Zoos
Visitors Elect First Animal 'Zoo President'
(CBS4) BOSTON It was a tough political battle, but the best animal won.
In honor of President's Day, visitors at the Franklin Park Zoo voted for a new animal commander-in-chief.
The zoo chose six nominees:
Addy the cow
Beau the giraffe
Christopher the lion
Evita the zebra
Kiki the gorilla
Spot the anaconda
Zoo workers really got into the political fight, distributing campaign literature and outlining political platforms.
On Monday, zoo visitors got to cast their ballots, and the winner is…
…Kiki the gorilla, with more than a third of the votes.
Kiki, a mother of two, not only holds the bragging rights, but gets a special sign on her exhibit and some extra treats for the next year.
http://cbs4boston.com/watercooler/local_story_051183534.html
Elephants belong at Reid Park, national zoo association agrees
Tucson, Arizona Published: 02.21.2006
The recent "controversy" about elephants is being created by a handful of animal-rights activists who have strategically chosen this species as their first target in a longer-term campaign to close zoos — all zoos. They claim that seeing an animal on television is just as good as experiencing animals in an up-close-and-personal setting. The American Zoo and Aquarium Association strongly disagrees.
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/116753
Russian bird flu vaccines out early March - govt.
MOSCOW, February 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russian vaccines against the lethal H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus will be made available to consumers in early March, the government agency for veterinary and phytosanitary control said Monday.
Three vaccines were developed last year to combat the spread of bird flu following outbreaks in Russia's European part, Siberia and the Ural Mountains. The virus affected domestic poultry and wild fowl, but no human cases were reported.
At least 100 million doses are expected to be purchased using federal funds to vaccinate birds against the deadly virus in private farms and zoos located in high-risk areas, to be identified by the agency in cooperation with regional veterinary authorities.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060220/43659809.html
Bird flu closes Cairo zoo
The Egyptian authorities have closed the Cairo zoo and seven other state-run zoos around the country for two weeks after 83 birds died there, some from the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.
Witnesses saw dead and sick birds inside the zoo grounds on Sunday, and the Health Ministry said that six of the 83 dead birds had tested positive for bird flu.
A ministry statement said they included species of duck, turkey and Chinese geese. The zoo has slaughtered 563 birds and drained all the ponds there, it added.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/06134C19-624C-4476-BAC9-48281EC804F5.htm
Cairo zoo shut after dead birds positive for H5N1
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAIRO, Egypt
Authorities closed the Cairo zoo Sunday after six of 83 birds that died there recently tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu. Health authorities said tests still had not found the disease in humans.
Egyptian officials, meanwhile, pleaded with citizens not to dispose of dead chickens, turkeys or other birds by throwing them in the roads, irrigation canals or the Nile River. The officials reported eight other new bird flu cases in Cairo Sunday.
Agriculture Minister Amin Ahmed Abaza said he closed the zoo, located across the Nile from Cairo in the city of Giza, after the death of ducks, turkeys and Chinese geese. He said 563 birds at the zoo were destroyed as a precaution and ponds were drained.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395445447&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
3 tigers poisoned in Itanagar zoo
ITANAGAR: Three tigers and a leopard were poisoned by miscreants at Itanagar Zoo in Arunachal Pradesh.
The incident which took place on Sunday night has shocked zoo and forest officials who are doing their best to save the animals.
"The condition of one tiger is critical," said principal chief conservator of forest M B Lal here on Monday. "The leopard and the two other tigers have shown symptoms of recovery," he said.
Delhi Zoo veterinarian Paneer Silbam has been contacted to treat the poisoned animals, while Ram Krishna Medical Hospital's pharmacy here has volunteered to provide medicines.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1421964.cms
Zoo negotiations continue; layoff notices go out today
The Detroit City Council on Monday defended its decision to reject a plan to turn the operation of the Detroit Zoo over to a non-profit, a decision the mayors office said will lead the city to eventually shut down the 75-year-old institution.
The council members who voted against the plan to turn the zoo over to the Detroit Zoological Society said they had insufficient time to properly go over the proposal and they complained that even though the city said it could no longer afford to run the zoo, the agreement called for the city to give the zoo $10 million in capital money over two years.
The members also rejected what they said was the administrations doom and gloom scenario for the zoo, saying the administration needed to look for other options to keep the zoo open.
Councilwoman Barbara-Rose Collins said she believes Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his administration recognize the zoos importance to the region, and theyll do everything they can to keep the zoo open. Unless they want to be like little kids and say theyre taking their ball and bat and going home.
She said the mayors office should return to the council with a better agreement between the city and the society.
Mayoral spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett maintained that the agreement was the best option, and that since November, council had been made aware of specific plans to turn management of the zoo over to the society.
She said layoff notices were to be sent out today, although she did not know how many. She said eventually the administration will send layoff notices to all 150 zoo workers.
There is no timeline to close the zoo, but she said administration officials were currently in discussion about how to do it.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060220/NEWS11/60220012
Owners struggle to rebuild petting zoo
February 20, 2006 - It's been less than two weeks since a decimating fire at a Temperance, Michigan petting zoo.
It's future is in question as the owners struggle to rebuild.
On February 9, a fire destroyed the zoo's barn and killed 100 animals, but 200 other animals survived. The owners say there is still a question of whether or not insurance will cover the loss and without a new barn, the owner's say the zoo's future is in question
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/story?section=local&id=3925719
Zoo Zürich: New Primate Species Discovered
Feb 20, 06 3:19 pm
Since March 2005, nine mouse makis have been living in Zürich’s Masaola Rainforest. Mouse makis are small primates belonging to the lemur family. When Zürich Zoo imported these animals into Switzerland, it was not aware that they were actually a new species of mouse maki. And it also had no idea that these very creatures would provide the evidence for the existence of this new species. Members of the German Primate Center and the University of Göttingen made this extraordinary discovery based on genetic material obtained from samples of faeces from the mouse makis in the Zürich rainforest.
http://travelvideo.tv/news/more.php?id=8079_0_1_0_M
Zoo inundated over giraffe deaths
Staff at a Devon zoo say they have been overwhelmed by messages of support from across the world since the death of three of its giraffes in a fire.
A six-day old baby and its mother Kizi died in a fire week ago at Paignton Zoo and Kizi's mate Paddy died on Saturday.
Staff have received messages from zoos and individuals from as far afield as Germany, Israel and the US.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/devon/4730014.stm
New zoo exhibit could be tough to bear
Like pilots and barbers, zookeepers hold a position of great trust in our society -- we expect them to excel at jobs which, in most hands, would end in total disaster.
That's why the continuing controversy over bringing polar bears and whales to the Calgary Zoo's new Arctic Shores exhibit has this writer pacing like a tiger in a concrete cage.
On one hand, I want to trust the experts who run the Calgary Zoo, when they promise world-class care for any and all animals living in the $100-million exhibit, due to open in late 2009.
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Platt_Michael/2006/02/19/1451302-sun.html
Zoo's New Baby Almost Ready to Stick Neck Out
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
The Oakland Zoo's new bundle of joy weighs 170 pounds and stands well over 6 feet tall.
He's a 2-week-old giraffe born in captivity. Zoo employees named him "the Brave Little Toaster" after the animated children's films.
The giraffe has grown two inches and gained 20 pounds since he was born Feb. 6. "He's spunky, willing to explore and always full of energy," said zookeeper Melissa McCartney.
The animal will be ready to join the herd and stick his neck out to the public in a week or two. The new baby is adult giraffe Tiki's fifth calf, and the zoo's 10th giraffe offspring in a decade.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-sbriefs19.1feb19,0,5320197.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california
11 deer die in stampede at zoo
MUMBAI: In yet another tragic zoo tale, 11 deer were killed on Sunday night in the city zoo due to a stampede inside an enclosure that housed 25 black bucks. The incident took place within two months of a warning from the Central Zoo
Authority that the deer population at Veer Jijamata Bhosle Udyan needed to be curtailed in view of overcrowding.
Municipal officials said the stampede may have taken place after some dogs entered the meshed enclosure. Other sources said the high-decibel noise from a heavy-duty earth-remover near the cage could have fatally triggered panic among the animals.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1413633.cms
Zoo mourns mother and baby giraffe
Last Modified: 13 Feb 2006
Source: ITN
A zoo has received thousands of messages of sympathy after the tragic death of a six-day-old baby
giraffe and its mother.
Twelve-year-old Kizi and her calf were killed in a fire at Paignton Zoo. The cause isn't known.
The birth of the calf caused enormous excitement after disappointments with previous babies. Now there's concern about her heartbroken father Paddy who's been left a widower.
http://www.channel4.com/news/content/news-storypage.jsp?id=1174253
Zoo: Barker misinformed
Published February 13, 2006
LOS ANGELES -- The director of the Los Angeles Zoo disputes game show host Bob Barker's comments about the condition of the zoo's three elephants.
Barker on Friday pleaded with the City Council to close the zoo's elephant exhibit, saying the pachyderms live in misery and that two of the three elephants were ill.
"His information was wrong," said John Lewis, the zoo's director, on Saturday. "He was making statements that were just factually untrue."
Two of the zoo's elephants, Billy and Ruby, are healthy physically and mentally, Lewis said. Gita is recovering from October surgery for a foot injury and has been behaving normally, he said.
Barker stood by his remarks, saying Saturday that Gita has had problems with her feet and continues to stand on concrete and hardpacked soil, which exacerbates her condition. He also said that Ruby is under emotional stress.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0602130156feb13,1,5988996.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Zoo officials believe Orangutan died from heart attack
2/13/06
Officials at the Seneca Park Zoo believe Lowell the orangutan, may have died of a heart attack. Lowell was on exhibit Sunday when he suddenly collapsed and died. He was 21-years-old, which is considered middle-aged for orangutans.
Preliminary test results showed spots on his heart, indicating a heart attack although zoo officials say the orangutan recently had a physical and received a clean bill of health.
The loss of the orangutan comes just days after the zoo's African elephant, Genny C, lost her baby calf.
http://www.10nbc.com/news.asp?template=item&story_id=17755
I thought this was a delightful article. Cultural differences are so wonderful. Practicality in a way no one would expect. Fascinating. Seventh graders in the USA go to see geysers as a nature outing while these go to see where mom does such a good job with the laundering. Cute.
An Age-Old Salt Lake May Yield a Washday Miracle
By MARC LACEY
Published: February 21, 2006
LAKE BOGORIA, Kenya, Feb. 18 — In generations past, the people who lived around this most unusual of lakes attributed mystical powers to its water.
Chilly in some points and scalding in others, Lake Bogoria could supposedly wash away an array of maladies from skin ailments to stress. Goats were, and sometimes still are, slaughtered at the edge of the lake's hot springs as offerings to the spirits thought to reside in the mist.
Equally miraculous uses have been discovered recently for the water, which is as salty as the sea and holds hearty microorganisms not commonly found in other parts of the world. Although it has a primordial feel, Lake Bogoria is in many ways thoroughly modern, a little-known player in the fashion industry, for instance, and the subject of a high-stakes legal dispute to boot.
Those stonewashed jeans that fit oh, so right may owe their bleached appearance and soft feel to Lake Bogoria, or more specifically to an enzyme isolated from a microbe collected here. Another enzyme derived from creatures in Kenyan salt lakes like this one plays an important role in commonly used detergents, rooting out difficult stains and reducing the pills on cotton fabrics.
What the company that developed the commercial uses for the microbes trumpets as innovative science, Kenyan authorities are decrying as "bio-piracy." Developing countries seek to share in the profits made from their biological riches, whether from a fungus found in giraffe dung, an antibiotic discovered in a termite mound or an appetite suppressant derived from a cactus.
The International Convention on Biological Diversity, which came out of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, commits countries to equitable sharing of some of the benefits derived from biological resources. But advocacy groups say the convention is routinely ignored.
"It's a free-for-all out there," a researcher, Jay McGown, wrote in a recent report, "Out of Africa: Mysteries of Access and Benefit Sharing," published by the Edmonds Institute and the African Center for Biosafety. At Lake Bogoria and Lake Nakuru, to its south, scientists took samples in plastic bags in 1992 — before the convention went into effect in December 2003, they say. They found "extremophiles," durable creatures that reside in the earth's most inhospitable terrains, and subjected them to a battery of tests.
Genencor International Inc., a California-based company, subsequently purchased the enzyme samples, patented them and cloned them on an industrial scale for textile companies and detergent manufacturers.
Genencor, which became a division of Danisco in 2005, says what it did was on the up and up. It says it obtained the samples from a Netherlands-based company that took part in an academic research expedition led by William D. Grant, a microbiologist at Leicester University in England who has studied East Africa's saline and soda lakes. The mission, Genencor says, had all of the required research permits from the Kenyan authorities and was joined by a microbiologist from Kenyatta University, Wanjiru Mwatha.
Genencor has not been shy about the origins of its microbes. In its annual report in 2000, it boasted: "To find enzymes that flourish in alkaline environments, like your Saturday wash water, the enzymes that give your jeans a 'softer' feel and a stonewashed look, we looked for them, that's right, in the soda lakes of Kenya."
Kenyan officials learned in 1994 that the company was profiting from materials taken from the lake, and have been pursuing compensation ever since. They say proper permission was never granted for microorganisms to be taken and sold.
Dr. Mwatha said in an interview that she had received government permission to conduct research for her Ph.D. thesis at Bogoria and other lakes. Dr. Grant was her thesis adviser when she studied in Britain, she said, and he accompanied her on a research trip to Kenya. But Dr. Mwatha said she knew nothing about his involvement with any company and was unaware if any of her samples had been put to commercial use.
"I personally never dealt with any company," Dr. Mwatha said. "What really annoys me is that if they hit on something from my samples, I should know about it, not from a monetary point of view but from a scientific point of view."
But it is the monetary aspect that Kenyan officials are focusing on. "We're having discussions with them," said Connie Maina, spokeswoman for the Kenya Wildlife Service. Genencor added in a statement, "We welcome an open dialogue with appropriate Kenyan authorities and look forward to a positive resolution."
Genencor has said that the enzymes derived from Kenyan lakes are not huge money earners, taking in less than $10 million, and that it has donated computer and sampling equipment to Kenyatta University's microbiology department.
Kenyan officials say they believe that the profits are far more than the company is letting on. And while Genencor insists that one of its main business partners, Procter & Gamble, has not used the Kenyan enzymes in its products, the Kenyans suspect otherwise.
For now, though, the situation over how Bogoria's microbes found their way into the marketplace remains as murky as the lake itself, which, dispute or no dispute, remains a great source of pride for Kenyans. Schoolchildren regularly take field trips to Lake Bogoria. "So this lake is being used all over to make jeans look bleached," Benson Kiritu, a social studies teacher at the Vidhu Ramji Academy in Muranga, told a group of seventh graders at the lake the other day. "You didn't know that, did you? What do you think about that?"
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/international/africa/21lake.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1140519755-7tA6bvkcZZC9/11y0Rwc3g
