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What is surprising is that he is not afraid to go into the cage with predators and he treats them as if they were just dogs. Moreover, I would never put my child on the back of a big cat even if I was upbringing the animal myself.

"We were very scared, because it was the first time we had seen this," Castellano said. Keepers in Ecuador put that bear, which had previously been fed human food—including Coca-Cola—on its natural diet of fruits and bamboo, and added enrichment items, such as toys and exotic foods, into the bear's enclosure. Four months later the fur grew back.

American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert won't be appearing on "Good Morning America" tomorrow. TVNewser has learned ABC News canceled the concert after Lambert's sexually charged performance at the American Music Awards Sunday night. Lambert led men on leashes, dragged a woman by her foot, and smashed a man's head into his crotch, all while singing his new single "For Your Entertainment."

A deer was fatally injured Sunday after jumping into a lion enclosure at the National Zoo, as visitors looked on.

The four passengers in the jeep must feel a whisker away from death as a lion jumps up on to their bonnet for lunch. But that's all part of the attraction. The jeep is a new zoo exhibit which allows visitors to get incredibly close to the lions. The back part of the vehicle, up to where the windscreen should be, is actually on the outside of the reinforced glass cage. The bonnet is on the inside, and covered with meat to entice the big cats closer. It makes for an exhilarating experience, according to Robyn and Davin Price, both...

CROC hunter Steve Irwin's dream of opening an Aussie zoo in Las Vegas is to be realised, three years after his death. Nevada officials say plans for an Australia-themed zoo in desert gaming mecca are back on the agenda. Representatives for the Irwins met Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman last week to discuss resurrecting their proposal for a US Australia Zoo featuring crocodile wrestling. "It looks like a great project with a crocodile-type enclosure where they would wrestle with the crocodiles and feed the crocodiles and have a real educational component to it and we're going to continue those discussions,"...

The Calgary Zoo said it has no plans to remove a dancing elephant statue after a complaint from a Christian group that it's an inappropriate religious icon. A private donor gave the statue, modeled after the Hindu god Ganesh, to the zoo in 2006 to stand in front of the Asian elephant exhibit. As CBC News first reported, Concerned Christians Canada sent a letter raising its concerns that the statue was "selective religious partiality" to the zoo on Thursday. "A lot of people are saying we're being intolerant. I don't consider asking that the zoo look at this from a...

Just because youngsters are back in school does not mean the family fun has to stop. One attraction that offers tons of sights and sounds as well as several learning opportunities is "Dinosaurs Alive!" at Brookfield Zoo. The "Dinosaurs Alive!" exhibit will introduce guests to dinosaurs ranging from a 4-foot-tall "baby" to adult-size species. When: Through October. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekends. Where: Brookfield Zoo, 3300 Golf Road, Brookfield. Tickets: $5 for adults, $3 for ages 3 to 11 and ages 65 and older, and free for ages 2 and...

Woman Says Zoo Elephant Threw Stone at Her SEPTEMBER 16, 2009 05:42 Police yesterday said they are probing whether an elephant at the zoo inside Children’s Grand Park in Seoul threw a stone at a woman. The Gwangjin Ward Police Station said, “A woman surnamed Kim reported to police that she was hit by a stone thrown by an elephant.” Kim was taking a walk in the quiet zoo around 9:30 a.m. Monday. She told The Dong-A Ilbo, “The elephant (Taesani) was picking up a stone with its trunk. I was really impressed that it really used its trunk to...

06:21 PM EDT on Friday, September 11, 2009 By NATALIE DICK / NewsChannel 36 E-mail Natalie: NDick@WCNC.com MAIDEN, N.C. -- A Catawba County girl is recovering after a bizarre incident at a local petting zoo, and now her mother worries other kids could be hurt, too. Animal Control is investigating and they've asked the State Department of Agriculture to get involved. Nine-year-old Elizabeth Ross has always loved animals but she'll never think about them in quite the same way after what happened to her at Buffalo Beal's Animal Park in Maiden on Labor Day. The soft spoken fourth-grader was hand...

We made the brief music video of chimps, polar bears, zebras, elephants and more at the Baltimore Zoo. We recommend the zoo to anyone visiting Baltimore. Watch video.

Dolphins Blamed For Woman's Slip And Fall Allecyn Edwards, possibly wanting to prove she could be as creative as her parents were with her first name, alleged in a complaint filed August 18 that the Brookfield Zoo and its dolphins are responsible for injuries she suffered last year. Yessss . . . Just a Little Closer to the Pool, Human Edwards alleges that the zoo "recklessly and willfully trained and encouraged" its dolphins to "throw water at the spectators . . . making the floor wet and slippery." The zoo and/or its dolphin accomplices are therefore blamed for the creation...

"CHICAGO (Reuters) – A woman is suing a Chicago-area zoo for a 2008 fall near a dolphin exhibit, accusing zookeepers of encouraging the mammals to splash water and then failing to protect spectators from wet surfaces, local media reported on Thursday." "Officials "recklessly and willfully trained and encouraged the dolphins to throw water at the spectators in the stands, making the floor wet and slippery," but failed to post warning signs or lay down protective mats or strips, the suit said, according to the reports." "Edwards is demanding more than $50,000 for lost wages, medical expenses and emotional trauma from...

Officials at an Idaho zoo said they nearly had to X-ray an entire flock of pelicans when visitors reported one of the birds had swallowed a cell phone. Zoo keepers at the Tauphaus Park Zoo in Idaho Falls said visitors reported seeing the pelicans tossing a cell phone back and forth until one of the birds eventually swallowed the object whole, KIDK-TV, Idaho Falls, reported Thursday. "Luckily the bird regurgitated it so it wouldn't harm him. We just need folks to be really cautious when they're in the zoo and remember that they're guests in the animals homes and they...

SAN MATEO -- The two San Jose brothers who survived a Christmas Day 2007 tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo were arrested in San Mateo for misdemeanor violations after a traffic stop, the latest in a series of run-ins with the law, authorities said today. The brothers recently split what remained of a $900,000 settlement the zoo paid them in connection with the attack. Their arrests come two weeks after the older sibling, Kulbir Dhaliwal, 25, was booked on suspicion of felony cocaine possession after being stopped near San Jose State University. The latest incident happened Wednesday when a...

Snake 'befriends' snack hamster Aochan, the snake 'seems to enjoy' being with Gohan, the hamster A rodent-eating snake and a hamster have developed an unusual bond at a zoo in the Japanese capital, Tokyo. [Pic in URL] Their relationship began in October last year, when zookeepers presented the hamster to the snake as a meal. The rat snake, however, refused to eat the rodent. The two now share a cage, and the hamster sometimes falls asleep sitting on top of his natural foe. "I have never seen anything like it," a zookeeper at the Mutsugoro Okoku zoo told the Associated...

GAZA—Something didn't quite look right about the zebra, but it was hard to say exactly what. Of the several ramshackle zoos in Gaza, Marah, located not far from the Bureij refugee camp, is by far the cheeriest: The animals are lively, the enclosures clean, and children gather around the cage of a resting lion.

At the Taiyuan Zoo in northern China's Shanxi province, a red panda gave birth to two cubs unexpectedly on June 25. "No one knew she was pregnant" because the panda's bushy fur and general plumpness masked her telltale burgeoning stomach, zoo employee Ha Guojiang told China's state news agency. Immediately after the two cubs were born, they were abandoned by their mother -- so zoo staff set about finding a suitable adoptive mother. Several female dogs that had recently given birth to their own litters of puppies were considered for the gig, the Associated Press reports. Zoo staff chose this...

Elephant carwash raises zoo cash A wildlife safari in Oregon, USA, has come up with an unusual way to raise money in the tough economic climate. For $20, visitors can have their car washed by the zoo's elephants, who scrub with sponges and rinse with their trunks.

The Franklin Park Zoo, a Boston landmark for nearly a century, may be forced to close and euthanize up to a fifth of the animals in its care due to devastating budget cuts. New England's largest zoo and its counterpart, the Stoneham Zoo, saw their state funding cut from $6.5 million to $2.5 million by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, the Boston Globe reported, and expects to run out of money by October. Zoo officials said they would have to lay off most of their 165 employees and find new homes for the more than 1,000 animals they currently house, the...

At first Stewart Loew was excited by the sight: a mountain lion on the family's farm near Amado. In 40 years on the Agua Linda Farm, Loew said this was first large cat he had seen when it appeared in the donkey pen about a month ago. But soon, his animals started to turn up mauled or dead. First there were four sheep. Then, on June 15, an awful sight: 16 pygmy and nubian goats — all the mammals in the farm's petting zoo — were killed. Only the geese were spared. Loew and his wife, Laurel, who run the...

"You see that it's a knife, but you think it's not possible there's a knife inside."

The Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kan., will no longer be selling blue sno-cones after a dangerous mix-up at the refreshment stand, Fox4KC reported. Four people became sick Thursday when a zoo employee accidentally poured a degreasing agent into the sno-cone machine instead of the flavored syrup.

The San Francisco Zoo agreed Thursday to pay $900,000 to two brothers who survived the fatal attack by an escaped tiger on Christmas Day 2007, sources familiar with the case told The Chronicle. The agreement with Kulbir, 25, and Amritpal "Paul" Dhaliwal, 20, resolves claims the brothers brought in U.S. District Court against the city, zoo and Sam Singer, a crisis public relations consultant the zoo hired after the attack, one source said. Thursday's settlement comes less than two weeks after attorneys for the brothers filed court documents alleging that police officials had ordered officers to issue arrest warrants for...

WILD-FIRED BY THE ZOO By SALLY GOLDENBERG April 24, 2009 -- Situation wanted: Will work for hay. Layoffs in the city have spread from the piggy traders on Wall Street to the animals at the Bronx Zoo. The institution is closing four exhibits and shipping hundreds of creatures to zoos and aquariums around the country, officials told the City Council Cultural Affairs Committee yesterday.

CUTS WILL OUST HUNDREDS OF BRONX BEASTIES- Situation wanted: Will work for hay. Layoffs in the city have spread from the piggy traders on Wall Street to the animals at the Bronx Zoo. The institution is closing four exhibits and shipping hundreds of creatures to zoos and aquariums around the country, officials told the City Council Cultural Affairs Committee yesterday.

New York, New York (AHN) - Banks, automakers, and insurance companies aren't the only ones suffering from the country's economic woes. Turns out the recession is causing hundreds of animals to be evicted from the Bronx Zoo as well. On Thursday, zoo officials-facing tightened budgets-told a New York City Council committee that they would need to send away deer, bats, foxes, antelopes and other animals to replacement zoos around the country. In light of a $15 million budget shortfall, Bronx zoo officials say they're also closing four exhibits at the 114-year-old Bronx Park zoo. With more than 2 million visitors...

A GERMAN woman mauled by three polar bears after she leapt into the moat surrounding their pen at a Berlin zoo was apparently suicidal after a string of setbacks, a newspaper reports. The daily Bild reported today that Sandy K, 32, who is still in intensive care after the attack, went to the zoo alone on Friday while her eight-year-old daughter spent the Easter holiday weekend with her father, Sandy's estranged partner Lars. Sandy had long had financial problems and in February, the electricity was cut off to her flat, which she had been lighting since then with candles. "She...

This is the terrifying moment a woman was attacked by a polar bear after jumping into its zoo enclosure. The 32-year-old leapt over bars at Berlin Zoo during the bears' feeding time yesterday. Despite six zookeepers' efforts to distract the four predators kept in the enclosure, the woman was bitten several times on her arms and legs. The brave keepers eventually managed to push the bear away and pull the woman to safety. She was bitten by one of the four older polar bears in the enclosure and not by the famous Knut, who took Germany by storm as a...

"Zoo keepers who saved the life of a woman who jumped into a polar bear enclosure at Berlin Zoo revealed on Monday that they were moments away from shooting the animals. Rifles had already been issued to marksmen and Heiner Kloes, a zoo spokesman, said: This woman's behaviour not only put her life in danger but also that of the staff who had to rescue her. However, we do have guns and we would have been prepared to use them without hesitation if it was felt it was the only way to save the woman. The woman known only as...

A controversial zoo in Argentina allows tourists to have extremely close encounters with some of the most dangerous predators in the world. Here at the Lujan Zoo near Buenos Aires visitors can ride lions, cuddle bears, stroke tigers and feed cheetahs. The animals appear to be very sedate and tame and keepers casually supervise the animals that aren't chained when they are out of their cages. Visitors can even pick up the smaller animals and manhandle them at risk to themselves and the creatures.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - It's called a white-crested laughing thrush and it's bringing smiles to zookeepers in Syracuse. The Rosamond Gifford Zoo greeted a new bird March 7. The chick is named Zephyr.

President Obama has announced his intention to nominate John Berry to serve as the next director of the Office of Personnel Management. A veteran of the Treasury and Interior departments and current director of the National Zoo, Berry also once served as legislative assistant to Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). "From turning around the National Zoo to fostering a more productive work environment at the Department of the Interior, John Berry has a tremendous record of effective management in key public service roles," Obama said in a statement. "I'm confident that he will provide that same leadership at OPM to help...

Weighing in at a modest 83 pounds but topping the charts at about seven feet long, this island girl is probably not one you're likely to see in a bikini anytime soon... especially with her scaly skin, sharp claws, and forked tongue. Hannibal, a female Komodo Dragon, makes her debut at the Palm Beach Zoo on Friday, but before the bright lights and camera bulbs make their way into her new home, she was scoping out the trees, the bushes, and the man-made pond on Thursday morning. Zoo officials are excited to show off the rare Komodo Dragon species, not...

SYDNEY, Australia - A 7-year-old boy broke into a popular Outback zoo, fed a string of animals to the resident crocodile and bashed several lizards to death with a rock, the zoo's director said Friday. The 30-minute rampage, caught on the zoo's security camera, happened early Wednesday after the boy jumped a security fence at the Alice Springs Reptile Center in central Australia, said zoo director Rex Neindorf.

A zoo director calls a porcupine into his office to break the news. “There’s no easy way to say this,” the director tells the prickly animal as it squirms on its chair. “Even though you bring record numbers of people to New York and help the economy, we’re going to have to let you go.” The humorous video — made by the Wildlife Conservation Society, which oversees the city’s zoos and the New York Aquarium — has a sobering reality behind it. In New York State’s next fiscal year, which starts in April, state financing for all 76 zoos, botanical...

BALTIMORE - Two jaguars at the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo were in quarantine Monday after at least one of them attacked and critically injured an animal care worker.

"HAMAS AND THEIR SYSTEMATIC VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAWS (NOT TO MENTION BASIC HUMAN DECENCY)" "Video follows"

SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco officials have taken a step to try to ensure that the city is reimbursed for $75,000 in medical bills incurred by one of two brothers mauled by a tiger at the San Francisco Zoo last Christmas. In a filing this week in federal court, officials said the city wanted to be compensated for the cost of treating Kulbir Dhaliwal, now 24, at the city-run San Francisco General Hospital after the attack. The document, a medical reimbursement lien, was filed Wednesday in connection with proceedings in a federal lawsuit filed against the city and by Dhaliwal...

The Cincinnati Zoo is abuzz about two new friends. Tommy T., the Zoo's star cheetah cub, and Pow Wow, the Anatolian Guard Dog puppy, are like two peas in a pod. Cheetah Days, the adorable new blog has all the pics to prove it.

/begin my translation Kim Jong-il Giving Field Guidance at Pyongyang Zoo [2008-12-02 11:12 ] N. Korean leader Kim Jong-il gave "lengthy" field guidance at Pyongyang's Central Zoo which has completed its renovation, according to KCNA' report on Dec. 2. Its dispatch reported that the event occurred 'recently.' There have been N. Korean reports on Kim Jong-il sending various animals as gifts to the zoo, but this is the first time he gave field guidance there since Yonhap News started recording KCNA reports in 1993. /end my translation

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Puzzled zookeepers in northern Japan have discovered the reason why their attempts to mate two polar bears kept failing: Both are female. The municipal zoo in the city of Kushiro in Hokkaido brought in a polar bear cub three years ago. They named it Tsuyoshi, after the popular baseball outfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo, and waited until it reached reproductive age. In June, the zoo introduced Tsuyoshi to its resident bear, an 11-year-old female named Kurumi, and waited for sparks to fly. But much to the disappointment of zookeepers, Tsuyoshi never made any amorous advances toward Kurumi. Earlier...

Smithsonian National Zoological Park Washington, D.C. Short documentary featuring Pandas, primates and more. Thanks for watching.

(11-12) 13:42 PST San Francisco - -- Two San Jose brothers who survived a Christmas Day tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo have filed a long-expected lawsuit against the city, zoo and others, claiming slander and civil rights violations in the aftermath of an incident that drew international attention. [snip]

In the latest flap over religion in public places, a Lincoln restaurateur and Christian church have decided to pull their Noah's ark booth out of the Lincoln Children's Zoo's annual "Boo at the Zoo" trick-or-treating event. The reason? A new zoo diversity policy forbade Bible verses on the booth's pizza coupons, and the restaurant owner and church leaders did not want to go along with that ruling. The owner of the daVinci's restaurant chain, Kelly Knudson, said he and First Covenant Evangelical Church leaders decided to pull out despite a 15-year history of participating in the event. For all those...

She looks a little rough, but the Assiniboine Park Zoo's polar bear Debby, famous for being the oldest living polar bear in the world, is dealing better than expected with health issues that threatened her life earlier this year, zoo officials said Thursday. Zookeepers feared the worst for the 41-year-old after a series of strokes over several months started taking its toll earlier this year. Officials informed the public about Debby's ailing health in August so people who enjoy seeing her could return for one more visit. Debby's keeper, Bob Sydor, said Friday that the bear's weight is a continuing...

(WXYZ) In the wake of his resignation, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's name will be taken off the water tower at the Detroit Zoo.

A PYTHON has killed a student zookeper at the weekend and was caught trying to swallow the man's body when horrified coworkers arrived, Venezuela's El Universal newspaper reports. The other employees of the Caracas zoo had to beat the 3m-long Burmese Python to make it release the body of 29-year-old Erick Arrieta, whose head it was swallowing. < > "The young man underestimated the animal's instinct," said the director general of the Parque del Este zoo, Javier Hernandez.

SAN FRANCISCO — One of two brothers who survived a tiger attack at San Francisco Zoo has been sentenced to 16 months in state prison for violating probation in a felony reckless driving case. In December, Paul Dhaliwal was sentenced to 30 days in Santa Clara County jail and three years of probation for leading police on a high-speed chase through San Jose last year. But three days after sentencing he was cited for marijuana possession, and in March he was also arrested on suspicion of shoplifting. Prosecutors say the 20-year-old Dhaliwal received the 16-month-prison sentence last week in Santa...

If you are concerned about the growing intrusiveness of regulators into our private lives, then you may want to read about Robin Countryman-Velk and her Kiddin’ Korral Animal and Activities project in the Napa, California, area. Kiddin’ Korral is part of a 1,400-acre dude ranch that is owned and operated by some 1,400 owners (the acreage is not divided). The owners have an association with a board of directors that oversees the operations. The owners can use the place any time they want—it has 100 cabins, 200 campsites, a couple of large pools and, for the last two years, the...