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On Saturday Tessa, the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden's four-year-old giraffe, gave birth to her first calf, and the first born at the zoo in 26 years. The sex of the calf hasn't been checked, as the mother and child are being left alone to bond. The zoo posted photos on its blog, along with a sentence that makes human childbirth sound relatively easy: "volunteers noticed the calf's hoof coming through." More »
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Today a necropsy, or animal autopsy, found that brain changes may have killed Knut, the Berlin zoo's beloved 4-year-old polar bear. More »
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Lulu, who rose to fame in 1972 after delivering the Central Park Zoo's first baby gorilla, died of a seizure at her retirement habitat. The beloved gorilla had 10 children and several grandchildren, and at 46, she was relatively old. More »
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Knut the polar bear is "definitely displaying behavioral problems," according to PETA scientists who point to Knut's swaying back and forth, imitating picture-taking tourists, and having "panic attacks." A Berlin Zoo rep say this is "ridiculous." [AFP via Newser] More »
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Remember when Knut was a tiny, adorable ball of white fur? Now everyone's favorite cub is a man - or a 300-pound sex machine. "He's going to be our new stud bull," said the Berlin Zoo director. [TheSun] More »
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There is a reason animals in zoos are kept behind enclosures, but a woman at the Berlin Zoo decided to ignore this reasoning and decided to jump into the polar bear pit during feeding time. More »
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More evidence that captivity might mess up animals: 30% of zoos in one survey said their gorillas killed and ate local wildlife, even though wild gorillas seem to subsist on plants and bugs. [Economist] More »
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Elephants in zoos live less than half as long as their leathery siblings in the wild, according to a new study. More »
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Animal Planet ran a special on a baby polar bear named Inukshuk, who was orphaned at just 10 weeks old when his mother was shot by hunters in Ontario. He was rescued by a police officer and sent to a zoo in Toronto, where he was raised by zookeepers until he was old enough to be placed in his permanent home in a habitat in another Canadian zoo, where he currently lives with two other orphaned polar bears. In the clip above, Inukshuk bonds with his zookeeper, who is torn about becoming too attached to the baby bear because he will eventually leave her. Having never been around any polar bears since he was an infant, he has begun to take on some human attributes…like talking! When his caretaker is feeding him treats, it really sounds like he's saying "Give me another! And another!" After the jump, check out the adorable photos of when Inukshuk spent the night in the police station with the officer who rescued him. Confused and upset, he cried until the policeman sat and cuddled with him until he fell asleep. More »
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