Farm Babies at the Minnesota Zoo

Although I’m hesitant to say it, it seems as though spring has finally sprung! It’s just in time too, as the newest additions to the Wells Fargo Family Farm at the Minnesota Zoo are being introduced this weekend. And what’s more spring-like than the sights and sounds of baby animals?

Expect to swoon over newborn chicks, piglets, lambs, calves, goat kids and bunnies, and for families, partake in a number of hands-on kids activities. Learn more about the animals from local children’s author Vickie Black, who will be reading her book “Young Chicken Farmers” (11:30 a.m. & 12:30 a.m.), join in on crafts (11 a.m.-2 p.m.), get your face painted (11 a.m.-2 p.m.), or, in tune with Easter, visit with Peter Rabbit (Saturday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.). Plus, every Friday through Sunday, a tractor will take you on a ride from the grain elevator to the farm.

         

But the farm isn’t the only place you’ll see baby animals. In the past year, the zoo has seen the birth of two Amur tiger cubs, Amur leopard cubs, a lynx kitten, De Brazza’s and snow monkeys, and, most recently, an infant sloth.

If that’s not enough cuteness for you, there are more than 504 species to spot across six trails, including animals that enjoy our cold months, like caribou, moose, and prairie dogs on the Northern Trail, Minnesota-native animals such as wolves and beavers on the Medtronic Minnesota Trail, and animals who inhabit one of the last true wilderness areas, Russia’s Grizzly Coast, including brown bears, Amur leopards and tigers, and sea otters.