MN Zoo's dolphins find new homes

MN Zoo's Allie
The Minnesota Zoo's dolphin, Allie, seen here at the back right, has found a new home with six other dolphins at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago.
Photo courtesy Brookfield Zoo

The Minnesota Zoo's two resident dolphins have found new homes.

Allie, a 25-year-old female, is now with six other dolphins at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. Semo, a 48-year-old male, has been relocated to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, north of Oakland.

Tony Fisher, the zoo's animal collections manager, said it was a labor-intensive process to lift the dolphins out of the water in slings.

"Get them out of the pools, and into the crates, and then they're loaded into a truck which actually went to the airport, and got loaded on an airplane, and from there, taken to their two different destinations," Fisher explained. "Back on a truck and then out to their pool. So a lot of people to get them to the plane, and then there were also people that went along with them."

Fisher said the transfers went smoothly, and that the dolphins seemed to adapt quickly to their new homes and were reported to be eating.

The Minnesota Zoo in Apply Valley has now permanently closed its dolphin exhibit, which needed repairs, and had suffered a series of dolphin deaths.

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