Mr Cooper said: “The tiny calf, a male, was delivered by Thong Dee after a three hour labour in the Zoo’s Elephant Barn. The calf is very healthy and veterinarians are happy with its progress at this early stage.”

“She was quite magnificent and her success is a tribute to the incredibly hard work our Elephant keepers have done to support our elephants as a true family unit. They were with her throughout the night and have been sleeping at the barn to support Thong Dee the instant she went into labour.”

By daylight, the calf was already attempting to suckle, which is an excellent result, ensuring it gets the important first milk or colostrum.

Because she was a street elephant in Bangkok and probably had little experience with calves, Thong Dee was initially very surprised by the calf and took some time to calm down before the keepers could introduce the calf to her.

The Zoo’s keepers, including the team manager, Gary Miller, who has been part of nine elephant births in the USA, were supported by Taronga’s veterinarians and the pre-eminent international elephant reproductive specialist from the Berlin Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Health, Dr Thomas Hildebrandt.

Thong Dee went into labour at about midnight on Friday after a calm lead-up, during which she displayed her usual hearty appetite and had been participating in the elephants’ carefully prepared activity and exercise program.

This is an outstanding success for the Australasian Conservation Breeding Program for this endangered species. As few as 34,000 Asian Elephants are thought to remain across their range in Asia. Another four of the seven cows in the Australasian program are also pregnant.

The other female elephants, Porntip, Pak Boon and Tang Mo were very interested in the birth, which they watched from adjacent pens. Porntip is expecting Taronga’s first calf conceived by artificial insemination early next year and Pak Boon is expecting the Zoo’s second naturally conceived calf in early 2011.

Mr Cooper said: “Although it’s very soon since the delivery, the early signs are good and we will monitor mother and calf very closely, providing every possible support.”

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The unnamed sea lion pup was born June 14. It joined one male and four females already on display at the zoo’s Sea Lion Pavilion.

Zoo visitors have until July 19 to submit names at the official entry box at the pavilion.

A panel of zoo keepers will select a winner and announce the sea lion pup’s name on July 28. The winner will receive a zoo gift bag and a chance to interact with the sea lions alongside a zoo keeper during a training session.

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Louis Cooper • pnj.com

Once again, The Zoo of Northwest Florida is looking for an infusion of public money.

And the Gulf Breeze facility, which is about $4.5 million in debt, faces the prospect of closing if it doesn’t get the money, Executive Director Danyelle Lantz said.

Zoo officials plan to go before the Santa Rosa County Commission on Monday to ask for another $125,000 to help keep the nonprofit organization afloat during the lean winter. They plan to ask for the same amount from Escambia County.

Each county donated that much to the zoo this year, but getting a second year of funding could be an uphill battle in a time of ever-tightening budgets.

“My position was to fund them one time and try to help them get through their financial downturn. That was my vote,” Santa Rosa County Commission Chairman Don Salter said.

“I’ll wait and hear their presentation, but the board is already looking at the franchise fees that we used for recreation projects in the past to move into the general fund.”

Franchise fees paid by utility companies for using county rights of way — set aside for recreation — were the source for this year’s $125,000 for the zoo.

Escambia County Commission Chairman Gene Valentino said he can’t see Escambia coming up with more cash for the zoo in the face of the county’s anticipated $17 million budget shortfall.

“They weren’t supposed to be coming back to us for more money,” Valentino said. “I’ve got three-quarters of a million dollars of issues in District 2 alone that I’m looking for money right now in neighborhood, sidewalk and beach-renourishment issues.

The renewed requests should not be unexpected, Lantz said.

“We asked the county governments, both Escambia and Santa Rosa, to commit to five years of support. Basically, they told us they’d commit to one year, and they wanted to see us make progress and come back.”

The zoo, however, is still at about the same place financially, with the $4.5 million in debt.

Lantz said the zoo is getting ready for a financial audit, the results of which are necessary for most large, national grants that could significantly reduce the debt.

“We’re getting some traction on some corporate sponsorships and some foundation grants on a local level,” she said.

What if the zoo doesn’t get public help this year?

“It’s the same as last year,” Lantz said. “It goes to Plan B. The zoo is closed. It will then work to move the animals to other institutions.”

The zoo has been in a dire financial condition since 2007 when officials said it was in danger of closing because of debt related to damage from hurricanes Ivan and Dennis that wasn’t covered by insurance.

St. Paul, Minn. — The Minnesota Zoo set an attendance record in the last fiscal year, fueled by the opening of the popular Russia’s Grizzly Coast exhibit and a nationwide increase in zoo attendance.

About 1.35 million guests visited the zoo from July 2008 to June 2009, a 16-percent increase over the previous year. Zoo memberships, now totaling 44,229 households, also reached a record high.

“People are voting with their feet,” zoo Director and CEO Lee Ehmke said in a statement. “Attendance and membership levels are at an all-time high, our conservation and education programs are thriving, and the positive ‘buzz’ around the Zoo has been underscored by a number of significant awards for our efforts in exhibit design, marketing, innovation in education and conservation impact.”

The zoo, based in Apple Valley, spent $30 million to renovate the Central Plaza and open the Russia’s Grizzly Coast exhibit last year.

The exhibit attracted attention for its two amur leopards, one of the rarest animals in the world. Conservation experts estimate that only a few dozen remain in the wild. Ehmke said the zoo will receive a male amur leopard from the Czech Republic this summer to begin breeding efforts.

Russia's Grizzly Coast at Minnesota Zoo allows visitors to get very close to the animals, but not dangerously close. (MPR photo/Tom Weber)

The previous attendance record of 1.29 million was set in the 1994 fiscal year, when the opening of the zoo’s animatronic dinosaur exhibit coincided with the release of the movie Jurassic Park. After dipping slightly in the mid-90s, zoo attendance rose sharply. In the past five years, the number of visitors has increased by more than 40 percent.

Nationwide, most zoo directors have reported increased attendance, according to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. “Because of the weak economy, most people are not taking extended vacations or going far from home,” spokesperson Jackie Marks said. “Zoos provide an alternative vacation.”

Zoo officials expect that attendance will remain strong. Woodland Adventure, a new outdoor nature-based play area will open on July 11. The zoo will also open a new indoor African rainforest exhibit, featuring bats, crocodiles, monkeys, and Red River hogs in the summer of 2010.

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Photos: Mark Baker / Associated Press

Last weekend, Malaysian officials rescued three baby orangutans they believe were illegally smuggled into the country. The first was found during a raid on an ostrich farm; when the ostrich breeder was questioned, officials learned that two other orangutans were being kept at a northern Malaysian zoo. (Representatives of the zoo said that it had nothing to do with the smuggling and only accepted the apes because it feared for their safety.)

The three babies were seized. One of them, 7-month-old Tattoo, is shown here with her current caretaker, Ahmad Julaihi of Malaysia’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks. Because orangutans are a protected species both the ostrich breeder and the zoo could face charges — and face possible prison time — if convicted of keeping the babies without permits.

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Attendance at the Oregon Zoo set a new record this past year, with 1,621,521 people coming through the gates during the fiscal year that ended Tuesday.

Director Tony Vecchio attributed the attendance to the popularity of Samudra, the Asian elephant born at the zoo Aug. 23, 2008, and the dinosaur exhibit that was on display last summer. Attendance would have been even higher if winter storms hadn’t forced the zoo to close for nearly a week in December during the annual ZooLights holiday display.

Metro Council President David Bragdon said the attendance record demonstrates the continued community support for the 122-year-old zoo.

“The zoo not only provides a rich family experience, but also supports conservation education and our vision to create a better future for wildlife,” Bragdon said in a news release. Metro, the regional government, operates the zoo.

The first time the zoo’s attendance topped a million was during the 1962-63 fiscal year, which included the birth of Packy the elephant in April 1962. The zoo drew 1,010,964 spectators from all over the Northwest, eager to see the first elephant born in the United States in 44 years. It wasn’t until 1988-89 that the zoo broke the million mark again. Since then, the zoo has welcomed more than a million guests in 17 of the past 20 years.

The zoo has the highest attendance of any fee-based tourist attraction in Oregon, according to the news release.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 800 animal and plant species have gone extinct in the past five centuries with nearly 17,000 now threatened with extinction, the International Union for Conservation of Nature reported on Thursday.

A detailed analysis of these numbers indicates the international community will fail to meet its 2010 goal of bolstering biodiversity — maintaining a variety of life forms — a commitment made by most governments in 2002.

Based on data released in 2008 in the union’s Red List, the new IUCN analysis is being released now to precede the 2010 target year and to draw a connection between crises in the financial and environmental realms, said report editor Jean-Christophe Vie.

“We don’t want to make a choice between nature and the economy; we just want to bring nature to the same level when you have to take a decision,” Vie said by telephone from Switzerland.

“Jobs are important but not jobs to the detriment of nature,” he said. “We have done that too much and look where we have arrived.”

The new analysis shows 869 species became extinct or extinct in the wild since the year 1500 while 290 more species are considered critically endangered and possibly extinct.

At least 16,928 species are threatened with extinction, including nearly one-third of amphibians, more than one in eight birds and nearly a quarter of mammals.

By comparison, the 2004 Red List showed 784 extinctions since 1500.

PROSPERITY AND BIODIVERSITY

The report said this is not a comprehensive list with only 2.7 percent of the 1.8 million described species analyzed.

The number of extinctions is “a gross underestimate but it does provide a useful snapshot of what is happening to all forms of life on Earth,” the study authors wrote.

“It’s much more severe than the economic crisis or the bank crisis,” Vie said. “You can lose a core industry but you can rebuild one. In nature, if you lose it, you lose it, and you’re losing a lot of capital that cannot be replaced.”

He said the notion that biodiversity is secondary to economic health is largely a view held by countries in North America, Europe and elsewhere, where the connection to natural products is less direct.

In less developed areas, there is a direct line between human prosperity and biodiversity.

In much of the world, Vie said, “The main problem every day is not to find a job, it’s to find food … and in most places this comes from biodiversity, from nature, from fish and plants.”

For land-based species, the main threat is habitat destruction through farming, logging and development.

Climate change is not now the main threat to biodiversity but that could change, the report said.

In examining 17,000 species of birds, amphibians and reef-building corals, the report found a significant proportion that are not now threatened are susceptible to climate change, including 30 percent of birds, 51 percent of corals and 41 percent of amphibians that are not threatened now.

Unable to afford trips to see wild animals in exotic habitats, Minnesotans appear to be opting for the next best thing: the zoo.

The Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley said Wednesday that attendance in the fiscal year ended June 30 was nearly 1.36 million — the highest number of guests in the zoo’s more than 30-year history. The previous record year came in 1994, when zoo had 1.29 million guests.

Zoo membership in the past year was also at an all-time high, with 44,229 households, or 175,000 individuals, holding memberships.

Attendance in the past year was up 16 percent, memberships were up 21 percent.

The zoo acknowledged that it’s benefitted from a national trend of more families seeking activities close to home amid the recession. But it also attributed growth to strong marketing and new exhibits and attractions — including its “Russia’s Grizzly Coast” exhibit and a renovated Central Plaza, a combined $30 million effort.

More attractions are on there way. A outdoor nature-based play area called “Woodland Adventure” is expected to open July 11 and a new indoor African rainforest exhibit opens next summer.

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says a spotted frog that lives in 19 Western states may need endangered species protections.

Eight environmental groups petitioned the federal government in 2006 to protect the western population of the northern leopard frog.

The federal agency said Wednesday the frog has disappeared across vast portions of its historic range in the West and parts of Canada. Officials say the frog is threatened by habitat loss, disease, nonnative species, pollution and climate change.

The Fish and Wildlife Service plans a thorough scientific review of the frog’s status. The agency will then decide whether it will propose the frog for endangered species protections.

The smooth-skinned frog can be green, brown or sometimes yellowish with dark oval spots.

Special ice lollies, made in buckets and filled with fruit, are given to the gorillas and other animals on really hot days.

The gorillas try to get the fruit out by standing on the blocks, as well as kicking and biting them.

This is part of the gorillas’ ‘enrichment’, a special programme of activity designed to encourage their natural behaviour and curiosity.

The gorilla group also have air conditioning inside their enclosure so they can go inside and outside into the heat as they please.

Other animals around the Zoo also get special treatment during hot weather like this, such as a nice cooling shower.

Keepers have been busy hosing down animals such as the alpacas and bearded pigs - ensuring that they don’t get too hot.

© ZSL - James Godwin

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