Zoos
Boy, oh boy! Zoo's staffers find out panda cub's a male
Nameless baby determined to be healthy in first physical exam
By D'VERA COHN
Washington Post
National Zoo
Veterinarian Sharon Deem takes a close look at the National Zoo's giant panda cub during its first health exam Tuesday. The cub, which appears vigorous and healthy, was born July 9.
WASHINGTON - It's a boy!
The National Zoo's giant panda cub is male, weighs just under 2 pounds and is a foot long, according to a veterinarian who examined the newborn Tuesday.
The cub's heart and respiratory rates indicate that he is in good health, zoo associate veterinarian Sharon Deem said. He weighs 1.82 pounds, nearly four times what he probably weighed at birth.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3293641
Zoo: Washington's baby panda is a boy
It's a boy - a quick peek at the baby panda born last month at Washington's National Zoo showed it to be a male, the zoo said on Tuesday.
Curious veterinarians at the Smithsonian National Zoo lured giant panda Mei Xiang out of her den with a bamboo snack and sneaked a look at her cub, which was born on July 9. The cub is now 30 centimetres long and weighs 825 grams, the zoo said in a statement.
Veterinarian Sharon Deem was also able to listen to its heart and breathing and said he sounded healthy.
The popular giant pandas are endangered and notoriously difficult to breed. Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated on March 11, and a careful pregnancy and birth watch ensued. Until now, the new mother has been left undisturbed with her cub so as not to interfere with bonding.
Surveillance cameras have been used to monitor her behaviour and to provide glimpses of the helpless baby panda.
Mei Xiang and the cub's father, Tian Tian, are on a 10-year loan to the zoo from China. Under the agreement, the cub will be sent to China after it is weaned in a year or two.
Source: China Daily/agencies
http://english.people.com.cn/200508/04/eng20050804_200263.html
I don't really approve of sniffing POO. Parasites. Helloooo!
Wellington Zoo holds poo parade
03 August 2005
By JULIE JACOBSON
Excrement ID ... it's not to be sniffed at, according to Wellington Zoo, which plans to hold what is believed to be New Zealand's first poo identification parade this weekend.
The event, borrowed from the Americans and promoted as a learning tool, is part of the zoo's Everything Is Connected Conservation Week programme.
"We decided that one way of illustrating that theme that would be attractive to children would be to show that the foods animals eat are grown from the ground which has been fertilised by animal poo, among other substances," spokeswoman Jo Phillips said.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3365352a4560,00.html
John Ball Zoo expansion plans unveiled
By Kristi Andersen
(Update, Grand Rapids, August 2, 2005, 5:16 p.m.) After years of debate, the John Ball Zoo could be expanding.
Officials say if all goes as planned, the John Ball Zoo will be "unrecognizable" in the next ten years.
The John Ball Zoo Society unveiled the future plans Tuesday morning to the Kent County Commission. It's a new vision being called the "Grand Rivers of the World."
http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3671470&nav=0Rcecr6U
County, owner disagree on value of Naples Zoo's land
By ROGER LALONDE, Staff Writer
August 3, 2005
Collier County commissioners have authorized a loan of $40 million for 166 acres of land that includes the 45 acres where the Naples Zoo is located.
They did so on July 26 after voters agreed to a referendum in November to buy the property for $40 million.
In part it was a good-faith gesture because the property owner's asking price was revealed on July 22 at $67.5 million.
http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/ma_eagle/article/0,2071,NPDN_14916_3973451,00.html
True to the zoo
Riverbanks’ employee of the year ‘knows the secret to how to be happy.’ (It might involve bicycling 29 miles to work and back every day.)
By JOEY HOLLEMAN
Staff Writer
Eddie Lasseter is a Nureyev with a leaf blower as he cleans Riverbanks Zoo. He thrives in the 90-degree temperatures and 90 percent humidity of summer. He begs for the animal-manure pickup chore everyone else works to avoid.
“I enjoy being challenged a lot,” Lasseter said, as if that explained it all.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/living/12277890.htm
Baby giant panda born at San Diego Zoo
Wednesday, August 3, 2005
(08-03) 13:48 PDT SAN DIEGO, (AP) --
Bai Yun caught up on some much needed sleep Wednesday, hours after giving birth to a squawking giant panda cub — the 13-year-old mom's third offspring.
The cub, weighing less than a baseball, was born shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday after three hours of labor.
Researchers who gathered to watch the birth on closed-circuit TV could not see the cub, but they could hear its loud squeals. Bai Yun immediately placed the newborn cub on her chest it soon started making regular croaking noises — a sign of contentment, Suzanne Hall, a panda research technician, wrote on the Zoo's Website.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/08/03/state/n045835D15.DTL
Virus claims animals at Winnipeg zoo
WINNIPEG -- West Nile virus has killed all three of the great grey owls in a Winnipeg zoo.
The three at the Assiniboine Park Zoo died of the virus within a week in mid-July, said zoo veterinarian Dr. Gordon Glover.
As well, a reindeer fawn at the zoo also died of the virus, which is spread by the Culex tarsalis mosquito.
"It's sad to say, but I don't think we've seen the last of the mortalities," Glover said. "But we don't know where it's going to strike next. We suspect young animals born this year and the older animals are most susceptible."
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2005/08/03/1157594-sun.html
Otters, Tigers, and Bears: Guilford Intern at Beardsley Zoo
By Pam Johnson
Published on 8/3/2005
They may be mamma's little cubs, but three growing tigers have a Guilford teen to thank for helping supply a good deal of their baby food. This summer, 19 year-old Erica Daurio has been assisting with the care and feeding of the three rare Amur (Siberian) tiger cubs at Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo.
Erica (GHS 2003) joined the zoo as a summer intern through UConn, where she's majoring in animal science and about to enter her junior year. Twice a week, she travels from Guilford to Bridgeport to work with the zoo's predator program.
“I help feed anything that eats meat,” said Daurio, who is planning a career as a veterinarian.
The zoo's two adult Amur tigers will eat as much as 10 to 15 pounds of meat a day. Their three babies, born through the global Tiger Species Survival Plan, represent the first tiger births at the Beardsley Zoo since 1986; and the first offspring for the zoo's seven year-old female and 11 year-old male.
“Anastasia is the mom and Robki is the dad. There's one boy cub and two girls, but they don't have official names yet,” said Daurio.
http://www.shorepublishing.com/archive/re.aspx?re=53b364b3-a228-4f37-95d5-18093754b033
Zoo makes bid to reign in Spain
PUBLISHER Emap has launched the first international edition of its racy weekly men's magazine Zoo in Spain, as it looks to build on the publication's success in the UK.
Emap, which also owns Radio Forth, said the Spanish version of Zoo would be called Zoo Sie7e. Zoo launched in Britain two years ago against IPC rival weekly Nuts.
http://business.scotsman.com/media.cfm?id=1723002005
concluding ...
