Strollerderby : Zoo

Zoo Train Derails

SunnyChanel — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:13:00 GMT

You needn’t fear the lions, tigers and bears at the Louisville Zoo – fear their Zoo Train. On Monday the small open-air train that circles the popular animal park derailed. The bright red train was carrying about thirty passengers, a little more than half were children –with one two-month-old on board - when...three of the cars as well as the engine came off the tracks near the zoo’s gorillas. Twenty of the passengers, including the before mentioned two-month-old, were taken to local hospitals with one rider sustaining serious injuries. When the train derailed, a passenger was trapped beneath one of the cars and had to be rescued by Louisville firefighters.

Of course the safety of the ride will be examined. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture - who check out all the state’s amusement park rides and attractions - will be heading up an investigation of the incident.

Do you ever risk your safety when riding something as tame as a zoo train?

Source

Getting Lost: Funny Story or Major Tragedy?

Kate Tuttle — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:31:00 GMT

Have you ever lost your child -- in the park, the mall, or even your backyard? Or were you ever lost as a child -- or rather, did you wander away happily, only to find later that your parents were searching high and low? Are today's parents more easily freaked out by lost kids (due to hyped up fears of stranger danger and so forth), or is the misplaced child one of those universal and timeless parental fears? And are today's kids less well prepared for what to do when they get lost, less well prepared for taking care of themselves in general than when we were kids?

Two recent mom-bloggers have explored this topic, inspired at least in part by the news story from a few days back of the five-year-old who ended up riding the subway alone in New York. As Lisa Belkin says in her New York Times Motherlode blog, it's useful to focus on what didn't happen: "The child was not kidnapped, or crushed by a train, or gone forever." Belkin then touts the work of Lenore Skenazy, author of Free Range Kids: Giving Our Kids The Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts With Worry. On Skenazy's blog, she invited readers to share their stories of losing kids in public places, and ends by reminding us that "even one of parenting’s biggest fears - being separated in a public place from your child - usually ends up with a big sigh of relief. And, when possible, ice cream." Both posts are followed by dozens of great stories (hilarious and harrowing in equal measure), many of which include fantastic advice. Boiling it down here:

Parents should establish basic rules about what they want their kids to do if separated from them, and TELL THEIR KIDS.
While there's no one right method, some popular ones are: child should go to a cash register and wait there/ask for help, child should go to a mother with kids and ask for help, child should go to a person in uniform (mall cop, cop) and ask for help.
On public transportation, the subway rule rules:
a. If you are on the train, and the grown-up(s) are NOT on the train, get off at the next stop and wait. The grown-ups will come to you.

b. If you are off the train, and the grown-ups are ON the train, stand still and wait. DO NOT GET ON THE NEXT TRAIN. The grown-ups will come to you.

c. If you’re just lost, in general, stand still and wait. The grown-ups will come to you.

d. If you’re exceedingly lost and grown-ups haven’t shown up, it’s okay to ask a store employee or a cop or another grown-up to call security to have us paged. (children should learn their parents' cellphone numbers as young as possible) Do not hold anybody’s hand or go wandering off - there’s a good chance we’ll still show up exactly where you are.
For the very very rare times in which your child might actually be in danger, it's a good idea to have a recent photo of your child -- one parent points out that with today's cellphones, if you take a picture of your child that day, in that day's clothes, before you set off for the mall or the zoo, it could be helpful later.

So how about you, Babble readers? Have you lost a kid yet? Or do you remember being lost yourself as a child? What are your worst fears and best tips? For me, I worry far less about abduction by a stranger -- statistically the chances are nearly nil -- but a lost child can be in danger from more common threats (cars, drowning, exposure). So I think it's a great idea to have a set of family rules, covering both how not to get lost (stick with me, make sure you can see me, come when I call you) and what to do if you are.

photo: Weegee, "Lost Children," 1941

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Would You Take Your Kids to a Petting Zoo with Lions, Tigers, and Bears?

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 20:28:00 GMT

In case you’re planning a family vacation and you happen not to care about either animal rights or your children’s limbs, you should totally go to the Lujan Zoo in Argentina, where visitors are allowed to feed, cuddle, or ride the backs of lions, tigers, and bears.

“Even children are allowed to enter the lion's cage and fondle a range of animals that have the potential to kill or maim them,” reports the Daily Mail. Does that sound thrilling or what? Here are some photographic examples of just how close Lujan lets tourists get to deadly animals that appear to be inhumanely sedated (or at least overfed and suicidally bored):

Here’s a photo of the zookeepers “monitoring” the uncaged animals. I’d definitely trust these guys with my life—plus, I’ll bet they know a great place to grab a few tequila shots after all this lion cuddling.

Despite Lujan’s assurance that the keepers love their animals and care about their visitors’ safety, animal rights activists are not convinced. According to the CEO of Born Free Foundation, “Anyone who has any knowledge of big cats will understand that they are wild animals and, as such, are unpredictable....I also note that the zoo makes claims to educate and conserve. Well, if they think teaching people that it's OK to stroke tigers and pet primates is educational, they are just plain wrong.”

Who said anything about educational? This zoo visit is all about bragging rights and Facebook photos.

Photos: Fortuna and The Daily Mail

Zoo Baby: Help Name New Infant Elephant!

Kate Tuttle — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:58:00 GMT

Born a week ago to a 23-year-old mother named Phoebe, an as-yet unnamed baby elephant makes his debut today at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio. He'll be available for the public to look at just a few hours each day until he is old enough to spend all his time in the zoo's elephant habitat. Zoo officials told the Associated Press that it's very rare for zo visitors to see an elephant this young.

The zoo is holding a contest to name the little guy, too. If you want yours to be considered, go to the Columbus Zoo website and enter your ideas; submissions will be accepted up to April 20, with the winner announced on Mothers Day. Just be sure to really bring it, name-wise. Oh, and Petal Blossom Rainbow? That ish is already taken.

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Kid and Kangaroo Best of Friends

JeanneSager — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:27:00 GMT

Why couldn't my mom have been a zookeeper? Yeah, she put food on the table, but having a mom in healthcare means hearing a lot about proper handwashing and absolutely no chance to nurse a baby joey abandoned by his mama!

Eight-year-old Lilly Dyson, however, hit the mom jackpot with a zookeeper mama who has been bringing home a baby kangaroo each day in an incubator designed to act like her mom's pouch.

The pictures of the Milly the joey and Lilly the kid are the kind you find of your mom's firstborn cuddling with your mom - the type that make you all indignant that it isn't you. Nose-to-nose, Lilly and Milly are obviously the best of pals.

The joey's mom fell ill earlier this month and was no longer able to carry her in her pouch. That was bad news for Milly - joeys generally spend at least nine months in mom's pouch before their first venture into the outside world (no wonder I've always felt a kinship with Kanga from Winnie the Pooh - we have nine months of carting kids in common). The joeys continue to spend a significant amount of time there until they are around a year.

Milly is still too young to come out of the incubator for anything more than limited amounts of time, and she requires round-the-clock care, with Lilly's mom Deb Dyson and her colleague splitting the bulk of the duties. But Lilly has gotten to lend a hand too - a rare chance, as this is the first joey to be hand-raised by the Melbourne Zoo (where Deb works) in more than two decades.

Baby joeys can be a handful (kind of like baby humans), but Deb says Milly has been a breeze - even with the one and four a.m. feedings. And Lilly looks like the luckiest kid down under!

Image/Source: Herald Sun

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Horrifyingly Cute Animals

Cole Gamble — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 16:32:00 GMT

Prepare to be frightened and swooned by this gallery of scary/adorable animals.

All thanks to Photoshop and Worth1000.com

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7-Year-Old Feeds 13 Zoo Animals to Crocodile

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:29:00 GMT

In disturbing news involving small creatures, a seven-year-old boy from Australia broke into a zoo and went on a killing rampage. He scaled the zoo’s fence at around 8 in the morning, and spent the next half an hour smashing rocks on the heads of reptiles and then tossing them, live, into the crocodile’s enclosure (as shown in this photograph from a surveillance camera). The young boy then climbed over an outer fence around the croc’s cage to survey the gory scene of the 11-foot-long crocodile’s feast.

13 animals were killed in total, including a large turtle, rare lizards, bearded dragons, and the zoo’s most beloved animal, a 20-year-old, meter-long goanna.

Since Australian law prevents children under 10 from being charged with crimes, the boy faces no legal consequences—and it’s a good thing. What he needs is serious help. Security videos showed that he was “expressionless” throughout the killings. It is imperative that he receive psychological treatment and that his family receive visits from social workers. He may have a mental illness that requires medication, or he may be in a difficult family situation. Whatever the reason for his destructive tendencies, he must receive adequate care to prevent harming himself or others even further when he’s older.

So I hope that the reaction of the zoo’s director, Rex Neindorf, is not representative of how adults will treat the boy. According to Neindorf, the boy “will just get worse and worse and worse, by the time he’s 10 he will be a hardened criminal.” If that’s the message this seven-year-old gets from the all of the adults in his life, it may well become true.

Photo: Times Online

Book of the week: The First Adventures of Incredible You

editors — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:03:00 GMT

The First Adventures of Incredible You by Sarah Riley Headrick and Sarah Foreman Rivera (henceforth referred to as “The Sarahs”) isn’t so much a children’s tale as your child’s tale. This dreamy story that “celebrates the stars, the moon, the flowers and trees,” is actually collaboration between you and the authors. Don’t panic, your part of the process is easy: Log on to the Custom Made for Kids website, plug in your kiddo’s particulars and let the Sarahs create a story book that includes your babe’s favorite parks, zoos, activities and people.

The tale begins as so:

The day you were born

Was a dream come true.

It began the lifetime

Adventure of incredible YOU.

(Your kid’s birthday here), was the

special date of your birth – the day

(Your kid’s name here)

arrived on this magnificent earth.

From there you and your literary little one will dive into a day in the life of them.

Especially enjoyable are the pages where my daughter looks up at the stars with her Grandmother Ruth and enjoys pancakes made by Dad in our newly established weekend tradition. She also loves pointing to the colorful human/animal illustrations and labeling them with her friends and teachers names, which just happen to appear in the text above. Whether you want to capture your child's life as it is currently, or fill in the blanks for a baby that you are sure will love going to Dodger’s games with Dad, The First Adventures of Incredible You will give your kids hard back proof that their own stories are interesting enough to tell again and again. Because – trust me - you will be reading it, again and again and again . . . - April Peveteaux

Big Deal: Custom Made for Kids is offering Babble readers 15% off your book purchase. Enter the code babble15 to get your discounted story.

The First Adventures of Incredible You is available at Custom Made for Kids for $32.95.

Book of the Week appears every other Friday. Sometimes every Friday. We’re fickle like that.

Elephant Parents Teach Baby to Paint

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:10:00 GMT

Elephants in a zoo near Tokyo are proving that artistic ability runs in the family. In this video, a mother and father elephant emulate the pleasure of artistic expression for their one-year-old baby. Reluctant at first to put brush to canvas, the elephant is soon making brush strokes with an impressionist's eye for color. Oh, the adaptable talent of the young.

Not everyone is wild about the elephant painting phenomenon, thinking it is cruelly forced upon the animals by some trainers as a way to attract crowds, and of course, money. Whether or not that's true, at least the elephants in this video are not forced to draw particular objects, but rather are given full creative license--followed by a refreshing hose down.

Photo: visopys.org

Polar Bear Raised by Humans - AGAIN

Brett Singer — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:15:00 GMT

When I first saw this story I thought it was just a cute little news item about a bear being raised by humans. Kind of "man bites dog." It turns out that this is some kind of German trend.

The Berlin Zoo made a splash in 2007 when the staff removed a polar bear named Knut from his mother and raised him themselves. Now the Nuremberg Zoo has done the same thing with Snowflake ("Flocke" in German). Zoo officials feared that Snowy was in danger of being eaten by her mom. Apparently Snowflake's mom, Vera, was under suspicion because (a) another Polar mom, Vilma, "gave birth at around same time as Vera but is believed to have killed and eaten her cubs because they were sick." Then Vera was seen hiding her newborn cub and schlepping it around in her mouth, although there was no evidence of violence. The zoo, taking no chances, got the little bear away from Vera (a midnight raid, perhaps?) and are now raising her themselves. Four zookeepers are in charge of Snowflake's care.

Somewhat like the producers of the new 'Hulk' movie, it seems that German zoos do not learn from their mistakes. Knut, the first German bear raised by humans, "is a 'psychopath' addicted to human company and will never mate," according to Zoologist Peter Arras. Frank Albrecht, a German animal rights activist who called for Knut to be killed in March of 2007, said that "animals reared in captivity become hyperactive, disturbed, overdependent freaks." (Maybe Britney Spears should have been raised in the wild?)

One big difference between the two bears is that Knut was "rejected" by his mother, whereas Snowflake was merely in danger of possibly being eaten, because another Polar mom had eaten her kids. Another possible motivation, or at least a side benefit, is the media attention and fundraising potential. Snowflake's first public viewing attracted more than 300 journalists, and the zoo sold 600 posters at €10 each (which, at current exchange rates, is roughly 12 billion dollars, right? I'm kidding, of course).

Here's an idea: get these two crazy kids together! Knut's a guy, Snowflake is a girl... Knut has already expressed his love for Snowy on his MySpace blog. I guess being raised by humans has some advantages, such as learning to type.

For your viewing pleasure, here are some videos of the two bears in action.

An upcoming movie about Knut:

Baby Flocke (aka, the future Mrs. Knut)

Knut loves his human daddy (screw you, Frank Albrecht!)

images: independent.co.uk, thisislondon.co.uk

My Anaconda Don't Want None And Neither Do I

makeitadouble — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:15:00 GMT

In light of the recent and tragic tiger attack at the San Francisco zoo that claimed the life of 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. and seriously wounded two other young men I am aghast at how the birth of 14 baby anacondas at the New England Aquarium in Boston on News Year’s Day is being treated as a light-hearted slow news day cutesy-wootsy human interest story and not the inevitable threat to zoologists, cage cleaners, zoo patrons and most importantly our children that it really is.

On January 1 at 5 a.m. Ashley, the aquarium’s 16-foot anaconda gave girth to 14 baby anaconda’s each measuring about 2 feet in length and each possessing the same innate ability to kill their prey by coiling their large, powerful bodies around their victims and squeezing until the victim suffocates or is crushed to death. Scott Dowd, the aquarium's Amazon biologist and researcher, said "We knew that the due date was just about now. The big thing that we're all getting a kick out of is that my wife was due right around this time." The father of the snakes is the only male anaconda in the exhibit. The father of Scott Dowd’s child is not the only male anaconda in the exhibit.

Lest you think that I’m writing this to be controversial or just to use the word “lest” in a post, remember this: zoos and aquariums are merely minimum security prisons for mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and arthropods with the sole purpose of exploiting these animals for the entertainment of humans. And what do human prisoners do besides collect rocks in the yard to be polished into chess pieces, lift weights, and make garbage bags of Pruno, a prison wine created from fruit, sugar and ketchup? They try to escape.

So, why would animal prisoners be any different? The problem is that when a human prisoner escapes he stops by Fox Studios to pick up his paycheck, steals a car then immediately goes to his shorty’s crib where the police are waiting to break in their new stun guns. When wild animals escape the zoo they don’t take the Metro-North Railroad to Connecticut, they attack and sometimes kill people.

On a rainy day during a vacation on Cape Cod a couple years back we reluctantly took our son to something called a Zoo-quarium. While he was feeding a handful of dried corn to one of the sheep, it bit his finger. Let me say that again – THE SHEEP TRIED TO EAT MY SON. For a year after that he would randomly blurt out, “White sheep bit my finger.” and we had to change the channel if a commercial for Serta Mattresses came on. What if it wasn’t a sheep he was feeding grain to though? What if it was a crocodile or a sting ray?

I say we follow the model established by DreamWorks Animation with their film Madagascar and put all the animals in captivity (this includes you too Petting Zoos, Carnivals and Siegfried and Roy) in wooden crates, load them on cargo ships and send them back to their natural environments; starting with these anacondas.

Does anyone have Sir Mix-A-Lot’s home address?

Knut the Polar Bear, Berlin Zoo Team Up For Book

Alisyn — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:16:00 GMT

Riding on the soft, fluffy coattails of their cash cub, Knut the Polar Bear, the Berlin Zoo has released "Knut, der kleine Eisbaerenjunge" (trans: "Little Polar Bear Knut") a book which aims to teach kids about the dangers of global warming, and what they can do to help protect endangered species.

Knut recently welcomed his millionth visitor to his zoo home, and the rights to the book bearing his name have been sold to publishers in Japan, England, Mexico, China and Italy. It's coming to the U.S. this fall, as "Knut: How One Little Polar Bear Captivated the World." Looks like the Berlin Zoo he calls home has finally caught on to the fact that their little friend could be spreading an important message, while looking really cute and making them metric tons of money.

It's a pretty brilliant campaign to get kids involved in the fight for our environment, really - who kid could resist Knut, the 135-pound cotton ball of cuteness?

Zoo In Chicago wants to Sell Beer: I want to go to the Zoo in Chicago

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 13:31:00 GMT

The Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago is trying to get a license to sell beer and wine. They want to sell it in the restaurant. Does anybody have a problem with that? I sure don't.

I grew up about 20 minutes away from Busch Gardens. We're talking about a zoo with free beer tents. These are pavilions where you can go and get a free dixie cup of beer. There used to be a brewery in the park, but it closed down years ago. Fortunately, you can still get a cup of free beer a day (or more if you are either 1) nondescript, 2) a master of disguise, or 2) really cute and you only get in the lines where the bartender is of the opposite sex).

Slashfood wonders if there shouldn't be some places left in America that don't sell beer and I wine. I'm just wondering why anyone would want to go to the zoo sober.

Kidding. I'm kidding people. Sheesh.