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Newt Gingrich has never been shy about his love of zoos. While campaigning here for the GOP presidential nomination, Gingrich sneaked away for an unannounced Valentine’s Day visit to the San Diego Zoo. “I really like to see the animals,” Gingrich said Tuesday during a private tour in Balboa Park. “But I also like to see how zoos think. What are they trying to accomplish?” In San Diego, the elephant complex is replete with what he described as a sophisticated introduction to fossils that gives visitors “a feel for Southern California.” Gingrich spent a few extra moments staring silently at...

Two men who prosecutors said were dressed as women when they mugged two people in November 2011 near Lincoln Park Zoo have been charged with a pair of additional attacks that authorities said happened the month before, police said.

Oakland unveiled an austere budget Monday that calls for sweeping cuts to community favorites like Children's Fairyland and the Oakland Zoo but keeps police services intact. In all, more than $28 million will be sliced from the budget, mostly from the $388 million general fund. The cuts are due to the loss of redevelopment funds, which Oakland used to fund services and programs across the city. "It's not clean and neat. We wish it were," said Mayor Jean Quan. "For California's older, larger cities, like Oakland, losing these redevelopment funds has been very, very tough." The City Council will discuss...

A gigantic python snake in Florida ate a 76-pound adult deer. The 16 foot long Burmese python was one of the largest pythons discovered to date in the sunshine state. According to Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission’s exotic species coordinator Scott Hardin, if these huge snakes aren’t killed, they could migrate northward. A government sanctioned shotgun blast stopped this snake from its potential journey to Atlanta or the Carolinas. And just how any inches around did the beast’s belly have to measure in order to covert a 76 pound Bambi into breakfast? 44 inches. Oh, and what is the average...

ZANESVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Amid expressions of horror and revulsion at the killing of dozens of wild animals in Ohio — and photographs of their bloody carcasses — animal rights advocates agreed there was little local authorities could have done to save the dangerous creatures once they began roaming the countryside after their owner released them before taking his own life. Sheriff's deputies shot 48 animals — including 18 rare Bengal tigers and 17 lions — after Terry Thompson, owner of the private Muskingum County Animal Farm near Zanesville, threw their cages open Tuesday and then committed suicide.

The animals that were killed included 18 tigers, nine male lions, eight female lions, six black bears, three mountain lions, two grizzly bears, one baboon and two wolves, Sheriff Matt Lutz said.

Young culprits found with animal from Sibley Park zoo MANKATO — A couple of young rustlers attempted to use their imagination to escape the long arm of the law Saturday, but after about an hour of story telling they eventually learned they’d made a baaaaad decision. A Mankato resident called 911 at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday to report two very young girls, who turned out to be under the age of 10, were walking along Carney Avenue north of Riverfront Drive. They were in their pajamas and had a goat with them, the caller said. ~~~ They told the officer...

A snake with two heads, each able to think and eat separately and even steal food from each other, has become a popular attraction at a Ukrainian zoo. The small albino California Kingsnake, now on show in the Black Sea resort of Yalta is quite a handful, zoo workers told AFP. The snake's two heads are fiercely independent, are not always in agreement and like to snatch food from each other, said keepers of the private zoo, called Skazka, or Fairy Tale. "Sometimes one head wants to crawl in one direction and the other head in another direction," zoo director...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - An ordinary family trip to the zoo is anything but, as a female lion takes a special liking to a toddler visiting her exhibit. The 400 pound lioness seemed very curious about the toddler. At one point she even looks like she's trying to eat the boy through the thick glass wall! The boy's father filmed the entire encounter. "I was definitely intimidated and a little, you know, it just seems like natural mother instinct to kind of want to pull him out of there, but he seemed to be having fun," said the mother Catherine...

A wolf at the Minnesota Zoo escaped briefly from its exhibit Wednesday morning before being shot and killed by zoo staff. The animal never left the zoo’s grounds in Apple Valley, and no people were harmed, said zoo spokeswoman Kelly Lessard. The zoo has yet to say how the wolf got loose. The 8-year-old male had to be killed, Lessard said, “because of [its] proximity to people.” Mary Woestehoff, of Richfield, said she saw the wolf “running around the path” at about 10:30 a.m., prompting her to scoop up her 18-month-old daughter. Woestehoff went to a zoo emergency telephone and...

A 7-year-old boy is hospitalized after being attacked by a leopard at the Sedgwick County Zoo. Dispatchers said the call came in just before 1:30. Zoo officials said the boy climbed a guardrail to get closer to the leopard cage. The leopard was able to reach the child with both of its paws, injuring the boy on his neck. The boy suffered wounds on his neck and face. The zoo official said people riding the zoo tram saw the attack, jumped off and scared the leopard away. Via Christi on St. Francis reports that the child is now in fair...

WASHINGTON - D.C. Police say a teenage boy was stabbed inside the National Zoo in Northwest. Sources tell FOX 5's Wisdom Martin that a 14-year-old male was stabbed in the chest in the zoo after being jumped by another group of young people. ... In a statement, the National Zoo says they have a person in Zoo police custody and that individual will be turned over to D.C. Police. Easter Monday is traditionally African American Family Day at the National Zoo. Easter Monday has been a Washington-area multicultural tradition that spans more than 100 years. In 2000, there was a...

On my way home from work tonight, I witnessed a mob of approximately 50 teens beating another teen and kicking him in the head right in the middle of 6 lanes of rush hour traffic on Connecticut Avenue just outside the National Zoo. It was terrifying. They left the victim lying in the middle of the street. He eventually stood up and was clearly dazed as he tried to walk. Eventually someone called him to the sidewalk and he managed to stumble away. Police were called but the traffic was simply too heavy for them to be able to catch...

Brain problems apparently caused the shockingly early death of Knut, Germany's four-year-old celebrity polar bear, the Berlin Zoo said Tuesday. Initial findings from a necropsy performed Monday by an institute in the German capital showed "significant changes to the brain, which can be viewed as a reason for the polar bear's sudden death," the zoo said in a statement. The zoo didn't elaborate on the changes to the animal's brain, and officials could not immediately be reached for further comment. Pathologists found no changes to any other organs, the zoo said, adding that it will take several days to produce...

An inquiry is underway after an 8,000lb elephant at a Tennessee zoo backed a trainer into a wall and crushed her to death yesterday. Knoxville Zoo said today that it had temporarily closed its elephant exhibit, while the rest of the zoo remained open. But a zoo spokesman insisted the death of 33-year-old Stephanie James was nothing more than a terrible and tragic accident. Tina Rolen, assistant director of marketing at the zoo, said: 'It's a difficult day but our staff is very professional and they are carrying on with their duties today.' She said the review of yesterday's tragedy...

A new addition to the Leipzig Zoo has yet to be seen by the public, but that hasn't stopped her from becoming a star. Heidi, a young cross-eyed opossum, is shaping up to be the most popular furry critter in Germany since Knut the celebrity polar bear. She won't be visible to the public until July, but a cross-eyed opossum has turned into Germany's new media darling. Two-and-a-half-year-old Heidi has even inspired a YouTube hit, her own high-end stuffed animal, and has more than 49,000 friends on Facebook, and counting. "It really is surprising how famous and loved she is...

Kiburi, a 10-day-old cheetah cub, opened his eyes today at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park's Animal Care Center. He took in the world, gobbled down a bottle, played for a little while, and then went back fast asleep in the window of the nursery. Safari Park guests can see the 1.4-pound bundle of fur in the nursery's window. While he sleeps between 20 and 22 hours a day, he gets a bottle of special formula every 2 ½ hours and also has taken to playing with an adorable ferociousness. Of the 134 cheetahs born at the San Diego Zoo...

The only giant panda born in the United States in 2010 is a male, Zoo Atlanta said Thursday. A happy and healthy cub was born to Lun Lun Nov. 3, 2010, but a recent medical exam revealed the cuddly creature's gender. The exam was performed by the Zoo Atlanta veterinary team and a colleague from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. The unnamed newborn weighs a mere 11 ounces and has begun to develop the species' familiar black and white panda coloration, zoo officials said. His eyes are not yet open. Adult males weigh over 300 pounds. The...

(AP) BERLIN (AP) - Surprise! A Sumatra tiger cub born to a mother previously thought to be infertile is in good health at the Frankfurt Zoo in Germany. Zoo Director Manfred Niekisch says the female cub was born weighing just over two pounds (one kilogram) on Sept. 10 but has gained almost nine pounds (nearly four kilograms) from a steady milk diet. Niekisch said Wednesday the zoo keepers dubbed the baby Daseep and have been raising her by hand after her mother rejected her at birth - common for first-time tiger moms.

Cat nap : Jasradj, an Indian lion relaxes with his head resting on a large rock in his enclosure at the Zurich zoo. (AFP/Fabrice Coffrini)

Beijing Hey kids, wanna go to the zoo today and look at the crocodiles? And then maybe eat one? The meat might be pungent, but the concept seems somewhat tasteless. The Beijing Zoo puts the same animals on its restaurant menu as it keeps behind bars. Crocodile, kangaroo, antelope, and hippopotamus are among the species that visitors can go the zoo to admire on the hoof, and then savor at lunch – steamed, braised, or roasted – at the Bin Feng Tang restaurant.

Archie, a 4,000-lb. white rhinoceros, slipped out of his cage at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens in Florida. It took workers five hours to get him back into his cage. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Workers at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens spent about five hours trying to get a 4,000-pound rhinoceros back in his cage.

As the Topeka Zoo begins interviews to fill its director position, the facility is addressing issues raised by federal inspectors during a visit earlier this week. The U.S. Department of Agriculture cited the zoo for eight noncompliance issues, such as failing to conduct required daily inspections of the elephants' feet, not maintaining a veterinary care protocol for all animals and denying a hippo access to its pool.

Manitowoc - A zoo in Manitowoc was shut down for the day after a bear bit off at least two of a woman's fingers. Police say the 47-year-old had gone past barriers and warning signs at the Lincoln Park Zoo and was apparently trying to feed two bears about 11:30 a.m. Friday.

The doomed animal was CHOSEN by the holidaymakers from a menu, and served up by workers who dumped it off the back of a truck. It got to its feet unsteadily - as the beasts moved in for the kill.

MAYAGÜEZ - Closed exhibits. Strewn trash. Walkways covered with fallen leaves and mud, green areas in need of maintenance, displays with dirty glass and broken and missing wooden handrails – those are just some of what visitors can expect to find at the Dr. Juan A. Rivero Zoo in Mayagüez. “Disappointing” may be the best word to describe what was seen there during a trip to the Puerto Rico National Parks Company facility last week by CyberNews. According to employees, the main reason for the deteriorated condition of one of the chief attractions on the west coast is the lack...

"'Lady Al Qaeda's' lawyers angry over extra security checks at court where she's on trial" BY ALISON GENDAR DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Friday, January 22nd 2010, 3:38 AM SNIPPET: "Lawyers for the so-called "Lady Al Qaeda" are up in arms because spectators at her trial have to show identification and sign in. The extra security check comes on top of a metal detector placed outside the doorway of the Manhattan courtroom where Aafia Siddiqui is on trial for attempted murder. Her defense team said Thursday the precautions are depriving her of a fair trial." Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/01/21/2010-01-21_lady_al_qaedas_lawyers_angry_over_extra_security_checks_at_court_where_shes_on_t.html#ixzz0dKS2tvgx

The Tennessee Aquarium's first penguin chick, a macaroni, now has a name to match her feisty disposition: Pepper. Aquarium election officials reviewed 1,000 submissions from a naming contest and picked the name, which four different people suggested. For $15, visitors to the aquarium can meet Pepper and the other penguins up-close and personal. Starting Jan. 16, aquarium workers will take two groups of six visitors per day for a behind-the-scenes look at Penguins’ Rock from a private observation deck.

Moody Gardens welcomed another baby penguin on Sunday, the third this month. The new babies are among 24 eggs expected to hatch this season, which would be a record. They include gentoo, chinstrap and king penguins. Since the penguins are originally from the Southern Hemisphere of the world, they observe opposite seasons from Texas. This is their springtime and breeding season. Chinstrap and gentoo penguins build rock nests that can reach up to three feet across to protect the eggs from sudden floods and the cold ground. King penguins, on the other hand, hold their eggs on their feet, switching...

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...