Minnesota Zoo heads into new territory

Will Branning was mayor of Apple Valley 30 years ago, when the Minnesota Zoo opened in his city.

"We were from Seattle," he said, "so we were familiar with the look of a major, modern zoo. And to come here and find only the cages at Como Park was a letdown."

And yet Minnesota's state zoo was only partially built. "There was this grand, $50 million plan," he said. But only part of it ever got built.

So it was moving for him, now a member of the zoo's board, to be taken on a tour late last week of what the zoo is calling Russia's Grizzly Coast, a compact but artfully serpentine $30 million exhibit that is to open June 7.

"It is hard to express it in words," he said as he emerged from a tour led by the zoo's director, Lee Ehmke.

Board members picked their way through mud and pools of water to get an advance peek at an exhibit that is meant to be the first piece of a $100-million-plus overhaul of the zoo.

The director shared with them some of the machinations involved: a design, for instance, that leads visitors not once but twice past the retail shops and the "upgraded" food service.

He showed them an elegant new events space that will become the board room, replacing the cramped and overheated classroom from which the directors had just emerged after their quarterly meeting.

But mainly he wanted them to see what he believes guests will find a "killer" exhibit, one that aims to transport them to the Kamchatka Peninsula, on Russia's eastern coast.

Standing inside a mock lava tube, which mimics what happens in real volcanic zones, he showed them a rocky trickling stream that keepers will stock with live fish so the three newly arrived grizzly bears will lunge for food as visitors watch from behind a long sheet of glass.

"We'd like to have the bears actively looking for food all day," he said, "as they do in nature, rather than hanging around for their 5 o'clock feeding."

At the moment, he confessed, they are "three bored bears," held in quarantine and exploring their surroundings to see if there is any way out.

The exhibit begins with glimpses of sea otters through glass and ends with a view of leopards. For those who arrive at the right moment, it will include a view of the grizzlies right up against a bear-proof metal mesh, startlingly close to guests.

"When they rise up on their hind legs," Ehmke said, "it will be a dramatic thing."

As the tour ended, the group passed the monkey exhibit that has long been a crowd favorite but is also a symbol of zoo design of the past, said Lars Erdahl, the zoo's education director.

"This is what zoos then were," he said. "A pit. You looked down on the animals well below, from a distance. Today we like to bring the animals right up to eye level or above, and bring them as close to you as we can."

Zoo director Ehmke made clear that there are likely to be hiccups as the exhibit starts to work in real life. The space for people to watch keepers working up close with the bears, for instance, may turn out to be small. But the leap forward in exhibit design had the board members murmuring approval.

"Cool?" board member Jim Mayer was asked as he pulled off his hard hat.

"Really cool," he said.

David Peterson • 952-882-9023