Posted on 09/05/2005 7:22:47 PM PDT by sassbox
While New Orleans officials were saying that Hurricane Katrina's death toll would likely be in the thousands, the city's animal centers fared better, with only a pair of river otters reported dead at the Audubon Zoo and a whooping crane lost at the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species.
"From what I understand, we didn't take any water," zoo spokeswoman Sarah Burnette told CNN. Most of the damage to the zoo -- which houses about 1,200 animals in natural habitats -- appeared to be limited to uprooted trees and plants, she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
In anticipation of Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans zoo stockpiled fuel, food and other supplies,
Hmmmm....looks like some folks in the city knew how to prepare for this storm ahead of time. The zookeepers had their stuff together and stockpiled food and water. Yet no one in NOLA city govt thought to stockpile enough food and water for the folks in the Superdome.
Not hard to understand, just remember that it was an Audubon zoo. GangGreen clucks up again!
Very good news indeed.
Especially when you consider the massive Croc that lives there, as well as some extremely venomous snakes from around the world.
Apparently the reptile house wasn't targeted by the looters.
You mean the zoo keepers didn't expect the federal government to instantly make up for decades of poor planning and corruption?
Will the animals still "ax" for you?
Yeah,
the most water oriented animals croaked? What the heck?
Maybe they didn't worry as much about them and they got hurt or something.
Or maybe the toxic water killed them
Actually when I started hearing about the massive looting, I wondered how the zoo was holding up. Wouldn't it be a shame, I thought, if some thugs tried to attack the zoo only to be greeted by some very hungry lions, crocodiles, and venomous snakes?
If only there were video.
The zoos administrative staff and employees are to be congratulated. Maybe they should have been the ones to handle the emergency plans for New Orleans?
Who allowed them to have a whooping crane? I thought that these were absolutely off-limits to anyone but a few breeding programs.
I'd say the zoo people should be in charge of Louisiana's emergency response system.
Yeah, they'll even inquire about you.
After seeing the "leadership" of Nagin and Blanco, putting the zoo animals in charge of emergency response would be an improvement!
Or maybe the toxic water killed them
I thought that, too, went I read the article.
ROFL!!!
Bum-bum, ba-duduh-du-du-duh...
:-D )))
It could have been the polluted water, or even (as strange as it sounds) exposure. River otters have very dense fur which insulates them well, however they must periodically dry out their fur or they will loose tremendous amounts of body heat. Combine the loss of body heat with their fast metabolism and hypothermia can quickly become a problem.
I was glad to read that Audubon Park made it through the storm OK. I work at a large midwestern zoo and we were worried about them.
Boy, we here in NY sure know about wet clothes and heat loss, especially in the winter. You just don't think of it being a problem in a warm climate. Don't otters groom themselves a lot? I thought I've seen them doing that at our zoo. In that case I'd lean towards toxins or disease. Poor babies.
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