The newcomer, born Feb. 1, will ride on its mother’s back for the next six to 10 weeks. Once it becomes more independent, zookeepers will be able to examine the infant to determine its gender.

“It’s always good to have an animal breeding in captivity because that show us they are not stressed and they are having a good life,” said Stephanie Fujita, who works at the zoo.

The baby monkey has two sisters, Keisha and Keeley, and has already begun hopping onto other monkeys as it matures.

“The first month of age they stay with the mom,” said Fujita. “Around a month and a half, two months, they start exploring more [of] the world, so the other older siblings will help to take care of them and to play with them.”

Squirrel monkey are native to the forests of Central and South America and live anywhere from nine to 20 years. The ones the Valley Zoo are part of a breeding program aimed at protecting their genetic diversity.

Officials say the incident happened about 8 a.m. The zoo hadn’t yet opened so there was no danger to the public.

The seven-year-old male named Shana jumped back into his pen when he was noticed.

“A staff member spotted him and I think the gorilla was more startled than the staff member,” said Cathy Gaviller, director of conservation and research.

“He immediately leapt back into his enclosure and the whole thing was over before it began.”

Gaviller said it’s unlikely the “mischievous” gorilla, who arrived from the Bronx Zoo last spring, would have strayed very far from home.

“Gorillas are very shy,” she said. “Their habitats are their homes, that’s where they are comfortable, so they are actually quite reluctant to leave.”

Still, the incident has been reported to a review team that is reviewing practises and operations at the Calgary Zoo after management requested the outside probe last year following a string of incidents and animal deaths.

A spokesman for the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums said it’s likely the latest incident will be incorporated into the review, which also has the participation of the U.S. branch.

“The review team is still doing its work but they have the ability to look at anything and everything,” said Steve Feldman. “If the purpose of the review is to achieve improvement in the programs and this incident indicates a need for change, that’s how it would fit into the review.”

Both Feldman and Gaviller called the near-escape by a gorilla a rare incident.

Meanwhile, zoo officials wouldn’t say for how long the employee has been suspended and whether or not the worker will be paid.

But Gaviller said it’s a “standard, every-day procedure” to check all the animals’ enclosures thoroughly for hazards.

The ice that the gorilla used to reach the ledge has been removed, she added.

Monday’s incident comes three weeks after two snakes went missing at the zoo for almost 24 hours after a keeper left a drain cover off and they vanished into the pipes.

The snakes escaped just days after the review team wrapped up.

It took only a split second for Soli the dog to swallow a diamond worth more than $20,000 — but it took, er, more than a day to get it back.

It all happened when a diamond dealer was showing a 3-carat dazzler to store owner George Kaufmann at Robert Bernard Jewelers in Potomac, Md., on Jan. 26.

Somehow the precious stone fell on the floor near the spot where Kaufmann’s Golden retriever Soli was hanging out. Quickly, the dealer searched the floor for the sparkler, but turned up nothing.

Read more: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/35893450/ns/today-today_pets_and_animals/#ixzz0iMKjsN5M ]]> http://www.worldscutestanimals.com/news/dogs/dog-swallows-20000-diamond/feed/ 0 http://www.worldscutestanimals.com/news/other-animals/antelope-dies-at-edmonton-valley-zoo/ http://www.worldscutestanimals.com/news/other-animals/antelope-dies-at-edmonton-valley-zoo/#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:22:15 +0000 Chris http://www.worldscutestanimals.com/?p=682 An antelope at the Valley Zoo has died after escaping from a holding pen, zoo officials said Thursday.

The animal, a six-year-old addax, escaped onto the zoo grounds as workers were cleaning a stall in the barn where she was kept. She ran through a gate that had been left open in the holding pen.

The animal was sedated and taken back into the barn for treatment when she stopped breathing and could not be revived.

Post mortem results showed she had inhaled regurgitated food into her lungs after sedation, a release from the zoo said.

The addax was one of three at the zoo. They weigh an average of 60 to 120 kgs.

A manager at the Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo in Liaoning province, however, said the animals had died of disease.

Siberian tigers are one of the world’s rarest species, with just 300 believed remaining in the wild.

Liu Xiaoqiang, vice chief of the Shenyang Wild Animal Protection Station, a local animal protection agency, was quoted by the China Daily as saying 11 of the zoo’s tigers died of malnutrition in the last three months after subsisting on a meager diet of chicken bones.

Two others were shot dead by police in November after the hungry animals attacked a zookeeper, the report said.

Iron crates The Liaoshen Evening Post, a local Shenyang newspaper, reported on its Web site that the company that owns the zoo was trying unsuccessfully to auction the zoo property, and many staffers complained they hadn’t been paid in 18 months.

Wu Xi, one of the managers of the Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo Co. Ltd., told The Associated Press that “various kinds of diseases” had killed 11 tigers at the zoo over the past three months.

Wu said the animals were kept in iron crates indoors because it was an unusually cold winter and the zoo had no heating. He refused to specify what diseases the animals had or respond to allegations they starved to death.

The China Daily said the zoo was mainly privately owned, though the Shenyang municipal government holds a 15 percent stake.

Xie Yan, China director for the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, said many Chinese zoos and wildlife parks have more tigers than they can afford to keep.

The animals are expensive to take care of because they require a lot of food and space to roam and ticket sales generally aren’t enough to support them.

‘Massive blow’ Xie said Chinese zoos began breeding tigers in the 1980s and captive populations increased rapidly in the 1990s. There are now about 6,000 captive tigers of various species in China, she said, but it’s not clear how many of those are Siberian tigers.

“In the past two or three years, people have started to realize it’s become a problem,” she said, referring to zoos that have more animals than they can afford to keep.

Xie said the government should do more to regulate zoos and enforce standards for animal care. She also said birth control is needed to keep the captive tiger population at manageable levels.

Chris Chaplin, a spokesman for WWF International’s Beijing office, said the news was “a massive blow” to conservation efforts.

WWF colleagues in Changchun, the capital of Jillin province, which neighbors Liaoning, were  investigating the allegations, he said.

Sixty-five-year-old Alice Via was arrested Wednesday for investigation of animal cruelty and neglect. She ran what she called the San Diego Boxer Rescue, and kept mostly boxers and Chihuahuas.

San Diego County spokesman Dan DeSousa says the dogs were confined in cages stacked two high throughout the two-bedroom 750-square-foot home. He says most of the dogs had injuries to their feet and noses from trying to escape, and some also had skin and respiratory problems.

DeSousa says officers were alerted by someone who went to look at a dog and observed the conditions.

The dogs will be taken to county shelters.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1969346,00.html

During the first couple of days, Pamela Holt, her husband Keith, and their daughter Brooklyn, 3, weren't terribly worried because they figured their nearly 2-year-old pet was running in the fields behind their home.

"We have a lot of land and thought Deacon might be enjoying the outdoors," Holt, who works as a teller for SunTrust bank, tells PEOPLEPets.com. "But we soon got worried and called the area dog warden, the pound and the sheriff's office. After two weeks, we gave up, fearing he had died or was stolen."

Deacon, a gift from Holt to her husband Keith, a teacher and football coach, had become a beloved family member, and everyone was upset. But a curious call in late February from a man in Deland, Fla., changed everything.

"A male voice on the other end said he thought he may have Deacon," Holt tells PEOPLEPets.com. "I was angry at first and thought he was a prankster trying to play a joke on us … I nearly hung up on him."

The man, who said he was from Animal Control in Deland, told Holt he was looking at her dog. Holt said she thought Deacon was dead. But when he asked her if the dog's name was Bruno, Holt went crazy with joy.

"I was speechless," she says. "The dog was originally called Bruno when he was micro chipped, so I knew this was not a hoax. When the man emailed me a picture, and I knew it was Deacon, I called my husband. We were so thrilled that we drove 10 hours to Florida to pick him up."

The Holts believe Deacon was stolen by people who had hoped to breed him, but they were unaware that he had been fixed so it was a waste of time. And somehow, the dog ended up in the Sunshine State for the holidays.

"Deacon was in a pen with another dog when he saw us," Holt recalls. "He trampled the poor thing to get to us. He ran to my husband and jumped on him. He was so excited."

The following day, when they got back to Virginia after the 600 mile drive, Deacon ran directly over to the outside window of Brooklyn's bedroom, hoping to see her.

"He cried and cried until she got home," Holt says. "Once he saw her, he was so happy!"

Even though there is no leash law in their area, the family has vowed to tie their dog in the yard so nothing ever happens again.

"We are blessed to have Deacon back," Holt says. "And will do what we must to keep him safe and sound."

Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin says Ashlynn Anderson's mother found her badly injured on their lawn in Astoria on Sunday. Ashlynn is the daughter of Jesse Browning, who stars with his father on The History Channel's show about the logging industry called "Ax Men."

She was flown to a Portland hospital and pronounced dead on arrival.

The attack happened four years to the day after officers had taken a Rottweiler from the same home after it bit an adult family member. The two Rottweilers at the Browning home have been quarantined.
 

Ricky Weinhold was attacked Saturday by a one-ton bull on a farm where he leased barn space in Wernersville, about 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia, Berks County Deputy Coroner Terri Straka said. The son of the farm's owner found his body Sunday in an outdoor pen.

The property owners had encouraged Weinhold to get rid of the bull, Straka said. She said the same animal believed responsible for the weekend attack rammed Weinhold last summer, breaking several of his ribs.

"He's been known to be temperamental," Straka said. "The property owners just didn't trust him. They told Ricky, 'This bull has got a bad disposition.'"

Weinhold kept about 10 head of cattle at the farm, all of them as pets. Straka said it's not clear what precipitated Saturday's attack. The bull recently fathered a calf, but Straka said bulls are not as protective of their offspring as cows.

"We don't know if this is a playful thing, or a nasty, agitated, angry thing," she said.

No one witnessed the attack. All of Weinhold's injuries appear to have been inflicted by a bull's head and hooves.

"The poor man, he loved his animals," Straka said. "They were his pets."