Sunday, August 09, 2009

Some more Minnesota Zoo pictures

Here are some more pictures from our trip to the Minnesota Zoo. All these pictures, except the butterfly emerging were taken on the Minnesota Trail. While walking on the trail, we passed a beaver pond where we had a underwater view from large windows. They also had a video monitor to show action inside the lodge. Adjacent to the pond is a small wetland area, where I think it was we caught these river otters sleeping (first picture top row). Not as exciting as watching them frolic at the Des Moines Blank Park Zoo though.

Other animals we saw were coyotes, gray wolf, porcupine, wolverine, lynx.

From the wild bird deck we saw some turkeys. We also saw this bald eagle and this puma.

The butterfly garden is located in the Tropics Trail. They have 40 different species of butterflies and moths, fluttering around, along with chrysalis (or pupa) "boxes". This butterfly or moth was emerging from its chrysalis. The girls would have stayed there all day if permitted waiting to see it take off. Cailey asked if we could come back t he next day to check it out.

Here is a link to live cams at the Minnesota Zoo: http://www.mnzoo.com/animals/animals_liveCam.asp