Lake Superior Zoo bears get special ice cream ahead of festival

Banks and Tundra, the Lake Superior Zoo’s Alaskan brown bear brothers, got a summertime treat on June 24 as staff served them “special bear ice cream” ahead of the zoo’s next big family draw. The moment doubled as animal enrichment and as a preview for Tundra’s Summer Cooldown, the after-hours tasting event set for Saturday, July 18.

Brittany Lind, the zoo’s marketing manager, framed the frozen snack as part of the zoo’s public-facing push into peak summer. The bears were not just getting a treat; they were helping tell the story of what the zoo plans to offer families looking for local entertainment, education and a cool place to spend part of the season.

The July 18 event will feature 30-plus flavors from seven Upper Midwest creameries, including vendors from the Twin Cities, Grand Rapids, St. Cloud and Wisconsin. Lake Superior Zoo says admission includes unlimited sample scoops, access to the zoo and a vote for a favorite flavor, a setup that turns a single evening into both a tasting event and a built-in fundraiser for the Duluth institution.

That promotional strategy matters in a city where the zoo competes for summer leisure dollars against parks, festivals and other family outings. Lake Superior Zoo describes itself as the only zoo in Northeastern Minnesota and Northwestern Wisconsin, the 19th oldest zoo in the United States, and home to more than 300 animals across about 140 species. For a regional attraction in Duluth, those details are part of the draw, but so is the sense that something is always happening there.

The bears have also long served as ambassadors for that work. The zoo’s materials identify Tundra and Banks as brown bear brothers and note that they have been used in educational programming, including keeper tours and live virtual animal-training sessions. A 2020 zoo post said the brothers arrived young and pointed out that bears in human care do not face the same seasonal food shortages as wild bears, a reminder that the ice cream moment sits inside routine animal-care and enrichment practices rather than a one-off stunt.

Lake Superior Zoo says Tundra’s Summer Cooldown is part of a broader effort to combine protection, conservation, education and fun experiences. For families in St. Louis County and across the Northland, the bear treat on Wednesday was a small, shareable preview of a larger summer event built around animals, local creameries and a reason to come back before the season slips away.