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Press Releases
Endangered North Dakota “Flooding” Penguins Move to the Minnesota Zoo
Apple Valley, MINN – October 21, 2011 – The Minnesota Zoo is now home to 11 “celebrity”
penguins! The penguins became newsworthy earlier this summer after they traveled from the
Roosevelt Park Zoo in Minot, North Dakota to the Como Zoo in Saint Paul, Minnesota after their
home base was flooded. The penguins will make their new home inside the Minnesota Zoo’s new 3M Penguins of the African Coast exhibit which opened this past summer. They will join the Zoo’s resident penguins in a replica of their spectacular, wild habitat on South Africa’s famed Boulders Beach, an exhibit boasting 1,500 feet of space, a 7-foot deep pool, and built-in nesting areas. Guests can see them through 40 feet of viewing, above and below water, and learn about them during daily feeding sessions at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. African penguins are endangered; the Minnesota Zoo participates in the African Penguin Species Survival Plan (SSP) which is focused on growing the population of this species as it declines in the wild. They are threatened by over-fishing, pollution (including oil spills), and fluctuating water temperatures. To learn more about African penguins at the Minnesota Zoo, visit dothewaddle.com The Minnesota Zoo is located in Apple Valley, just minutes south of Mall of America. For more information, call 952.431.9500 or visit mnzoo.org. The Minnesota Zoo is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and an institutional member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA).
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