Past Exhibits
One of the first and perhaps most popular exhibits at the zoo was the beluga whale exhibit. The exhibit was home to two Belugas, a male by the name of Anookalik (nicknamed "Big Mouth"), and a female by the name of Anana (nicknamed "Little Girl"). In later years, however, a bone infection found within "Big Mouth's" jawbone (resulting from a collision with one of the tank fixtures), forced the immediate transfer of both whales to SeaWorld San Diego in the hopes of obtaining a more sophisticated means of veterinary treatment. In April 1987, a crowd of nearly 30,000 people filled the gates of the Minnesota Zoo to bid their final farewells to the two whales, who were transferred out of the zoo shortly thereafter. Little Girl died of heart failure on June 13, 1989 at the age of fourteen. Big Mouth, whose bone infection eventually proved to be fatal, was euthanized on July 16, 1990. He was 17 years old.
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Famous quotes containing the word exhibits:
“After all the field of battle possesses many advantages over the drawing-room. There at least is no room for pretension or excessive ceremony, no shaking of hands or rubbing of noses, which make one doubt your sincerity, but hearty as well as hard hand-play. It at least exhibits one of the faces of humanity, the former only a mask.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It exhibits the effort of an essentially prosaic mind to lift itself, by a prolonged muscular strain, into poetry.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)