Posts tagged cx-5
Morrie’s is helping to save Minnesota’s prairie wildlife
Oct 2nd
Morrie’s has partnered with the Minnesota Zoo to help restore Minnesota’s Prairie Wildlife by providing a Mazda CX-5 vehicle. Minnesota Zoo conservationists use it in the field across Minnesota and beyond researching prairie butterflies, moose and more recently bison. Below you’ll find an update from Minnesota Zoo conservationist Erik Runquist.
The Minnesota Zoo works every day to save wildlife. Our programs in Minnesota and around the world depend on partnerships. We have benefited from a great Mazda CX-5 field research vehicle through a generously donated lease from Morrie’s Automotive Group. In the past several months, we’ve taken the field vehicle across Minnesota and beyond to help save prairie butterflies and restore bison. Here are our Top Five spots from this summer!
1) The Minnesota Zoo
The Mazda CX-5 conservation vehicle on display in front of the Minnesota Zoo
Who wouldn’t want to be at the Minnesota Zoo? At the Zoo, we expanded the world’s only breeding program for the US Threatened Dakota skipper, raising more than 150 from egg to adulthood, and produced many hundreds more eggs! The CX-5 was a true work horse, hauling around hundreds of food plants for the butterflies and other supplies!
2) Northeast South Dakota
Male Dakota skipper on a South Dakota prairie, nectaring on purple coneflower.
Northeast South Dakota may have the world’s last best populations of Dakota skippers. We found most populations to be in good shape! Working under federal and state permits, we collected more eggs from a limited number of females and brought the eggs back to the Zoo.
3) Northwest Minnesota
A zoo conservationist searches for dakota skippers in NW Minnesota
With possibly the last Dakota skipper populations in our state, northwest Minnesota is very important to our work. With the CX-5, we found healthy numbers at the known site, and also searched new sites for previously unknown populations.
4) Western North Dakota
American Plains Bison at a North Dakota Nature Conservancy Preserve.
In mid-June, we took the CX-5 from the Zoo on its longest road trip ever: to western North Dakota! We surveyed prairie butterflies and looked for the rare Garita skipperling. While the skipperling remained elusive, we did find some spectacular prairies and great wildlife on the edge of the Badlands.
5) Minneopa State Park
The Minnesota Zoo Mazda CX-5 enters Minneola State Park
Speaking of bison, did you know that the Minnesota Zoo and DNR proudly established a new herd of genetically rare bison at Minneopa State Park near Mankato in September? Zoo staff used the eye-catching CX-5 to help usher in a new era of Minnesota prairie wildlife conservation at Minneopa!
We are doing a lot thanks to all our great funders and partners. With the awesome Mazda CX-5 field vehicle from Morrie’s Auto Group, we can it do so much better! Thank you Morrie’s!
Minnesota Zoo uses Mazda CX-5 to track wolves
Mar 5th
The Mazda CX-5 field vehicle that Morrie’s Minnetonka Mazda donated to the Minnesota Zoo for moose and butterfly conservation projects has come in handy this winter! Dr. Brian Kot, a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Minnesota Zoo, has used it to check up on the wolves he is tracking using GPS collars, for a study of wolf-moose interactions in northeastern Minnesota. Brian is comparing how wolves and moose use their habitat, to understand where moose are at high and low risk of predation. Minnesota has lost more than half of its moose population in the past ten years. Wolves have also recently been returned to the US Endangered Species list with a “threatened” listing in Minnesota.
Check out Brian’s photos from recent excursions using the field vehicle!
Brian gathers equipment from the field research vehicle
Brian uses telemetry equipment to listen for radio tracking collars worn by wolves in the study area
A busy wildlife travel route along a frozen creek showing fox tracks (left), wolf tracks (middle) and, possibly, coyote tracks (right).
Mazda Tops 26 Leading Car Makers in Consumer Reports Brand Ranking
Feb 25th
For those that have experienced the Mazda Brand in the last 5 years, this comes as no surprise, but for those who haven’t, it’s time to get behind the wheel. Mazda has been consistently topping lists like this for the last few years and that may not seem like a huge accomplishment until you consider this: more than half of their current models have been introduced or redesigned within the past 3 years. They seem to be immune to the typical “growing pains” that almost every other auto maker experiences when they introduce a new model or redesign an existing one. What does that mean to the everyday consumer? It means Mazda is doing their homework. They know their customers are looking for lots of style at an attainable price point. And it’s arguable that no other automaker has achieved this better than Mazda.
ConsumerReports ranks vehicles in many different categories based on varying criteria but its “Annual Brand Report Cards” are the most comprehensive scoring system, compiling many different tests into one, overarching ranking system. The magazine calculates each brand’s overall score with a composite of its vehicles’ road-test scores and reliability scores for each model in its annual survey of subscribers. Take a look at the full list of rankings, you’ll notice Mazda took second place, topped only by Lexus:
In addition to this latest accolade, Mazda has a laundry list of other notable achievements:
• Named “2014 Lowest 5-year Cost to Own Brand” for the second year in a row by Kelley Blue Book
• 2014 Mazda6 and Mazda3 both named one of KBB’s “10 Best Sedans under $25,000”
• 2014 Mazda CX-5 named one of KBB’s “10 Best SUVs Under $25,000”
• Mazda6 named “Highest Ranked Vehicle Appeal Among Midsize Cars” by J.D. Power.
