Giraffes remember where crackers come from

APPLE VALLEY, Minn., May 22 (UPI) -- Two giraffes, returning to the Minnesota Zoo for the first time in three years, remembered where they used to get fed by visitors, zoo staffers say.

Sweta and Zawadi were released last week into the Africa! Exhibit, a summer attraction first put together in 2006, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported. The half-brothers went straight to the platform that serves as a feeding station.

"There's no doubt in my mind that they remembered this exhibit," Tony Fisher, the collections manager, said.

The exhibit, which opens to the public Saturday, is an attempt to replicate an African savanna, complete with zebra, gemsbok and other herbivores. The two 15-foot-tall giraffes are a major lure for the public.

Visitors can pay $5 for two crackers to feed the giraffes, giving them a close look at their large strong tongues, which can strip tough leaves from trees.

Fisher said that in 2006 the giraffes took about two weeks to realize there was food available in the center of the exhibit.

The giraffes came from a herd in Colorado Springs, Colo., but the zoo bought them after the 2006 exhibit because they had trouble getting along with their former mates after a summer away. They now spend most of the year at the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison, Wis., which has year-round giraffe housing.