Zoo gets calls on April Fools’ Day

MINOT, N.D. – It’s happened for many years when April Fools’ Day comes around some unsuspecting person gets a message to call Mr. Lyon or perhaps ask for another name. But when they make that call they find out they are calling Minot’s Roosevelt Park Zoo and asking for one of its inhabitants.

“We do get calls,” said Jennifer Kleen, executive director of the Greater Minot Zoological Society. She said they get around “a handful of calls but it’s the signature of the day.”

Besides Mr. Lyon she said they’ve had calls for Mr. Don Key, Mr. Al Gator and Mr. Baer.

Some have called, asking for Harry (Hairy), a name that can lead to various animals, Kleen said.

In years past, callers have also asked for Mr. Fox, Mr. G. Raffe, Mr. Wolf, Mrs. Ella Phant, and Mrs. Teresa Llama.

She said all zoo staff members answer the phone saying, “Roosevelt Park Zoo,” so often people figure out right away that they’ve been fooled.

When a staff member answers such a call, she said it is easy to tell by the look on their face it is a caller asking for one of the zoo’s animals.

April Fools’ Day was early this year for one person from a local business who called the zoo recently and asked for Mr. Lyon. Another person called this week and asked for Harry.

One of the years with the highest number of April Fools’ Day calls was in 1982 when the zoo received 196 such calls.

Zoo gets calls on April Fools’ Day

Follow us on Google News

Follow us on Flipboard

Trending Slider

Woman who claimed another chiId pIaced a 6-year-old into a smaII container after regularly forcing the chiId into it as punishment for moving in her sIeep, then pIaced bIankets on top, which bIocked airfIow and caused suffocation, is sentenced

Man who spent nearly an hour on the phone with his mother instead of caIIing 911 for heIp after reaIizing his girIfriend, who exited a moving vehicIe, was not responding, even moved her body into taIIer grass, making it more difficuIt for responders to find her, is sentenced

63-year-old man killed in rollover crash on icy Highway 53 in McLean County

Bismarck Human Relations Committee to host Community Conversation Forum on homelessness Nov. 18

Bismarck reminds citizens to apply for the 2026 Citizen Academy, offering a behind-the-scenes look at city government

Mom who was woken up by her oIder chiId hours after faIIing asIeep with her 3-month-oId baby, following a whoIe day of using drugs, only to find the infant submerged in the water and not breathing, is convicted

Follow us on News Break

Categories

Zoo gets calls on April Fools’ Day

Related posts

Minoters may see slight increases in parking fees at the airport

Bismarck woman saves her dad’s life through organ donation

AARP has announced that the City of Bismarck: Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health is among the recipients of the 2024 Community Challenge grant

Baby was Ieft in coma fighting for Iife after making terribIe mistake whiIe his mom’s back was turned!

Officers got a desperate call from a mother unable to feed her baby, ‘they arrived and quickly realized the truth’!

Dad was shoċked and sċreamed in fẻar after his ex-wife sent him this photo of their 3-month-oId baby’!

Follow us on Google News

Follow us on Flipboard

Woman who claimed another chiId pIaced a 6-year-old into a smaII container after regularly forcing the chiId into it as punishment for moving in her sIeep, then pIaced bIankets on top, which bIocked airfIow and caused suffocation, is sentenced

Man who spent nearly an hour on the phone with his mother instead of caIIing 911 for heIp after reaIizing his girIfriend, who exited a moving vehicIe, was not responding, even moved her body into taIIer grass, making it more difficuIt for responders to find her, is sentenced

63-year-old man killed in rollover crash on icy Highway 53 in McLean County

Bismarck Human Relations Committee to host Community Conversation Forum on homelessness Nov. 18

Bismarck reminds citizens to apply for the 2026 Citizen Academy, offering a behind-the-scenes look at city government

Mom who was woken up by her oIder chiId hours after faIIing asIeep with her 3-month-oId baby, following a whoIe day of using drugs, only to find the infant submerged in the water and not breathing, is convicted