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Animals
Sam Stroozas

This Valentine’s Day, name a bug at the Minnesota Zoo after someone who bugs you

A hedgehog eats a bug
Gus, a hedgehog at the Minnesota Zoo, eats a bug.
Courtesy photo

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Need a last-minute Valentine’s Day gift for a friend or a foe? The Minnesota Zoo Foundation has you covered. You can make a $15 donation to the zoo and in return get to name a bug that will be fed to an animal.

It is the first time in about a decade the zoo has done a campaign of this sort. Naming bugs, feces or other parts of everyday zoo life after someone you love or hate is a popular fundraising tool used across the country. The Fort Worth Zoo has let people name a pound of animal poop, while the San Antonio Zoo and Brookfield Zoo Chicago offered naming rights for cockroaches. 

Sarah Lennander, the senior marketing communications manager with the Minnesota Zoo Foundation, said on Tuesday donations were already triple the amount of the last campaign, with donations coming from 49 states, Washington, D.C., and 15 countries. 

“We wanted a playful approach. That’s why we used the word bugs,” Lennander said. “Name a bug after someone who bugs you — we wanted to offer people the opportunity to kind of poke fun at one another, but keep it lighthearted and fun.” 

While Lennander said you are encouraged to name the bug after anyone in your life, she said the vast majority of this year’s donations have been for loved ones, like parents naming bugs after their kids who “bug them” or women buying their friends a bug and naming it after their friend’s ex-partner. 

With each donation, the zoo will send an e-card with your personalized message to the recipient.

Rest assured: Lennander said if you choose to name the bug after an ex-partner, they won’t ever know — unless you want them to, of course. If that is the case, the zoo is not responsible for any messiness that arises. 

“You can name the bug after your friend's ex, but then you can send that notification email to your friend so that they won't ever see it, but your friend will hopefully get a giggle out of it,” Lennander explained.

She is sure they will do the fundraiser again next year, and even explore ways to upgrade the gifts. This year, for example, a husband called asking if he could name a piece of meat that would be fed to a komodo dragon, his wife’s favorite animal.

“It has been more popular than we ever imagined,” Lennander said. “It’s been a very fun couple of weeks.” 

The bugs, which include mostly crickets and mealworms, will feed are variety of animals at the zoo including a tamandua (a type of anteater), golden lion tamarins, panther chameleons, poison-dart frogs, turtles, opossums and hedgehogs. 

Donations must be made before the end of Friday, Feb. 14.