Zoos & Aquariums
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:
Two of the four beluga whales caught in
August for the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago died
September 22, apparently as result of overdoses of
roundworm medication. The capture of the whales was
fought every step of the way by marine mammal protec-
tion groups, including Lifeforce and the International
Wildlife Coalition.
The National Zoo in Washington D.C. is test-
ing a deer contraceptive this fall on 30 does. “We’re try-
ing to develop a technology for the humane population
control of deer where hunting is not wise, legal, or
safe,” said Montana wildlife fertility researcher Jay
Kirkpatrick, who developed the contraceptive.
A donation of $1.85 million from the Emir of
Kuwait has again temporarily resuscitated the nearly bank-
rupt London Zoo–the third time an unexpected benefactor
has come to the rescue–but attendence was 25% below the
break-even point this past summer, and the future of the
zoo and the animals in it remains uncertain. Private
investors meanwhile are reportedly already at work on a
$67 million high-tech “zoo” with no animals, to be situat-
ed in Leicester, north of London, by 1995. Visitors
would watch animals in their native habitat via live
satelite transmission from cameras hidden in refuges
around the world, according to project designer John
Sunderland. The facility will be called the Worldlife
Center.
Most of the animals in the Sarajevo Zoo, once
the pride of Bosnia, died from shelling or starvation dur-
ing the summer. Starvation and civil unrest also nearly
wiped out the President Mobutu Park Zoo in Nsele, Zaire,
which became a hangout for soldiers. Animals at Peru’s
Lima Zoo were luckier, as the Dutch Embassy donated a
gnerator to keep incubators, pumps, and other vital
equaipment working despite power outages caused by
Shining Path guerilla attacks.
Friends of Blue Hills, a newly formed environ-
mental group, are trying to prevent a petting zoo from
opening at the Blue Hills Reservoir, near Boston.
Bulldozing for the site, they say, could endanger wet-
lands forming one of the last refuges of a rare salamander.
The Bronx Zoo began a drive to exterminate rac-
coons and feral cats on the grounds after two rabid rac-
coons were discovered there on July 24.
Naforimex I, one of three almost identically
named export consortiums set up by the Vietnamese
government, is apparently actively marketing wildlife,
including endangered species, the International Primate
Protection League reports. IPPL investigators pho-
tographed dozens of monkeys awaiting shipment at Nha
Trang, two months after Vietnam adopted a law forbid-
ding the export of rare and endangered animals. The ani-
mals are apparently marketed via Reach Shipping Co. of
Taiwan. Protest to the Council of Agriculture, Executive
Yuan, 37 Nanhai Rd., Taipei, Taiwan 10728.
