Gotta Love Those Monkeys!!
Video: Baby Monkey Francois Langur
Tiny baby Elke of Taronga Zoo
Video: Capuchin Monkey Frankie Takes a Bath
Baby gorilla arrives at Pittsburgh zoo – Updated… It’s a Boy
PITTSBURGH —
The Pittsburgh Zoo has a new baby gorilla in its midst.
Zoo officials say 15-year-old Moka gave birth last week after a year-and-a-half courtship with the zoo’s lead gorilla, 20-year-old Mrithi.
Zookeepers don’t yet know the baby’s gender, but say it appears to weigh between three and five pounds.
The new baby was born sometime after workers left the evening of Feb. 8. By the next morning the band of gorillas had grown from six to seven.
The baby is the first gorilla born at the zoo since 2001. Its father was the first born at the Pittsburgh Zoo, while Moka arrived from Miami in 2007.
Zoo officials say the other gorillas are keeping a respectful distance.
Visitors can see the new arrival at the zoo’s Tropical Forest exhibit.
The Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium celebrates the birth of its first baby gorilla since 2001. The baby boy’s father, Mrithi, was the first gorilla born at the zoo.
–> Video: Pittsburgh Zoo Welcomes Baby Gorilla <–
Shooter and Stunned Idaho Zookeepers
Zookeepers at Pocatello Zoo, Idaho, were worried when they noticed Shooter, a four-year-old elk, acting strangely at his water trough. Baffled, they watched as the animal – who is so massive some keepers are afraid to even enter his enclosure – tried to dip his hooves into his drinking trough, before attempting to dunk his whole head in the water.
Shooter the elk stands 10ft tall from his hooves to the tip of his antlers. However, they were amazed as the 10 foot tall Shooter lifted his head from the trough clutching a tiny marmot – a kind of large squirrel – between his jaws.
To the rescue! Shooter pulls the hapless marmot from his water trough. The gentle giant placed the hapless rodent down and nudged it with his hoof, as if checking it for signs of life, before calmly watching it scamper off into the bushes.
Zoo staff caught the entire rescue on camera. "It really was amazing," said Kate O’Conner, Pocatello’s education co-ordinator. "Shooter is such a huge animal. Some of the staff don’t like going in the enclosure with him so to see him being so gentle with a little animal was heart-warming.
"He was trying to dunk his head in the water, but his antlers kept getting in the way. Nobody could figure out why he was trying to get his head in, and then he started dipping his feet in. We were all completely confused, until we saw the marmot in his mouth. I think he had nudged the animal away from the edge of the bucket with his antlers and hooves so he could reach it with his mouth without his antlers getting in the way. It was very sweet!"
Down you go: Shooter gently lowers the tiny rodent to the ground.
Safe, but soaked and somewhat shell shocked, the lucky marmot seems happy to be back on dry land.
Zookeeper Dr. Joy Fox added: "We think Shooter sensed that the animal was in distress and decided to help.
"However, he could have just decided he didn’t like having something in his way.
"He spent quite a bit of time planning how to grab it."
The zoo plans to auction off Shooter’s incredible antlers when they are shed later in the year.
h/t to Patricia Gillenwater
Twin Cities: Como Zoo’s baby bison gets a name
Como Park Zoo and Conservatory this week offered its Facebook fans the unique opportunity of naming the zoo’s newborn bison.
More than 600 Facebook fans voted on one of four name options that zoo staff chose based on volunteer submissions.
With 56 percent of the votes, "Bogo," became the male bison’s new name.
Turning over the naming rights to Facebook fans was "a unique way to embrace our social media community," Como Zoo spokesman Matt Reinartz said.
"We have our visitors that come everyday but we also have a huge mountain of folks that follow us on the World Wide Web," Reinartz said of the more than 29,000 Facebook fans. "We wanted them to feel like part of the community here."
Bogo, which stands for "Buy One Get One," is based on the male bison’s surprise arrival at the St. Paul zoo. No one knew the bison’s mother, named "Aunt Bea" after "The Andy Griffith Show," was pregnant when she arrived in November. Zoo staff was taken aback when a June 16 radio call notified them that Aunt Bea was giving birth, Reinartz said.
"We all just looked at each other and said, "What the heck,’ (and) ran out there," Reinartz said. "Sure enough, there was a baby bison laying on the ground next to its mother. A bunch of people around were taking pictures and videos. It was quite the scene."
Bogo beat out "Opie" (21 percent), another reference to "The Andy Griffith Show"; "Thundar" (13 percent), the name of North Dakota State University’s bison mascot; and "Bruno"
By Miles Trump – mtrump@pioneerpress.com - Updated: 08/05/2011 03:44:29 PM CDT
THE GAY PENGUIN STORY – BILL O’REILLY AND DENNIS MILLER DIDN’T MAKE UP
Sometimes you just have to laugh…
Never mind they get the story wrong (the gay penguins hatched a chick — it was in 2005 that the same zoo imported female penguins to see if its gay male pairs would go straight), what’s more important to O’Reilly and Miller is that the story gives them a chance to hoot at one another over lame “tight T-shirt” and “pre-colored egg” jokes. And don’t forget the pre-op transsexuals. Always good for a laugh. And we all need to laugh…
Gay Penguin Dads in German Zoo Hatch Their First Chick
Z and Vielpunkt, two male Humboldt penguins at Germany’s Bremerhaven Zoo, are the proud new parents of a healthy penguin chick.
“Another couple threw the egg out of their batch. We picked it up and put it in the nest of the gay penguins,” veterinarian Joachim Schöne told the German newspaper Bild of the pair’s entry into parenthood. Z and Vielpunkt faithfully cared for their adopted egg for more than a month; in late April it hatched. Since then, they’ve been taking care of their chick around the clock; it’s still too young to feed itself, so the dads feed him fish mash, Schöne explained.
“Since the chick arrived, they have been behaving just as you would expect a heterosexual couple to do,” the zoo said in a statement.
The Bremerhaven Zoo’s same-sex penguin couples (there are three such pairs in residence there, all males) first made news back in 2005, according to the BBC. At the time, the zoo announced plans to “test” the sexual orientations of the six penguins, who’d been seen engaging in mating rituals and trying to incubate rocks as if they were eggs. Gay rights advocates were outraged when the zoo brought four new female penguins into the colony in a bid to encourage the penguins to reproduce, and the zoo later nixed the idea. (In the zoo’s defense, Humboldt penguins are classified as vulnerable to extinction, so it does make a certain amount of sense to be concerned about them reproducing. And since Z and Vielpunkt have done just that, everyone wins!)
Z and Vielpunkt aren’t the first same-sex penguin pair to successfully care for a chick. Another such couple were male chinstrap penguin residents of New York’s Central Park Zoo named Roy and Silo. Roy and Silo, much like the Bremerhaven penguins, were so anxious to hatch an egg that they tried incubating a rock. They were eventually given an “orphaned” fertile egg and successfully raised a female chick named Tango.
Another male penguin couple were removed from their colony in a Chinese zoo last year when they repeatedly tried to steal eggs from male-and-female pairs. (In a rather ingenious move, they actually replaced the eggs they were stealing with rocks.) But visitors complained when the penguins were removed, and eventually they were given two eggs of their own. Since then, a keeper told the Daily Mail, “they’ve turned out to be the best parents in the whole zoo.”
–Lindsay Barnett
Top photo: Z and Vielpunkt in their enclosure
Credit: Carmen Jaspersen / European Pressphoto Agency
Bottom photo: The couple’s chick, who has not been named and whose sex is still unknown
Credit: Carmen Jaspersen / European Pressphoto Agency
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Posted: Just One More Pet
Happy the hippo leaving DC for Milwaukee – sandy beach and females
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This undated photo provided Wednesday, April 29, 2009 by the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C. shows Happy the hippo. The National Zoo’s solitary male Nile hippopotamus is heading to the Milwaukee County Zoo, where his new home will include a pool, a sandy beach and two potential girlfriends, Puddles and Patty. (AP Photo/National Zoo, Mehgan Murphy) |
The National Zoo’s solitary male Nile hippopotamus is heading to the Milwaukee County Zoo, where his new home will include a pool, a sandy beach and two potential girlfriends, Puddles and Patty.
Zoo officials say they’re sad to see Happy go, but that Milwaukee will offer him a great life.
Happy is 28 and weighs about 5,500 pounds. He has to leave the National Zoo because his home is being eliminated for the expansion of the zoo’s elephant exhibit.
The Milwaukee zoo, meanwhile, is beginning a roughly $10 million expansion of its hippopotamus exhibit, part of which will allow visitors to watch hippos swimming underwater.
Happy is expected to move to Milwaukee this summer.
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Source: The Washington Post
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New Elephant Facility Put on Hold at Los Angeles Zoo
Billy, the zoo’s lone elephant, takes a dip as handler Vicky Guarnett tries to get his attention. On Monday, the City Council’s budget and finance committee met and discussed whether the zoo project should be shut down. Project is now on hold.
Background
We are very close to freeing Billy and stopping the practice of keeping elephants at L.A. Zoo.
Like other urban zoos across the country, L.A. Zoo is unable to provide the vast acreage needed by elephants, who can walk tens of miles a day in the wild and have home ranges of 120 square miles or more. Yet the Zoo is embarking on a 3.5-acre elephant exhibit renovation at a cost to taxpayers of $42 million that still will not provide the space elephants need. Even worse, this small amount of space is subdivided into four yards, and the planned barn can hold as many as 10 elephants. (The Zoo may initially hold fewer elephants but plans to breed.)
However, new information was brought to light that was not presented to the L.A. City Council when they voted in 2006 to approve funding for the exhibit renovation.
Council members were not aware of the zoo¹s tragic record of thirteen dead elephants since 1975 or the fact that more than half of those elephants did not live to age 20. An elephant¹s natural lifespan is 60 to 70 years.
They also were not provided the entire fiscal picture, including the projected yearly cost of maintaining elephants at L.A. Zoo. If the zoo were to hold eight elephants, it would cost the already cash-strapped City of L.A. about $1 million per year just to care for them.
Based on the above, Councilmember Tony Cardenas presented a motion in October that would stop the L.A. Zoo¹s elephant exhibit renovation and send its only elephant, Billy, to a sanctuary.
The motion was heard by the full L.A. City Council on November 19th, and now goes to the Budget & Finance Committee for further discussion in the first week of December. It will then return to the full council that same week for a final vote.
More than ever, we need your help to rescue Billy, who has been living in solitary confinement at L.A. Zoo for more than two years. Elephants are highly social animals, including the males, making Billy¹s confinement all that more inhumane. Billy displays zoochotic behavior, repetitively bobbing his head up and down, a result of stress and boredom. This behavior is not seen in wild elephants.
Watch a video on Billy and the L.A. Zoo. For more information on how you can help Billy, please see below.
TARA AND GITA
The most recent deaths at L.A. Zoo include 39-year-old Tara, an African elephant who died in 2004. Keepers found her down on the ground one morning and unable to get up due to severe arthritis. She died shortly thereafter.
Similarly, keepers found 48-year-old Gita down one morning, and she died later that day. She, too, had suffered from advanced arthritis, as revealed in her necropsy (her body was riddled with the disease). IDA exposed the terrible failure of Zoo personnel to take action after observing Gita down early during the night prior to her death. It was later determined that Gita may have needlessly and painfully suffered for as long as 12 to 17 hours before getting veterinary attention. She had also suffered chronic foot infections throughout her life, which eventually led to the partial amputation of one toe in September 2005. IDA requested an USDA investigation into Tara and Gita¹s deaths, the results of which are still pending after two years.
RUBY
After years of intense campaigning by IDA, Ruby made an historic journey in May 2006 from her tiny, off-exhibit enclosure at L.A. Zoo, where she was held alone, to her new home at the PAWS Sanctuary in Northern California. Ruby is thriving on more than 70 acres of rolling, grassy hills and happily shares the company of other African elephants!
What You Can Do
– Please keep all communications concise and polite. We are trying to influence city officials to support our position, and negativity will not get us the votes we need. Please don’t give anyone an excuse to vote against this important issue!
– If you are a Los Angeles resident, please write and call city council members and express your strong opposition to spending millions of dollars of your taxpayer money on an inadequate elephant exhibit at L.A. Zoo. Urge him or her to help send Billy to a sanctuary and to close the Zoo¹s elephant exhibit. Click here to locate your City Council member online. You can also dial 311 within the City of Los Angeles, or call 213-473-3231 from the Greater Los Angeles area.
– Please write to L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa at mayor@lacity.org thanking him for the great strides the city has made toward becoming more humane. Ask that he reject spending millions of dollars of taxpayer money on an inadequate elephant exhibit at L.A. Zoo. Urge him to send Billy to a sanctuary and to close the Zoo¹s elephant exhibit.
CONTACTS:
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
Los Angeles City Hall
200 N. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone: 213-978-0600 Fax: 213-978-0750
Email: mayor@lacity.org
District 1 – Ed Reyes
Phone: 213-473-7001 Fax: 213-485-8907
Email: councilmember.reyes@lacity.org
District 2 – Wendy Greuel
Phone: 213-473-7002 Fax: 213-680-7895
Email: councilmember.greuel@lacity.org
District 3 – Dennis P. Zine
Phone: 213-473-7003
Email: councilmember.zine@lacity.org
District 4 – Tom LaBonge
Phone: 213-473-7004 Fax: 213-624-7810
Email: councilmember.labonge@lacity.org
District 5 – Jack Weiss
Phone: 213-473-7005 Fax: 213-978-2250
Email: councilmember.weiss@lacity.org
District 6 – Tony Cardenas
Phone: 213-473-7006 Fax: 213-847-0549
Email: councilmember.cardenas@lacity.org
District 7 – Richard Alarcon
Phone: 213-473-7007 Fax: 213-847-0707
use contact form at http://www.lacity.org/council/cd7/contact.htm
District 8 – Bernard Parks
Phone: 213-473-7008 Fax: 213-485-7683
Email: councilmember.parks@lacity.org
District 9 – Jan Perry
Phone: 213-473-7009 Fax: 213-473-5946
Email: jan.perry@lacity.org
District 10 – Herb J. Wesson, Jr.
Phone: 213-473-7010 Fax: 213-485-9829
Email: councilmember.wesson@lacity.org
District 11 – Bill Rosendahl
Phone: 213-473-7011 Fax: 213-473-6926
Email: councilmember.rosendahl@lacity.org
District 12 – Greig Smith
Phone: 213-473-7012 Fax: 213-473-6925
Email: councilmember.smith@lacity.org
District 13 – Eric Garcetti
Phone: 213-473-7013 Fax: 213-613-0819
Email: councilmember.garcetti@lacity.org
District 14 – Jose Huizar
Phone: 213-473-7014 Fax: 213-847-0680
Email: councilmember.huizar@lacity.org
District 15 – Janice Hahn
Phone: 213-473-7015 Fax: 213-626-5431
Email: councilmember.hahn@lacity.org
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Save a Life…Adopt Just One More…Pet!
Everyday we read or hear another story about pets and other animals being abandoned in record numbers while at the same time we regularly hear about crazy new rules and laws being passed limiting the amount of pets that people may have, even down to one or two… or worse yet, none.
Nobody is promoting hoarding pets or animals, but at a time when there are more pets and animals of all types being abandoned or being taken to shelters already bursting at the seams, there is nothing crazier than legislating away the ability of willing adoptive families to take in just one more pet!!
Our goal is to raise awareness and help find homes for all pets and animals that need one by helping to match them with loving families and positive situations. Our goal is also to help fight the trend of unfavorable legislation and rules in an attempt to stop unnecessary Euthenization!!
“All over the world, major universities are researching the therapeutic value of pets in our society and the number of hospitals, nursing homes, prisons and mental institutions which are employing full-time pet therapists and animals is increasing daily.” ~ Betty White, American Actress, Animal Activist, and Author of Pet Love
‘Until One Has Loved an Animal, Part of Their Soul Remains Unawakened’
So if you have the room in your home and the love in your heart… Adopt Just One More Pet or consider becoming a Foster parent for pets… Also check out: Little Critter: Just One More Pet
Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know(Kindle)
Photos By: Marion Algier – The UCLA Shutterbug
There is always room for Just One More Pet. So if you have room in your home and room in your heart… Adopt Just One More! If you live in an area that promotes unreasonable limitations on pets… fight the good fight and help change the rules and legislation…
Save the Life of Just One More…Animal!
Recent and Seasonal Shots
As I have been fighting Cancer… A battle I am gratefully winning, my furkids have not left my side. They have been a large part of my recovery!! Ask Marion
Photos by the UCLA Shutterbug are protected by copyright, Please email at JustOneMorePet@gmail.com or find us on twitter @JustOneMorePet for permission to duplicate for commerical purposes or to purchase photos.
See Creative Pet Halloween Costumes
If you can adopt or foster just one more pet, you could be saving a life, while adding joy to your own! Our shelters are over-flowing… Please join the fight to make them all ‘NO-Kill’ facilities.
Help Make a Difference
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- In Memory of Rocky – Until We Meet Again on Rainbow Bridge August 29, 2015By JoAnn, Marion, and Tim Algier This past week, we lost a dear family member, Rocky, who had just outlived his “human pet-dad”, Tom, by just a few months. It certainly would have been interesting to know what they thought and what experiences they had had in common!! Just this side of heaven is a […]justonemorepet
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- They Were Dead Puppy Parts Instead of Dead Baby July 16, 2015Bristol Palin: Fellow SixSeeds blogger Zeke Pipher has a great question: If they were dead puppy parts, or parts from homosexual babies, or babies that self-identified as adults, it’d be a different story. Meaning, it would be a story. But as it is, the fact that these fetuses don’t look like puppies, and their sexual […]justonemorepet
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- Keep Your Pets Safe on the 4th of July June 30, 2015Family and friends of G.R. Gordon-Ross watch his private fireworks show at the Youth Sports Complex in Lawrence, Kan., Friday, June 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner) Mercury News – Originally posted on July 02, 2013: The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. Hot dogs, potato salad and, of course, fireworks. But Independence […]justonemorepet
- JOMP Salutes Doggie Dads Both Two and Four Legged June 21, 2015Very few dogs have the experience of being parents these days and especially seeing their litters through the process of weaning and then actually being able to remain part of a pack with at least part of their family. Apachi is our Doggie Dad. He is a Chiweenie and here he is is watching his […]justonemorepet
- Smartest Dog In the World, Chaser – 60 Minutes With Anderson Cooper June 15, 2015By Marion Algier – Just One More Pet (JOMP) – Cross-Posted at AskMarion Anderson Cooper met Chaser, a dog who can identify over a thousand toys, and because of whom, scientists are now studying the brain of man’s best friend. Chaser is also the subject of a book: Chaser: Unlocking the Genius of the Dog […]justonemorepet
- Quebec bill changes animals from "property" to sentient beings and includes jail time for cruelty June 14, 2015By Tamara – Dog Heirs – Cross-Posted at JOMP Quebec, Canada – Animals will be considered “sentient beings” instead of property in a bill tabled in the Canadian province of Quebec. The legislation states that "animals are not things. They are sentient beings and have biological needs." Agriculture Minister Pierre Paradis proposed the bill and […] […]justonemorepet
- In Memory of Rocky – Until We Meet Again on Rainbow Bridge August 30, 2015
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Great Book for Children and Pet Lovers… And a Perfect Holiday Gift
One More PetEmily loves animals so much that she can’t resist bringing them home. When a local farmer feels under the weather, she is only too eager to “feed the lambs, milk the cows and brush the rams.” The farmer is so grateful for Emily’s help that he gives her a giant egg... Can you guess what happens after that? The rhythmic verse begs to be read aloud, and the lively pictures will delight children as they watch Emily’s collection of pets get bigger and bigger.
Buy Now: A Must Have For Every Pet Owner
