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Steef de Prouw built an entire zoo out of Lego bricks! It’s got all the things you expect at a zoo, including a duck pond, an enclosure with a missing sign that makes you wonder what is in there, zookeepers shoveling manure, an aquarium, the snackbar you must pass no matter where you are going, and the animals of course. It also has some things you don’t normally see in a zoo, like a crocodile in the monkey enclosure, clowns, and a kraken. Link -via b3ta
Dr. Peter Kertesz is a dentist in London, England. He has a regular clientele of patients he takes care of during the day. But he also moonlights: Dr. Kertesz recently worked on the huge teeth in the powerful jaws of two tigers at the Dartmoor Zoological Park near Plymouth. One of the tigers had to be treated for a broken tooth. Both were anaesthetized before their dental appointment.
Dr Kertesz is one of only a few specialist zoo dentists in the world, a sideline to his day job of treating humans at his surgery in London’s West End.
His animal career began more than 20 years ago when someone brought in their cat for treatment and he has carried out dental work on exotic species including whales, pandas and elephants.
Zoo curator Will Walker said: “We have had him twice before over the last couple of years to do all our bears and other tigers.”
Dr. Kertesz is paid well for his bravery and expertise, as the bill for the two tigers was £4,500. Link -via Arbroath
Frank Mickadeit, a columnist for the OC Register, is staying in a monkey cage at the Santa Ana Zoo in California. He’s been there three days, and is scheduled to come out at 4PM PDT (7PM EDT) today. Mickadeit joined the monkeys as a human exhibit. The sign attached labeled his species as Columnist horribilis. While they observed him, Mickadeit in turn observed the zoo visitors.
For seven hours, I was entertained and, I hope, moderately entertaining, as a parade of moms with strollers, grandparents with charges, art students from Santa Ana College, biology students from Fullerton College, friends, regular readers and media types wandered up.
If they had no idea a human being was on loan from the Register, the look on their faces said, “What the …” If they did know, they wanted to know, “Why the …”
“Three days, and you’re getting paid?” one woman asked, as I regaled onlookers with a variety of tricks that included blowing smoke rings and figuring out how to extract tiny bits of papaya from a hollow ball my keeper tossed at me.
“Well, uh, yeah, I guess I am getting paid,” I replied indignantly.
“Paid just to sit in a cage three days a week,” she said, shaking her head.
“Oh, no!” I said, finally realizing where she was going. “I’m not here three days every week!”
The zoo has a live webcam trained on their “human exhibit.” Link
(Image credit: Paul Bersebach, OC Register)
Most of the time, the image of a zoo is one of animal protection and education. However, the Beijing zoo has expanded this ‘education’ to include the culinary aspects of some of the more exotic animals housed therein.
For about 20-200 dollars, visitors to the Bin Feng Tang restaurant can sample hippo, scorpion, peacock, shark fin, kangaroo tail, or deer penis. Of course, the restaurant is not without controversy in the animal-loving world, and the restaurant and zoo are under fire for the practices.
“It is utterly inappropriate for a zoo to sell such items,” said Ge Rui of the International Fund for Animal Welfare. “One of the zoo’s missions is to foster love of animals and a desire to protect them. But by selling the meat of caged beasts, this zoo stimulates consumption and increases pressure on the animals in the wild. It is socially irresponsible.”
Link – via shanghaiist
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
Moody Gardens on Galveston Island in Texas welcomed rare twin baby pygmy lorises, a male and a female, born March 22nd. The pygmy loris is not an easy species to breed in captivity, but the twins’ mother Luyen has been very attentive to the babies. The lorises will go on display to the public when a new facility is finished in 2011. See more photos and a video at Zooborns. Link -via Fark
Watch as Oliver the otter creates a masterpiece to be auctioned off for the Pretoria Zoo in South Africa. -via Unique Daily
You might recall Sir David Attenborough introducing us to the lyrebird, a master of mimcry (and later the wonderful remix). Chook the lyrebird lives at the Adelaide Zoo. After a period of construction at the zoo, Chook was able to recreate the sounds of hammers, saws, and power tools exactly. Link -via Arbroath
I don’t know what’s really going on in this picture, but “turtle wax” was my first reaction. Link -via Buzzfeed
A female hippopotamus named Nikica swam out of her enclosure at a private zoo in Plavnica, Montenegro when flood waters rose over the fence. The two-ton hippo has stayed close to the zoo, but cannot be rounded up until the flood recedes.
A spokesman for Montenegro’s natural disasters commission, which responds to floods, said the law required animals that can endanger human lives to be killed. But state veterinary authorities said they were not entitled to kill animals.
Zoo owner Dragan Pejovic insisted Nikica is not dangerous, “unless someone attacks and kicks her.”
He said that her movements were being tracked by the zoo’s private security and that she was “tame and peaceful”.
Pejovic added that Nikica now had nowhere to return because the zoo, on a small island in a lake south of the capital, remains flooded. She was being fed with loaves of bread and bales of hay at a swimming pool of a restaurant owned by Pejovic and his brother.
(image credit: Savo Prelevic/AFP/Getty Images)
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This may look like a snake attack, but it’s actually an ad on a bus inviting everyone to the Copenhagen Zoo. Link -via J-Walk Blog
33-year-old Nonja discovers her love of "photography", Facebook, and Internet fame rather late in life, but you’ll excuse the late bloomer: she’s an orangutan at the Schönbrunn zoo in Austria!
The Daily Mail reveals why she’s so interested in photography:
Using a specially-adapted Samsung ST 1000 digital camera, Nonja is rewarded with a raisin that drops out of the equipment each time she takes a snap.
The Vienna Tiergarten zoo set up the project to help keep Nonja and her three hairy ape friends entertained in their enclosure.
‘Of course the apes don’t care about the pictures, they are just an accidental side product,’ zoo spokesman Gerhard Kasbauer said.
‘They just know that when they press the button, a raisin pops out.’
Links: Facebook page (over 40,000 fans!) – via CNET
The zoo of Warsaw, Poland, has a pair of prehistoric humans (or actors depicting them) on display over the weekend:
Organiser Maria Mastalerz says the weeklong “performance” aims to attract interest in a play, “Caveman,” showing in the Polish capital. But she says it also carries a message that humans today are not all that different from their prehistoric ancestors.
Dressed in furs and animal skins, the young woman and man smoked a fish over a fire Friday, poking it with a stick, or stared from behind bars at startled zoo visitors.
Video at the link.
Lion Safari Park in Johannesburg, South Africa allows cars to drive through the lion enclosure so people can see the animals up close. A family in a white Toyota drove through with the doors closed, but apparently failed to lock at least one back door.
Thier glee turned to horror as the 300lb lion firmly took the rear door handle with his teeth and pulled it open in one deft movement.
For several seconds the car remained still while the occupants digested the shock of what had happened before finally hitting the accelerator and driving off.
As they fled, the lion followed in pursuit until it reached the gates of the enclosure. There it was finally held back by a warden who hurled stones to shoo it back.
Richard Holden was in a car behind the Toyota and managed to take pictures of the incident. Link -via Arbroath
It looks like a lioins has jumped up on the hood of an open vehicle! Look closely, though -it’s an illusion, as the front of the car and the passenger area are separated by a sheet of glass. Invisible lion cages are the mane attraction Werribee Open Range Zoo, in Melbourne, Australia. VERY strong glass is used in place of other enclosure types more familiar in zoos – the result is stunning shots of the lions and a unique visitor experience.
This incredible Lions on the Edge exhibit, which puts you just inches from a lion’s jaws, is one of the biggest attractions at the zoo.
Kings of the jungle Tombo and Tonyi are joined by two lionesses in the exhibit. Though it has been open since 2006, the male lions were added just last month – leading to some startling photo opportunities.
Link – via cakeheadlovesevil
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by cakehead loves evil.
The Tama Zoo in Tokyo has unveiled their new snow leopard cub named Yukichi. The male cub was born on July 2nd. He is the fourth cub born to his mother Yuki and the first for his father Valdemar. And he’s adorable! Link
After a gestation period of nine months, humans usually live in their parents’ nest for around 16 years. While the parents are out foraging for food, juveniles are looked after in large groups by other adults.
In adolescence, the offspring adopt a more nocturnal lifestyle and engage in ritualized activities of drinking fermented liquids and dancing to rhythmical sounds, which scientists believe help them to find a mate.
Enlarge the picture at the link to read all of it. Link -via Boing Boing
A school trip to the zoo! What fun for the kids! You can make one of these automatons yourself with a kit for £8, plus £2 for postage. Link -via b3ta
After two years of economic blockade, the zoos in Gaza are suffering. Only one has a zebra, but there’s something about this zebra that seems, um, un-zebralike.
“It’s really a painted donkey,” admitted Mahmud Berghat, the director of Marah, when asked about the creature. Making a fake zebra isn’t easy—henna didn’t work and wood paint was deemed inhumane, so they finally settled on human hair dye. “We cut its hair short and then painted the stripes,” Berghat explained behind the closed door of his office.
It did the trick—if not for zoologists, then at least for legions of Gaza schoolchildren who have never seen a real zebra. When I asked him whether anyone had ever caught the ruse, the director admitted that two sharp university students had IDed the counterfeit creature. “But don’t tell anyone,” he said. “The children love him.”
Most zoo animals have to be smuggled in through tunnels, but a zebra was too expensive for the Marah zoo. Link -via Arbroath
(image credit: Sharon Weinberger)
Watch the birth of a giraffe at Safari West Wildlife Preserve in California. It was a surprise, as zookeepers did not know the mother was pregnant. Unfortunately, this video report does not show the six foot drop a baby giraffe undergoes, but he is a cute little thing …if you can call a six-foot, 130 pound baby “little”! Link
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Forget bikini car wash! The new hotness in raising money in today’s tough economy is … elephant car wash!
The elephants at the Wildlife Safari near Eugene, Oregon are fundraising and they don’t seem to mind. The safari’s three African elephants, Tiki, Alice, and George, have a job at the new "Elephant Car Wash".
For $20, visitors can have an up-close-and-personal encounter with the elephants as they wash down their car.
There’s no guarantee that your car will actually get cleaned, but hey, everybody seems to be having fun!
Link (with self-starting video)
The Maryland Zoo recently unveiled a new prairie dog exhibit. The zoo’s prairie dogs had not been on display for four years, until a new $500,000 enclosure was designed and built. Despite a concrete base, aircraft wire, and slick walls, several prairie dogs got out of the habitat within a few minutes! None got away, as zookeepers responded with nets.
Zoo staff members say the animals cannot burrow their way out because the former Kodiak bear environment is essentially a large concrete swimming bowl. The soil depth at Prairie Dog Town ranges from 6 feet to 8 feet.
“The dirt must be deeper than 36 inches in order for the prairie dogs to make their burrows under the frost line,” Kranz said. “We took soil samples from the old exhibit so the soils could be matched exactly to what they were used to having.”
After foiling the escape attempt, zoo workers adjusted wire fencing and installed more slippery plastic on the walls.
Link -via Boing Boing
(image credit: Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
WebEcoist has twelve tales of animals escaping from captivity. Some were recaptured quickly; others weren’t so simple.
When zookeepers found that a Macaw had vanished, they were baffled because they knew his wings were clipped, preventing him from flying away. They later found that did not stop him from fluttering out of the enclosure and catching a ride inside an RV’s engine cabinet.
Link -via Unique Daily
Due to fear of swine flu, Afghanistan has quarantined its pig. Yes, the nation’s only pig, normally on display along with other exotic wildlife at the Kabul Zoo.
The pig is a curiosity in Muslim Afghanistan, where pork and pig products are illegal because they are considered irreligious, and has been in quarantine since Sunday after visitors expressed alarm it could spread the new flu strain.
“For now the pig is under quarantine, we built it a room because of swine influenza,” Aziz Gul Saqib, director of Kabul Zoo, told Reuters. “We’ve done this because people are worried about getting the flu.”
Link -via YesButNoButYes
Zookeepers in Cairo are charging visitors to actually go inside the animal cages. Hugging bears, feeding crocodiles, pestering seals and provoking lions can all be achieved for under ten bucks!
I don’t know what’s worse, the exploitation of these poor animals or the stupidity of the patrons for getting inside an enclosure with a live bear.
Photo: Nasser Nuri/Reuters
An Egyptian family asked to play with the lions. Two dollars, said the zookeeper. The mother nodded and the zoo employee motioned to them to come to a side door away from the row of cages and mesmerized onlookers.
The zookeeper looked nervous, peering up and down the sidewalk. Seeing none of the authorities, he swung the door open and beckoned the family of four inside. By the time the family had entered, the zookeeper had grabbed a lion cub and hoisted it into the arms of the startled teenage son. Another lion cub looked on from a few feet away.
The family posed for photos. The cub snarled with displeasure.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by bethtucker.
Obviously upset about the proposed budget cuts to New York City’s zoos, Staten Island Chuck let Mayor Michael Bloomberg know exactly how he feels.
As reported by the Staten Island Advance, the mayor tried several times to lure the petite prognosticator out of his home, tempting him with delicious ears of corn. This resulted in Chuck grabbing the corn, and hastily returning to his den. At some point in their back and forth, Chuck bared his wood-cutting teeth and went to work on the mayor’s finger.
Personally, I would be upset too if some strange guy tried to pull me out of bed at 7am.
Thankfully the Mayor was not badly bit and Chuck was still able to perform his prediction duties: No shadow, early spring!
“His hand was nicked,” a Bloomberg spokesman said. The mayor is up to date on his Tetanus shot, so he simply washed his wounded finger and put on a bandage.
…
The bite happened just before Chuck made his prediction that spring is coming, as the mayor bravely reached into the groundhog’s cottage, and tried to coax him out with some of his favorite snacks.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by TheKeyLime.
Remember the gay penguins that got ejected from their colony because they were trying to steal eggs from other penguins? Well, the zookeepers gave the couple two eggs laid by an inexperienced penguin mom … and it turns out they became the best parents in the zoo!
‘We decided to give them two eggs from another couple whose hatching ability had been poor and they’ve turned out to be the best parents in the whole zoo,’ said one of the keepers.
‘It’s very encouraging and if this works out well we will try to arrange for them to become real parents themselves with artificial insemination.’
Wildlife experts at the park explain that despite being gay the three-year-old male birds are still driven by an urge to be fathers.
‘One of the responsibilities of being a male adult is looking after the eggs. Despite the fact that they can’t have eggs naturally, it does not take away their biological drive to be a parent,’ said one.
Chessington Zoo in London has issued an apology to guests after giving the gorillas a Christmas treat of Brussels sprouts. The seasonal sprouts are highly nutritious, but the gorilla farts caused horror among people around them.
Gorilla keeper Michael Rozzi said: “We feed the gorillas brussel sprouts during the winter because they are packed with vitamin C and have great nutritional benefits.
“Unfortunately, an embarrassing side effect is that it can cause bouts of flatulence in humans and animals alike.
“However, I don’t think any of us were prepared for a smell that strong.”
The zoo has taken the sprouts off the menu while the zoo is open to the public. The gorillas will enjoy them when the zoo is closed on Christmas Day. Link -Thanks, Rich!
Remember the Christmas Song "sung" (lipsynched, really) by animals clip we just posted on Neatorama?
Well, that has nothing on this: here’s "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from The Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky, arranged by Guy Spataford and created from the sounds of the 27 animals of The Switch Zoo Critter Chorus.
Check it out, it’s fantastic! Link [embedded Google Video] – Thanks Guy!
Walruses can be cute -if they can play the saxophone like Sara!
The flippered, whiskered creature is delighting audiences with her human-like skills, playing the saxophone, blowing a whistle, or simply adopting the universal expression for ‘I’m bored, get me out of here’.
When handed the brass instrument she gripped it with her flippers and simulated an energetic jazz performance to some backing music.
Sara is one of the star attractions at the Istanbul Dolphinarium in Istanbul, Turkey.
See more pictures and a video at the Mail Online. Link -via Unique Daily
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