Zoos
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:
Alleged embezzling rocked two leading animal exhibition insti-
tutions during the summer. The Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association is
officially mum about the discovery that $72,000 of the $7.5 million it
received last year from concession sales is missing. The discrepancy was
discovered in early June, but has not been reported to police, as the associa-
tion apparently hopes to resolve the case internally. In a similar but unrelat-
ed case, the International Marine Animal Trainers Association recently
found $60,000 missing; did not press charges against the former IMATA
treasurer, who acknowledged responsibility; and has informed membership
that it has received partial restitution. IMATA pledged it would not reveal
the identity of the individual in question, whose identity is nonetheless
known to ANIMAL PEOPLE. She no longer works in the animal field.
As the Missouri River rose in the Dakotas in June, a patron
donated use of a private jet to Lincoln Park Zoo (Chicago) and Milwaukee
County Zoo staffers, who collected 30 piping plover eggs then and 114
more later, along with 116 eggs from least terns. Both the plovers and the
terns are endangered, and the riverbank nesting sites of both were wiped
out. Ninety-one plovers and 67 terns hatched, the first of their species to be
successfully artificially incubated. Captive breeding may be the birds’ best
hope of survival, as they’ve lost about 80% of their habitat since 1950, and
are quite vulnerable to predation and bad weather in the remaining habitat.