ND ‘flooding’ penguins now at Minnesota Zoo

APPLE VALLEY, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Zoo is welcoming 11 African penguins who had to move from a flooded-out North Dakota zoo.

The penguins traveled from the Roosevelt Park Zoo in Minot, N.D., to the Como Zoo in St. Paul after their home base was covered by floodwaters this summer.

Now the penguins will make their new home inside the Minnesota Zoo’s new “3M Penguins of the African Coast” exhibit in Apple Valley.

The transplanted penguins will join the Minnesota Zoo’s resident penguins in a replica of their wild habitat on South Africa’s Boulders Beach. The exhibit features 1,500 feet of space, a 7-foot-deep pool and built-in nesting areas.

Visitors can see the penguins through 40 feet of viewing — above and below water.

African penguins are endangered.