Hemker Zoo - 2012

This summer, I took a quick trip to the Hemker Zoo in rural Minnesota. Frankly, it was not very enjoyable. The zoo is a USDA zoo, not an AZA zoo and believe me, you can tell the difference. I seriously doubt they would be able to achieve AZA accreditation. I didn't see any evidence of outright mistreatment, but the cages were small and concrete pads were under them. It was extremely hot that day and some of the animals (the raccoon in particular) did not look well.

Accreditation and market forces in the zoo space are interesting subjects. I feel for the people who run the Hemker zoo. The biggest market they can attract is the Saint Cloud area, which is 25 minutes away. However, there's not a lot of zoo there, so people in Saint Cloud get to choose between around one hours total in the car for an hour or so at the zoo or 3 total hours in the car for an entire day's fun at the Minnesota Zoo. Because of this, small zoos often have to add a "new" animal every few months to get the attendance needed to bring in the money to feed the animals and pay for the caretakers. I suspect that this is what was going on with the run of tiny cages with somewhat exotic animals in them.

The AZA (and CAZA in Canada) exist, in part, to combat this trend and make sure that all animals in zoos are well cared for. If you screw up, you fail the peer review, so you lose your status, so it's harder for you to get new animals and you don't get the bonuses that people give to accredited institutions. It's not a perfect system, but it works and, in general, the accredited zoos are much more pleasant than the non-accredited ones. (There are non-accredited institutions that are more sanctuary-focused than zoo-focused that are still great to visit, but that's a different sort of thing.)

The biggest difference visually, is that since the environment of the animals is less of a concern for non-accredited institutions, it is a lot harder for a photographer to get images that look natural. The animals in this set are clearly captive. I didn't deliberately go for depressing as this is far from the worst I've seen and I don't want to shame them. I just wish the economics didn't require growing institutions to have to compromise on the animal well being at a certain phase of their growth cycle.

Here is my favorite:

This was a one-week old deer that, at one point, mistook my finger for the nipple on a bottle and tried to get milk out of it.

( Highlights )

WWF 2012 Donation

It's that time again.

I have selected five choices for who will get to come from WWF and live with me this year. They are:

Koala - Selected because my house is surprisingly short of marsupials. Sadly, this one does not seem to have a pouch, but I have enough crafty/knitty friends that I'm sure this will be easily rectified.

Black-footed Ferret - Notable because I got to photograph a living one and they are still remarkably rare. Also gets bonus points for being able to get two of them.

Sumatran Rhino - There are only 300 of these left in the wild and not very many in captivity. Special because it's the hairy rhino and, while the Woolly Rhinoceros is sadly extinct, this one is kinda close... and I'd get to say "woolly rhino" a lot if this one is selected. (Try it, it's fun.)

Mekong Dolphin - This is a dolphin with a freaking huge head. I'm sure it does other dolphiny things, but the head is what I noticed most.

Tasmanian Devil - This one is special because they are facing extinction due to the normal pressures, but also do to a contagious facial cancer. Though that's sad, it's also very biologically interesting.

The rules are those discussed after last year's event. Vote in the poll and get a point. Do something creative (write a poem, short story, picture... something arty) and get five points! The winner after about two weeks will be chosen. (I reserve the right to exclude votes from people I don't know.)


[Poll #1875880]