Latest Zoo Stories

By ADAM GELLER By Adam Geller The Associated Press Even as a youngster, Rollie looked older and wiser than his years. His white mustache sprouted longer by the month, until it flamed from his cheeks like a German kaiser's. In the past few years, though, the tribulations of age - not just the appearance of it - have begun catching up with Rollie. His keepers are reminded each time they get a look past the Emperor Tamarin's flowing whiskers and into his jaws. The tiny monkey, used to...

By Dan Heath, The Press-Republican, Plattsburgh, N.Y. Jun. 22--The assembled reporters and photographers weren't the only ones focused on Parc Safari's three new white lions when they were introduced Wednesday. As Parc Safari President Jean-Pierre Ranger introduced the lions, a pack of five Arctic wolves in the adjacent enclosure howled loudly, their attention focused on the recent additions. "Those are our friends, the wolves. They are probably jealous of my voice," Ranger said. A pair...

Old age has claimed another animal at the Philadelphia Zoo. Twigga, who at 29 was one of the oldest giraffes in the nation, was euthanized Thursday at the zoo, her home since 1979. In announcing her death yesterday, the zoo said the giraffe -- tall for a female at 15 feet -- had been on medications for age-related arthritis for some time. "Based on Twigga's comfort and behavior, the zoo's veterinary team decided this week that humane euthanasia was now the best course for her," the...

By Beccy Tanner, The Wichita Eagle, Kan. Jun. 21--WILD ANIMAL ENCOUNTERS At Tanganyika Wildlife Park, visitors can stroll past Bengal tigers, Indian rhinos and kookaburras, just as they could at a zoo. But they can also walk into a kangaroo enclosure, touch lemurs, feed giraffes and ride on a camel. The park near Goddard, which drew about 5,000 people last year for private tours, will open to the public today. It promises to allow visitors to interact with exotic animals -- a practice...

By Matt Campbell, The Kansas City Star, Mo. Jun. 20--Big cats in zoos tend to just lounge around, looking bored. But spots became blurs Thursday as three cheetahs at the Kansas City Zoo raced after their prey. The zoo installed a motorized rope and pulley device that pulls a light-colored rag at high speed at grass level through the cheetahs' exhibit. Like housecats drawn to a mouse on a string, the world's fastest land animals were quick to the chase. In seconds they reached the limits of...

SEATTLE _ If all goes well, Sneezy and Chai should become the proud parents of a 200-pound baby by Thanksgiving _ 2009. Chai, the Woodland Park Zoo's 29-year-old female Asian elephant, appears to be pregnant for the first time since losing her 6-year-old daughter, Hansa, to a fatal strain of elephant herpes last year. But rather than being a joyous occasion, Chai's apparent pregnancy has renewed concerns among animal-rights groups about the risks of elephant herpes and the ongoing mystery...

By Kumar Manish AHMEDABAD: Breakfast with an orangutan. Close encounter with a panda. No, you aren't on a jungle safari. It could all happen in apnu Amdavad, with plans afoot for a new zoo that would have animals not bound in cramped enclosures. The Ahmedabd Municipal Corporation (AMC) has already begun frantic search for land for the new zoo in the city, to be spread over 100 acres. At present, the areas - near the Science City in Sola, Pirana and Hathijan - are high on the priority list....

By Shannon Montgomery, THE CANADIAN PRESS EDMONTON - Two tiny red pandas at Edmonton's Valley Zoo are carrying the survival of their species on their furry shoulders. Tai the female and Pip the male were born May 26 and have already almost tripled their birth weights of 112 and 147 grams. They're the second set of twins born to the zoo's pair of adult red pandas and are part of a breeding program aimed at ensuring survival of the species. The two were taken from their mother shortly after...

CHICAGO _ Like the great elder statesman that he is, one of the two oldest male zoo chimpanzees in North America spent time affably greeting old friends and other visitors during a rare public appearance last week at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo. The chimp, named Keo, usually lives behind-the-scenes in a non-public area of the Regenstein Center for African Apes, ceding the spotlight to the zoo's second, younger chimp troop. But in honor of his 50th birthday on June 26, the zoo this week put...

By Ben Mee Lions, jaguars, and a wolf intent on escape. Ben Mee had always relished a challenge - and that's what he got when he and his family took on a run-down wildlife park We never planned to buy a zoo, it just sort of happened. The whole family had been looking for a small cottage for my mum to move into after my dad had died, and then the idea evolved that she could live with one of her five children, by pooling resources and buying a larger place. Which is how we came to be on the...