Therapy pets and giraffe poop: Top 16 animal stories from MPR News in 2023
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Updated Dec. 26, 7:21 a.m. | Posted Dec. 24, 8 a.m.
Count down the days until 2024 with the animals that never really left our hearts this year. Take a paws with us as we reminisce.
Let’s start off by thinking back to not this year, but 2018 — when a certain four-legged character made quite the scene at MPR.
It’s been half a decade since.
16) Happy 5th anniversary, MPR raccoon!
Where were you the day a mottled brown raccoon inspired the internet when she climbed the 25 stories of UBS Tower in downtown St. Paul?
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Five years ago, the #MPRraccoon became a viral sensation as people gathered to watch the critter climb the building over nearly 24 hours.
The drama began June 11, 2018 when the animal appeared in the wall of the Town Square building, on an outside wall of what was once the Donaldson’s department store at Seventh and Cedar streets.
This year, more raccoons began acting strangely in Burnsville.
15) Dog helps family escape fire at Duluth home
Good job, Fido! Er, Dudley: A yellow lab was kenneled in the garage, and his barking woke up a 12-year-old girl sleeping in the adjacent house.
She saw the fire out her window and in turn woke the rest of the family of four, and everyone got out of the house without injury.
Authorities said her father rescued Dudley while firefighters rushed to the scene of the fire; the garage was nearly fully engulfed in flames when crews arrived.
14) Zoo hellos … and goodbyes
The Minnesota Zoo began providing around-the-clock care in October for two orphaned sea otter pups that recently arrived from Alaska. The cuteness is overwhelming — still.
The female pups, named Denali and Nuka, were found just days apart in September and initially brought to the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, Alaska.
Then came the third calf born to Como Zoo’s 7-year-old Zinnia. Look at the tuft! The new baby joined a giraffe herd at Como that also includes Clover, a female, and Skeeter, a male.
This spring, 4-year-old California cougar Jasper had his eyes surgically removed at Como Zoo, the latest effort to deal with the 120-pound cat’s progressive retinal atrophy.
Jasper’s eyes had been getting progressively more clouded in recent years and exams indicated there were serious problems in the back of his eyes as well, said Jill Erzar, a senior zookeeper at Como.
And, we would be remiss to not pay tribute to Berlin, the late 33-year-old polar bear that survived flash flooding at the Duluth Zoo. Rest in peace, buddy.
13) Meet Munchkin, Mayo’s new therapy miniature horse
Someone suggest a better name. You can’t! Munchkin stands just over two feet tall with a long snowy mane and, perhaps appropriately, a white coat.
Spot him in his tiny boots (to prevent him from slipping on the hospital’s tile floors) and his official Mayo employee badge (just in case you had any question about this small guy’s ID).
12) Customs agents seize box of giraffe poop at Minneapolis airport
OK, this is less about the animal and more about what the animal left behind — literally.
An unidentified Iowa woman declared the droppings when passing through customs on a return trip from an African safari. It caught agents by surprise.
The woman told an officer that she planned to use the giraffe droppings in a necklace.
“She just saw something that would be an interesting addition to her hobby. Unfortunately, it’s those innocuous importations that sometimes can have the biggest effect.”
In case you wanted another glimpse:
11) Minnesota group uses artificial intelligence to aid monarch butterflies
Talk about cool. St. Paul-based Monarch Joint Venture has a faster, more accurate method for measuring the reach and quality of pollinator habitat on the landscape.
An artificial intelligence program called POLLi can count milkweed plants in images collected by drones. Milkweed is the host plant for monarch butterflies and critical for their survival.
Similar technology is widely used in agriculture to check crop quality and monitor for disease and for other species, like woodpeckers.
10) Minnesota’s First Feline goes missing
Gov. Tim Walz’s orange tabby cat, Afton, went missing on Aug. 26 from his Eastcliff residence in St. Paul.
Seven-year-old Afton Walz is a former stray and was adopted from the Blue Earth Nicollet County Humane Society in Mankato.
When he lived at the governor’s Summit Avenue residence he was known for venturing away for the afternoon, often crashing nearby weddings as a surprise guest.
Once the family moved to Eastcliff, Walz decided to put an Apple AirTag on Afton. It worked; he was found in July enjoying a morning at the neighbor’s house, according to Axios Twin Cities.
But things were different this time: Afton had removed his AirTag. We hope he is thriving.
Then, last week, Gov. Tim Walz announced in a social media post that his family adopted an orange and white cat named Honey.
Walz said her current favorite napping spots includes under the Christmas tree and on top of a computer keyboard.
9) Cougar caught on camera in Minneapolis, then killed by car
A home surveillance camera picked up an unexpected passerby in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis in early December: a cougar striding calmly down the alley.
The video was shared widely on social media, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources confirmed what everyone was speculating.
Then, the Minnesota State Patrol said a cougar was struck by a vehicle driving west on Interstate 394 near Theodore Wirth Parkway around 2:15 a.m. Authorities reported the cougar died immediately in the crash. The driver was not injured.
The cougar will live on in a new park educational display. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board announced that it’s partnering with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and community members to preserve and display the animal.
8) Meet the woman who discovered an invasive insect in Minnesota
Citizen scientist Krista Menzel describes herself as a “crazy bug lady.” She’s the woman who discovered an invasive insect’s presence in Minnesota this summer: the Asiatic garden beetle.
With degrees in biology and art, and as the owner of a huge garden in St. Paul, she was set up for success in spotting different species. It began as a nerdy summer side project when Menzel began seeing endangered Rusty Patched Bumble Bees in her yard.
“Once you start gardening, you start looking at the beautiful flowers and things like that. And then you start taking pictures of them. And then you start looking at who’s on the flowers, and then you start taking pictures of them. And it all just kind of spirals after a while.”
7) Oh, deer! Surprise customer breaks into Moorhead butcher shop
A year into her new business, Melissa Evans finally felt like things were falling into place after a busy season.
She was packaging burger meat on a Saturday in her north Moorhead, Minn., shop, called She Said, when a booming crash came from the sales floor.
Evans couldn’t believe her eyes: A deer had ran straight through the glass door.
You read that right: A white-tailed deer.
6) When Minneapolis shelter dogs need exercise, these volunteers come running
“Jude, come here. Can you sit?”
Nope! She can’t, not at this particular moment.
Jude — a broad-chested, muscle-bound pit bull mix — is in for a treat, and she and her furiously wagging tail know it.
She’s one of the dogs at Minneapolis Animal Care and Control that are part of a new program that lets trained volunteers leash up a shelter dog and literally run away — even if only for a few minutes — from the sometimes heart-rending wait for a forever home.
The shelter’s running club gets all of its participants — whether they have two legs or four — out for a little fresh air.
5) Ponemah pet clinic part of campaign for more Indigenous veterinarians
In the gymnasium of the Ponemah Elementary School, veterinarian Raye Taylor is hard at work. She's visiting with a feline patient through the screen door of a green pop-up tent. Because of cats’ nature the clinicians found it easier to work with these patients if the cats are by themselves.
But there’s more than just cat-care going on here. This is the first pet clinic for the organization Natives in Vet Med.
Native Americans make up only about 1 percent of U.S. veterinarians.
4) Court dog Nova helps ease victims' trauma
It’s become a familiar sight for staff and visitors in the Stearns County Attorney's Office: a small golden retriever wearing a blue vest, padding along the hallways.
Nova, a 6-year-old trained facility dog, recently made history when she accompanied a young victim of sexual abuse as she testified on the witness stand, the first time in Minnesota.
Since the trial, Nova has been getting a lot of media attention for her calming presence and skill at providing reassuring support to victims.
3) Research reveals more secrets of where wolves hunt in northern Minnesota and their impact on forests
One study builds on past research that demonstrated how wolves living in and around Voyageurs National Park eat large numbers of beaver, and by doing so can significantly shape the ecosystem by influencing the creation of wetlands.
The new findings estimate that wolves, by ambushing beavers when they stray far from water in search of trees to eat, can also have an impact on the land, by altering the trajectory of nearly three percent of the boreal forest in the Voyageurs area.
2) Minnesota DNR FalconCam welcomes 2 new chicks
Two of the four eggs featured in the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ FalconCam hatched this spring.
The live-camera feed on the 26th floor of the Town Square Tower in downtown St. Paul tracked the progress of the falcon chicks.
Meanwhile, there was a sad end to the DNR's EagleCam nest — it fell from its perch due to heavy snow on April 2, and that chick did not survive.
But here’s a better bird story to round it all out …
1) Traffic-spotter hawk caught on MnDOT highway camera
A wide-eyed, red-tailed hawk was caught by a Minnesota Department of Transportation traffic camera — and it looked almost as shocked to see the camera as we were to see it.
Honorable mention: A conversation about how animals, these and our own, open our hearts
For many people, pets are a part of the family. Sometimes they drive us wild, but overall, they can fill a house with joy. They give comfort and a cuddle when we’re feeling down and don't judge us for anything.
Dr. Jody Lulich is a veterinarian and professor of internal medicine at the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine. He joined MPR News with Angela Davis to chat about our relationships with animals.
Did we miss an animal-related story you loved reading in 2023? Let us know at tell@mpr.org or tag us on social media!