Animal Sponsorship

Animal Sponsorships are a great way to celebrate the nature-loving friends and family in your life! Your contribution is used to help fund the care of all the amazing animals at the Minnesota Zoo. You're also helping support wildlife conservation both in Minnesota and around the world.

The available featured animals below highlight the diversity of wildlife you can find throughout the Zoo. Animal Sponsorship packages vary by animal, but all typically include:

• A personalized animal sponsorship certificate
• A commemorative item for that animal (visit the animal pages to learn more for that animal)
• The most recent donor newsletter

Note: Animal Sponsorship packages are mailed within 10 business days after the gift is received.

Spotlight Animal - Brown Bear!

Brown bears, also called grizzly bears, range over large areas throughout northern Asia, Europe, and North America. They are omnivores, eating whatever they can find in season. Most of their diet is plant-based, but they will also eat fish, insects, and mammals. They may grow to be 1,300 pounds and 10 feet tall!

Brown bear range has decreased worldwide. Your animal sponsorship helps the Minnesota Zoo Foundation support the Minnesota Zoo’s efforts to make a difference for wildlife here and around the world.

Your sponsorship package will be mailed within 10 business days and will include:
• A 5x7 print of a painting created by a Minnesota Zoo brown bear
• A personalized brown bear animal sponsorship certificate
• A QR code and URL that provides you with exclusive access to the Brown Bear Animal Sponsorship webpage that includes:
   - Video of the brown bear creating the art print
   - Brown bear quiz
   - Brown bear fun facts, photos, conservation info, and more

Featured Sponsorship Options

Brown bears have populations in Alaska, Canada, and Russia but can be found in smaller populations elsewhere. They eat primarily vegetation but will eat salmon and trout and even young moose and deer when available! See the three brown bears at the Minnesota Zoo on Russia’s Grizzly Coast.

Waddle you do at the Zoo? Visit the African penguins of course! African penguins breed in nesting colonies on the southwest coast of Africa, usually producing one or two eggs in a burrow. The penguins mate for life, returning to the same partner and nesting colony year after year.

Cape porcupines are the largest species of porcupine and are found in Africa. To fend off predators like lions, hyenas, and leopards, Cape porcupines will stick their sharp quills up to appear larger. See these rodents on the Tropics Trail and in the Wings and Things! show at the Zoo.

What’s hanging? Sloths at the Minnesota Zoo! On the Tropics Trail, you can see the nocturnal Linnaeus’s two-toed sloths in their dark exhibit. Watch them move slooowly and hang from their strong arms. Sloths survive on little food and a meal can spend up to a month in their stomach!

See the world’s largest lizards right here in Minnesota on the Tropics Trail. Komodo monitors, commonly known as Komodo dragons, are found on three small Indonesian islands where the climate is hot and dry. They prey on boar, water buffalo, and deer and inflict a venomous bite.

Have a specific species in mind? You are welcome to sponsor any of the animals at the Minnesota Zoo (explore them all here). No matter what you choose, you'll support the Zoo! Your sponsorship will include a personalized certificate and a surprise eco-friendly Minnesota Zoo Cubles.

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