Your support for Como Friends helped Mutambi the gray crowned crane recover quickly after a wing injury, and rejoin breeding partner, Houdini

Earlier this spring, Mutambi the gray crowned crane had an unexpected run-in with one of the Grant’s zebras as they raced through the African Hoofstock habitat in what may have been a mating pursuit. While zookeepers didn’t see the collision, they were on the spot with Como’s veterinary team within minutes, using a new portable x-ray machine—funded by Como Friends supporters—to get a better understanding of her injury. 

“It was basically a dislocated elbow that vets were able to pop back into place and bandage up for a couple of weeks,” says Como Zoo hoofstock keeper Aaron Nelson. “She just wasn’t able to get out of the way in time, and may have even spread her wings to make herself look bigger, which was probably not the right move for her to make in that situation.”

Fortunately, Mutambi has made a full recovery, as Como visitors will see this summer. Together with her breeding partner Houdini, the pair have begun demonstrating a few of the moves in the elaborate mating dance this ancient and endangered crane species is known for. 

“They’re a visually striking animal to look at, but they’re also very charismatic, especially this time of year,” says Nelson. “Not only do they do these really intricate courtship dances with each other, they’re also accompanied by these kind of booming and rhythmic-sounding vocalizations that are very unique.”

Como Zoo’s gray crowned cranes were selected as a breeding pair for the Species Survival Plan, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums program designed to ensure the survival of selected species in zoos that are endangered or threatened in the wild. While the young pair have yet to show signs of breeding behavior, keepers are encouraged by their mutual interest in each other. 

“Like most crane species, gray crowned cranes are monogamous and they will bond with one mate for pretty much their entire life,” says Nelson. “The courtship dancing is a really good sign, because it means they’re pair bonded at the very least. The fact that they are vocalizing at each other and doing these dances is a really good sign that they’re at least interested in each other.” 

With support from Como Friends, horticulturists at the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory are designing a more sustainable gardening plan for Como’s exterior spaces

Making Como’s extensive exterior gardens look good is hard work, but Marjorie McNeely Conservatory horticulturist Marie Day gets lots of encouragement to keep at it. 

“One of my favorite things about this job is just how much positive feedback you get from the public,” she says. “I can be out there, working in a garden, maybe even feeling stressed out that something isn’t looking the way I want it to, and then I’ll have 10 people walk by telling me how beautiful it is. I don’t think that’s something most people get to experience in their jobs, and it really lifts you up and makes you feel you’re doing something that matters.”

Day’s latest horticultural project is Gates Ajar, the traditional mosaiculture feature Como gardeners have created for more than a century. Located across Lexington Parkway near Como Lake, this year’s design features Minnesota’s new state flag and seal rendered in a mix of colorful alternanthera and echeveria, a fast-growing succulent. Installing this year’s display of more than 5,000 annuals and 300 bedding plants required more than 100 gardener hours, while maintaining it typically requires 45 minutes or more of watering every day. “It’s a big project and an important tradition,” says Day. “Every year, our goal is to make it a little more creative, and a little more surprising.”

Another project visitors may notice this season is a shift toward more perennials and native plants in garden beds around Como’s campus, as horticulturists replace more traditional tropical annuals. For instance, the Minnesota Garden that greets visitors at Como’s front door will be even more Minnesotan this season with the phased planting of a host of new native plants like rattlesnake master, prairie dropseed, false indigo and prairie alumroot.  

“There are two big reasons for making this shift,” says Day. “One is that we just have a really huge amount of garden space to take care of, and having those perennials established means that we’ll  have more time to bring a higher standard of care to all of our exterior gardens.

“The other reason is, as we think about climate change, having areas that are filled with nothing but tropical plants that need a lot of tending is just not sustainable,” she says. 

“Perennials are more drought tolerant, more tolerant to heat, and are also really good for pollinators.”  

Feeling the pinch on your family budget this summer? Then come to Como Park Zoo & Conservatory, where you can spend the perfect summer day, all without spending a penny. With free public programs every day, and accessible events throughout the season, Como is the family destination where fun is always free. Check out some of our insider tips for making the most of your next visit.

Como Zoo keeper Caitlin Allessi recently noticed that Mumford the lion seemed to be suffering from an increasing number of nosebleeds. “While he’s always had occasional problems with that, we noticed that they were getting more intense over time, and we wanted to investigate to rule out any big concerns about his health,” she says.

Getting a nearly 400-pound cat to the doctor is not easy, but the process has been made a little more convenient at Como Zoo over the last year thanks to the new on-site veterinary team. Supported in part by your contributions to Como Friends, this new approach to animal care helps to minimize stress for animals by eliminating the need to travel to the vet. It also allows veterinarians and keepers to collaborate more closely, managing multiple procedures to make the most of the time animals may have to be under anesthesia. 

“Knowing that we would be scoping his nose, we realized it would also be a great time to coordinate with the veterinary dentist, which is a big undertaking with a lion,” says large cat keeper Hans Jorgensen. “The veterinary dental team told us that with a house cat, it usually takes 10 x-ray plates to view the cat’s whole mouth, but with Mumford, it took 50!” 

Though Mumford has been a resident of Como Zoo since 2019, this was the first time keepers were able to do a full physical exam of the 8-year-old male, taking blood samples, a urine sample and radiographs can give veterinarians a more thorough understanding of the lion’s overall health. During the brief procedure, veterinarians got to the root of the nosebleed problem—a cluster of vascular tissue near the tip of his right nostril that gets irritated, particularly when he bumps it against the mesh of the exhibit. 

“He has had a few more nosebleeds since this procedure, so for right now, we’ll just keep monitoring him,” says Allessi. “It’s a big deal to anesthetize a lion, so if we don’t have to do it, we don’t want to. But it’s so much more convenient to have veterinarians come to us—it’s been a nice improvement for the animals.”

Mumford’s paw print is a featured auction item at this year’s Sunset Affair: Our Wild World Silent Auction!

Visitors to the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory’s historic Palm Dome may notice something different this season—a lot more sunlight.

The brighter feel of the room is the result of an extensive pruning project to remove several older palms that had grown so tall they were crowding into the glass cupola. Unlike species that can be trimmed to grow outward, “the growing point of a palm is at the top of the plant, so the pressure of pushing into the glass would eventually kill the plant,” explains Karen Kleber Diggs, horticultural supervisor. 

The strength of these tropical palms can also put the Conservatory’s historic dome at risk. 

“A couple of years ago, we had one of the palms on the side actually grow up with a very stiff frond that punched its way into the grout” between the cupola’s glass panes, she says. “These are very powerful plants.”

Typically, the  Marjorie McNeely Conservatory works with the city’s forestry department to provide pruning help, but with the spread of emerald ash borer, trimming Como’s tropical trees wasn’t possible this year. That’s where Como Friends stepped in, providing $70,000 in grant funding to help Como’s campus move ahead with tree maintenance in the Palm Dome, the North Garden and a few other locations around campus.

“Grants like this are one of the important ways that Como Friends helps the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory achieve its mission,” says Jackie Sticha, president of Como Friends. “If city funding or park resources are pulled in different directions, community support helps to ensure that Como can move ahead on urgent or emerging maintenance issues.”

New palms—also provided with funding from Como Friends—will take their place as part of a phased succession plan visitors will see in the coming months. While gardeners are always sorry to see 20-year-old palms go away, the extra space has allowed horticulturist Alejandro Balderas to redesign the understory of the palm room. “He’s been utilizing a lot of our bromeliad and orchid collection to create these colorful accent points he calls vignettes that bring a new focal point to the ground cover space,” says Kleber Diggs. “He’s seeing things in that room with fresh eyes, which is something our visitors may notice this season, too.”

Como’s education programs are back in full force, with a growing emphasis on discoveries that foster new connections with nature.

“What do you think this plant would taste like?” a second grader from St. Paul’s Capitol Hill Magnet School wonders aloud.

“Yucky,” says her classmate, as she contemplates a table full of mint, cacao and other plant specimens from the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory.

“But maybe not,” says a third student, leaning in for a sniff. “This one kind of smells nice…”

Using all five senses to explore the world of plants is the power of Plant Detectives, a popular school partnership that brings second graders from the St. Paul public schools to Como with free tuition provided by Como Friends. In a classroom in Como’s Visitor Center, small teams of students work their way from station to station, smelling, touching and observing all they can about plants, and comparing their notes in a high-energy setting guided by Como’s education specialists.

During the pandemic, when school programs like this were put on pause, virtual programs like Como Connections helped classrooms around the state learn about conservation through fun and interactive videos. But as education coordinator Tim Buer says, there’s nothing like being back in person again for getting kids fired up about learning. “It’s been great to re-establish the connection that we’ve had with schools for so many years,” he says. “We don’t even have any space left in this program, it’s been so popular with teachers.”

Como field trips are a familiar tradition for many schools, but this year, the conservation curriculum is taking a new shape thanks to a new education strategic plan supported by Como Friends.  

“As our school partners were coming out of COVID, we took the opportunity to think really intentionally about all of our education programs, making sure that they’re all aligned with our conservation mission,” says Bekah Hanes, Como’s education and conservation curator.

Through Como’s growing partnership with Advancing Conservation Through Empathy (ACE) for Wildlife, a nationwide learning network, Como’s education programs have also been updated to reflect the growing body of research that shows that fostering empathy with animals and plants is a powerful tool in building life-long conservation behaviors.

Como visitors will notice the new conservation-focused vibe all across campus, from the full roster of summer camp programs relaunching this summer, to the new field trip enrichment stations you’ll see near the Visitor Center during the busy spring months. “It’s wonderful to hear the noise and energy of kids being in classroom spaces that we haven’t used for awhile,” says Hanes. “Seeing those school buses come back, and knowing the next field trip is on its way here brings us all a lot of joy.”

The season’s best Como traditions are back

One of the beauties of Como Park Zoo & Conservatory is finding something to delight every time you drop in. But with these inside tips about Como’s value-added programs, you’ll find even more to love.

Como Friends marks a major fundraising milestone thanks to community support from people like you

Created by visionaries and volunteers more than a century ago, Como Park Zoo & Conservatory has always relied on community support to keep this public treasure growing. Since 2000, that’s also been the mission of Como Friends, the nonprofit fundraising partner behind major improvements like Como Harbor and Polar Bear Odyssey, and countless behind-the-scenes projects that help Como’s professionals do more for the animals and plants in their care. 

Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of people like you, Como Friends has just reached an important milestone, securing more than $50 million in private donations to preserve Como’s historic campus, improve visitor amenities, update animal habitats and gardens, and expand education programs—all while preserving the free admission that welcomes nearly 1.8 million visitors each year.

“When Como Friends started 23 years ago, it would have been hard to fathom that a little start-up organization could someday raise more than $50 million,” says Jackie Sticha, who has served as the nonprofit’s president since its founding. “But we had a big vision for what was possible at Como Park Zoo & Conservatory, and were able to engage some incredible community leaders who helped us to kick off the organization, and to grow our work year after year.”

“Como’s transformation over the last 20 years is really rooted in this great public/private partnership,” says Michelle Furrer, Como Park Zoo & Conservatory’s director and campus manager. “Having Como Friends with us at the table at the start of every project has been a real benefit when it comes to the design process and value engineering of our capital improvements. They can see where we’re going to have challenges, and it helps them to be a better advocate for us as they’re seeking additional funding from the community. There’s so much that Como Friends makes possible year to year, from small projects, to major repairs, to behind-the-scenes operational support. Como just wouldn’t be where it is today without their support.” 

Originally founded through the merger of several different fundraising and nonprofit groups, Como Friends has grown every year since its founding, expanding fundraising strategy and growing the retail operation at Garden Safari Gifts to keep pace with Como’s needs. From an initial contribution of $309,740 in 2000, Como Friends’ support has increased more than five-fold, with an average annual contribution of nearly $1.7 million each year—far more in years during capital campaigns the nonprofit has led. This commitment to Como’s daily operations has been critical to preserving the open-door policy at Como Park Zoo & Conservatory, one of the last major metro area zoos and botanical gardens that’s always free to visitors. 

“Through three critical capital campaigns, with strong communications and stewardship, and really fun events like Sunset Affair, we’ve been able to continuously expand the community of people who care about Como by showing them the impact of their gifts,” says Sticha. “While we’re proud of achieving our mission as a nonprofit, we’re also incredibly grateful to the members, sponsors, individuals, businesses, and corporate and foundation donors that have helped us succeed through their generosity, commitment and affection for this place. We want this community to understand that every size donation does make a difference at Como, and reaching this milestone is proof of the great things we can do when we come together.”

For the show, Philander and horticulturists Bo Akinkuotu and Katie Horvath are introducing plant material that reflects Minnesota’s boreal forests and prairies. Visitors will notice birch logs and larger trees, milkweed, catchflies and black-eyed Susans, black pansies, columbine, snap dragons and delphinium, and even mini bogs that mimic the look of Minnesota’s wetlands. The show will also feature skunk cabbage provided by the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden, and the showy lady’s slipper orchid, a recent gift from the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. 

Thanks to your contributions to Como Friends, all of the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory’s rotating flower shows are free to the public. The Spring Flower Show runs daily from March 22 to April 28. 

As a Conservation Champion, Como Zoo primate keeper Em Brunmeier traveled to Peru to learn more about spider monkeys in the wild

Behind the scenes in Como Zoo’s Primate Building, Brunmeier has become a big fan of the four spider monkeys in her care—Gomez, Katie, Ellie, and Jazz—and she applied to learn more about their cousins in the wild through Conservation Champions, the Como Friends micro-grant program that encourages Como’s keepers and horticulturists to take part in conservation efforts in the field. After researching conservation projects around South America, she decided that the Kawsay Biological Station in Puerto Maldonado, Madre de Dios, Peru was the place to be. 

“What was really special about this location was that the team there had been able to bring back and restore a spider monkey population that had been locally extinct, and that was something that I was really excited to be part of, and to see how they were managing that,” she says. “They also work with other scientists in the area, like botanists and PhD students from abroad to research other parts of the ecosystem and how they all correlate with spider monkeys. I really wanted the chance to learn more about how all of these factors come together.” 

As part of the project, Brunmeier joined a team of researchers tracking spider monkeys that had been previously released into the Tambopata National Reserve to study the seasonal variation of their behavior. “With no GPS collars or other tracking devices, it was quite a task,” she says. “We had no guarantee we would find them and had to go pretty far into the Amazon rainforest.” But once the spider monkeys were located, Brunmeier got the chance to hear the full chorus of their vocalizations. “For spider monkeys in the wild, their home range is nearly 700 acres, and they often split up their group and then reunite at night to sleep together,” she says. “To do all of that requires quite a lot of logistics, so they’ve come up with quite a lot of vocalizations. They have little chirping sounds that they make when they’re close to each other, and really loud, bellowing calls that they use to try and find each other over long distances. It was so fun listening to them—they  have lots of things to say.” 

During her two and a half weeks in the field, Brunmeier also got the chance to care for young spider monkeys in a rehabilitation facility. “That’s where my personal expertise came in handy, because hands-on care of the animals is what I do every day,” she says. “I was also able to talk with the team about how we do primate enrichment at AZA [Association of Zoos and Aquariums] institutions in the U.S., which is something I’m passionate about.”