyed getting away and doing something together (minus one). It was also nice to be able to visit on a weekday so we didn’t have to deal with a large weekend crowd of people.