Zoo in the head

Zoo news: Woofs on the loose

The first in a long while, I know. Telegraph TV has the scoop:

So much to enjoy here: "three or four woofs", "I'm gonna say the word 'mature'", and "Wild animals that you see on TV" for starters.

youtube users have left some valuable comments. AMANDATHEAWESOMEone says "OH MY GOD, I STILL CAN'T GET OVER IT. ALL OF THOSE EXOTIC ANIMALS BEING SHOT. THEY DIDN'T CHOOSE TO BE THERE! THEY DON'T DESERVE THAT!!!"

leprokahn138 counters: "I live off of Mt. Perry Road.. 7 miles away from where this happened, Look, this is America, and RIGHT HERE, is hickville USA, ALL OF THOSE animals WILL BE KILLED, that is a FACT, Americans think of nothing else other than FEAR when it comes to things like these ... Dont wrap your emotions into something that wont turn out the way you want it to, Go on with your life, worry about yourself, it sucks, but its true... I WILL SHOOT TO KILL!!!!"

I believe you, leprokahn, I really do.

UPDATE: The story is far more grim than I realized - it is reported that Terry Thompson, owner of the Muskingum County Animal Farm, set his animals loose then killed himself. Forty-eight animals were shot dead, including 18 Bengal tigers (perspective: the Bengal is the most numerous of the six surviving subspecies of tiger; but the most optimistic estimate of the total wild tiger population is 6,000). The other animals shot were: 17 lions, six black bears, two grizzlies, a baboon, a wolf and three mountain lions. Six animals were captured alive: a grizzly bear, three leopards, and two monkeys. Another monkey was eaten by one of the big cats.

Zoo news: brewery director forced to resign over failed piss-up

The director Conservation and Research at Calgary Zoo in Canada, Cathy Gaviller, has resigned after a number of incidents over the last year or so involving the death of animals or danger to animals or the public. A swift run-down:

1) January 2009: an "exotic" two-year-old goat - a Turkmenian markhor - became tangled in ropes attached to an "enrichment device", or toy, and strangled itself in front of visitors. (I think the collision of strangulation and the words "exotic" and "toy" may have gained this incident extra attention; it all sounds oddly like the kind of thing we used to associate with Tory MPs before they went all metrosexual and hip.)

2) June 2009: a gorilla was photographed holding a knife which a keeper had "accidentally" left in the enclosure. “It was a small utility knife," according to the Zoo's communications director; "it wasn’t a huge knife.” The gorilla has been forced to return to traditional razor-blade in toothbrush handle methods

3) October 2009: two men climbed into the zoo at night, and were hurt - one seriously - by a Siberian tiger.

4) December 2009: a capybara was crushed to death by a hydraulic door. Another capybara had died in July after being attacked by one of its fellows.

5) January 2010: four mule deer died in a week, according to Zoocheck Canada; Calgary Zoo said that the four had died over several months, mostly from unremarkable causes, though one did charge into a fence.

6) February 2010: two Malagasy giant hog-nosed snakes (non-poisonous) escaped down a drain left open during cleaning, but were found a day later. A python in the same enclosure was too big to fit down the pipes.

7) Last week: a gorilla climbed a pile of ice and jumped on to a perimeter fence, from where he had access to the public parts of the zoo. This happened before opening time, and he jumped back into his enclosure as soon as a keeper approached.

Further back:

8) In 2008, the zoo called in police after 41 stingrays died; later, it transpired that the water in which they swam had low levels of oxygen.

9) In 2006-7, four gorillas died of varying causes.

And they've lost a couple of baby elephants along the way, but hey, who hasn't done that?

That's both spectacular and depressing; under the circumstances, it's hard to see how Gaviller - who had been in the job for 20 years - had any choice.

I haven't blogged on zoos since well before Christmas: apologies to the hardy few who have maintained an interest.

Zoo news: Bear special

On Saturday afternoon in Bern, a 25-year-old man climbed into the new Bear Park - an extension of the old bear pit - and was attacked by one of the two resident European brown bears, Finn. Police shot Finn in the chest, driving him back into his enclosure. The man was bitten about the head, but is not in danger.

Several commenters on news stories I looked at ask why a tranquilliser dart was not used: I think the answer is that bullets work much faster than tranquillisers. In any case, it seems that Finn was not seriously hurt; he was shot with a fragmentation round, which did not penetrate any organs. The fragments are embedded in his flesh, though, and he is on antibiotics to prevent infection. Others wonder how the intruder managed to get in in the first place: according to some reports, he spent 10 minutes standing on a wall overlooking the park before jumping down, which is why police had time to fetch the rifle. (Incidentally, the Daily Mail report I link to there has a very complete set of photographs of the attack - not pleasant viewing.)

The intruder has been described, with frustrating vagueness, as "mentally handicapped". This is a familiar story. In September, Kenneth Herron, 21, who has a history of mental illness, climbed into the bear "grotto" at San Francisco Zoo; a bear sniffed his foot, but keepers fired a warning round and the bears scarpered. Herron was acquitted earlier this month of trespassing and disturbing a dangerous animal. He said that he had been told to enter the enclosure by the voice of Tyson Beckford in his head: Beckford is a male model and TV presenter, but as far as I am concerned his only claim to fame is that he was Derek Zoolander's second in his walk-off against Hansel.

I mentioned a few other cases back in June: former keeper with mental health problems found partly eaten in tiger enclosure at Naestved Zoo in Denmark; depressed woman bitten by polar bear after jumping into enclosure at Berlin Zoo. Bears predominate, perhaps because people expect them to be like Paddington or Mary Plain, or their beloved childhood teddies.

Fun fact: Finn's companion at Bern is called Björk.

Fun and possibly important fact: it's been reported that grizzlies moving north are now running into polar bears, competing for food and in at least one case interbreeding. The hybrid is known as a "grolar", which is at least better than a "pizzly". Almost every comment on the Times report is scorning the notion that climate change might be a factor.

Doh! A deer!

Much fuss in the press over the case of a deer who wandered into the lion enclosure at the National Zoo in Washington DC, and elicited a predictable reaction from the lions. Strangely, several sources focused on the apparently happy outcome of the video above: the Daily Mail ran pictures under the headline "The moment baby deer leaps into lion enclosure at zoo ... and manages to survive"; the Sun had "Deer escapes lion's clutches". The Mail headline was later amended to reflect the more melancholy truth of what happened after the camera stopped rolling: "Tragic end for the zoo deer who leapt into a lion enclosure" - it was so badly hurt it had to be put down.

Zoo staff shooed the lions indoors and dispersed the crowds rooting for the deer: as Jack Landers says, a pointless reaction. Zoos are all about "enrichment" these days, making the animals' lives more interesting, very often by making them work for their food; and the crowds want to see nature red in tooth and claw, don't they? But when a genuinely enriching experience happens along, everybody gets embarrassed.

It's another demonstration that zoos are porous - nature gets out, nature gets in; as Jeff Goldblum said in Jurassic Park, "Life finds a way." 

See also: