In the midst of a Midwest summer, the crowds at the Saint Louis Zoo can begin to resemble Spain’s running of the bulls—only with strollers. But what of the zoo in winter? The crowds thin out, the giraffes head for shelter, and the grizzly bears get more grizzly.
Some animals, unlike us, are built for winter, explains Jack Grisham, the zoo’s vice president of animal collections. “The big cats are still outside, weather permitting,” he says. “The snow leopards love it. The grizzlies have a warm spot and some hay and they love to make a mess, and the spectacled and sloth bears will be outside. The red pandas love winter, too; they’re from the mountain ranges of Nepal and China.”
Perhaps the biggest stars, though, are those football-shaped clowns of the animal kingdom, the penguins. “If the temperature is below 50 degrees,” says Grisham, “on Sundays through February, the penguins leave the Penguin & Puffin Coast and go for a parade. They walk single-file out the exit, in front of the bear exhibits, and back. There is nothing more amazing than seeing a child 3 or 4 years old with a penguin the same height as them, walking right up to them.”
