Como Zoo in St. Paul is a Smith family favorite. It’s one of the family’s favorite places to be together. We’ve been going there for years because we spent a lot of time in the Twin Cities before finally settling here a couple years ago.
If you’ve never been there, I recommend taking the family. There’s no cost to get in, other than a suggested donation. As far as I know, Como Zoo exists entirely on donations from the public. There may or may not be patrons that make regular donations, but I have no idea for sure.
The zoo is set up really well. A family getting lost there means they worked hard to do so. There’s likely a little something for everyone. There’s a polar bear exhibit, which is one of our favorites. Unfortunately, we picked a scorching hot day to visit Como Zoo, so there wasn’t much outside activity. There’s big cats, including a beautiful tiger!
There are silverback gorillas in there and they are amazing to watch move around. They’re so big, powerful, and graceful. Como Zoo currently has an entire gorilla family, including three youngsters. Of course, what do Monique and Talisa Smith notice? “The father is laying on his back, doing nothing, while mom watches the brood,” they said while laughing.
We saw a mother orangutan playing with her baby. The little one smiled from ear to ear. I’ve got a little video here of the two of them playing. The quality is less than I hoped for the fingerprints covered the windows.
The only thing I hope the zoo can get cleared up is some of the aquatic displays. The weather was hot and steamy, so the tanks all had condensation on them. However, the tanks need cleaning desperately, so much so that we couldn’t see some of the fish in there. I’m really hoping they can get enough help to take care of that particular problem.
Giraffes really are goofy-looking creatures, aren’t they?
To coin a phrase from Art Linkletter (how’s that for long-term memory?), “Kids Say the Darndest Things.” I forget which kid said it, but I heard a voice say, “Wouldn’t it stink to be a giraffe and choke? How long would it take before the rest of its body figured out it was choking?” Of course, my only intelligent response was “depends on how far down the throat it got?” And I have a Master’s Degree. So proud.
Have you seen that little cabin exhibit between the Como Zoo entrance and the primate display? Looks just like a settler’s cabin you may have seen all those many years ago in Minnesota.
Do you think we interrupted something here? Get a room, for goodness sakes.
Last but not least, can I show you my favorite exhibit? It’s this guy:
That tree sloth in the jungle exhibit cracked us all up. When we came through the door, the slot was sitting up on that same branch while scratching his left side. By the time we’d gotten around the exhibit, he passed out. Must have been some serious hard work?
I leave you with the zebras.