Khanzir is the only pig in Afghanistan. An already lonely existence has been made sadder as fears of swine-flu have caused zoo officials to place him in quarantine, depriving him of contact with his best friend - a nearby goat.
posted by grapefruitmoon on May 8, 2009 - 40 comments

Cute Overload is so yesterday. Go see Zooborns.
posted by GrammarMoses on Feb 19, 2009 - 29 comments

Detroit's abandoned Belle Isle Zoo, beautiful disaster. [more inside]
posted by punkbitch on Feb 18, 2009 - 68 comments

"Because competent mating did not occur," the zoo statement said, veterinarians anesthetized both pandas on Saturday, collected semen from Tian Tian and inserted it into Mei Xiang's uterus. [previously 1 2 3]
posted by kliuless on Jan 18, 2009 - 39 comments

Snow day at the zoo. Even the baby elephant has fun. Seals, tigers, wolf, elephants. Teh cute starts at 2:36. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Dec 26, 2008 - 21 comments

Parenting for the birds. Also here and here.
posted by easy_being_green on Dec 18, 2008 - 14 comments

Boy goes on "rampage" at Aussie zoo, killing rare reptiles and feeding them to a crocodile. [more inside]
posted by educatedslacker on Oct 3, 2008 - 306 comments

The Eco Zoo - some amazing Japanese 3D Flash. If you take a close look at the animals there... you might be able to get some tips to live in a more environmentally friendly way!
posted by Artw on Sep 13, 2008 - 13 comments

Baghdad Zoo and Entertainment Experience - “massive American-style amusement park that will feature a skateboard park, rides, a concert theatre and a museum. It is being designed by the firm that developed Disneyland.” Here's a quick roundup of some commentary. (last link with concept design sketches)
posted by infini on May 21, 2008 - 33 comments

We're all used to animal cams at the zoo. You can watch animals in the wild or in captivity. But how about a live animal cam at...the library!
posted by nax on May 15, 2008 - 12 comments

Helsinki is home to a new baby camel, Snufkin. He is the son of 13 year old Voodoo and his partner, Selma. [more inside]
posted by Lord_Pall on Apr 28, 2008 - 15 comments

The Plight of the Amur Tiger (aka Siberian Tiger), the largest living cat in the world. Only 330-370 are left in the wild, but the situation is showing improvement, and they may even be repopulating previous strongholds in China. China is doing its part to repopulate the species - but for what purpose? The park's director admits the park made money from selling parts of dead tigers and wants China to lift the ban on the trade of tiger parts. They're considering it. Meanwhile, captive tigers are illegally skinned and beheaded, and 5000 tigers are kept in farms.
posted by desjardins on Dec 29, 2007 - 8 comments

The first known film of the long-eared jerboa, an endangered Mongolian rodent with legs like a kangaroo, was released today by the owners of London Zoo. Previously
posted by chuckdarwin on Dec 10, 2007 - 29 comments

Build your wild self using a flash game from the New York zoos and aquarium and the wildlife conservation society. [more inside]
posted by FunkyHelix on Oct 23, 2007 - 18 comments

The London Zoo's historic photographic archive went online today. According to news reports, the pictures will be offered for sale to fund conservation programs. Via.
posted by amyms on Oct 2, 2007 - 8 comments

Were you psychologically damaged at a petting zoo?. The Childhood Goat Trauma Foundation was created in 1982 by a small group that originally came together as an informal support group for problems that were the result of traumatic experiences at petting zoos as children. This group realized that there were many others out there who were afraid to come forward with their horrific stories and wanted to find some way to help as many people as they could. The Childhood Goat Trauma Foundation is the result of their dream.
posted by amyms on Jul 30, 2007 - 130 comments

Zoo Babies from around the world. Probably the cutest photo gallery you'll see this week.
posted by cerebus19 on Apr 3, 2007 - 19 comments

After twelve years of not getting laid, Yan Yan the Chinese panda finally kicked the bucket late Monday at the Berlin Zoo. Officials admits she died alone and nobody immediately noticed. Now the media is running with the story that the popularity of Knut the polar bear cub may be the reason behind the death of his neighbor. In other news, the European Union celebrated its 50th birthday in Berlin. Nobody noticed.
posted by phaedon on Mar 27, 2007 - 31 comments

Hey, Mum, look at the hairless monkeys! A group of hairless monkeys are the latest exhibit at Adelaide Zoo. Some background information on the project is available here (you may wonder, as I did, why it took a news site to provide the background to the project) and a live stream from the enclosure here. [more inside]
posted by dg on Jan 2, 2007 - 22 comments

Philadelphia Zoo will close Elephant Exhibit, America's "Oldest Zoo" announced Thursday - becoming the 11th zoo in the US to stop displaying elephants since the Detroit Zoo made such a decision two years ago. Is this officially a trend yet?
posted by soyjoy on Oct 8, 2006 - 22 comments

Scott Petersen, aka "reptileman", opens his Serpentarium to visitors 365 days a year. Have a look at some of his snakes, lizards, invertebrates, crocodilians, and turtles, and kids blythely handling them. reptileman recommends that you also visit Zach's Lizard Land, where you can meet Jerky, Buddy, and Cola, all of whom are lizards.
posted by owhydididoit on Aug 20, 2006 - 8 comments

He describes how the birds’ wings flutter, the small black eyes blink, and the head pops off in your palm... A riveting inside look at the Exotic Animal Training program at Moorpark College, which offers America's only college degree in animal training.
posted by By The Grace of God on Aug 12, 2006 - 15 comments

Bought from a slave trader and put on display at the Bronx zoo: the strange, sad story of Ota Benga, a Pygmy with filed teeth brought from the Congo to America in 1906. Here are a couple of contemporary news accounts of the controversial exhibit. After the zoo, Benga tried to make a life in America, studying to be a missionary. "But what he really wanted to do was to tell everyone in this country that his people were dying, and why. I think he thought that eventually they'd listen. But they never did. That, to me, is the real tragedy." In 1916, at the age of 32, he built a ceremonial fire, chipped off the caps on his teeth, performed a final tribal dance, and shot himself with a stolen pistol. Creationists say the story illustrates "the racism of evolutionary theory" and "the horrors that evolutionary theory has brought to society."
posted by CunningLinguist on Aug 7, 2006 - 35 comments

Panda, Inc. - National Geographic does pandas, including this surfeit of cuteness clip of Tai Shan and mom playing. Watch for panda mania to break out in the U.S. as we count down to Tai Shan's one year birthday. At 53 pounds, he is coming along nicely - see his progress in his photo album since birth. Meanwhile, in the wild, happy news that the panda population may be double what was previously thought. Yay! (via adorablog's great panda file.)
posted by madamjujujive on Jun 24, 2006 - 12 comments

Bear v. monkey
posted by docpops on May 15, 2006 - 68 comments

"This is the most tacky, tasteless, smutty, down-in-the-gutter tour ever created," Tollini told the 80 or so adults who piled onto two trams and devoted three hours to tales of fornicating felines and hermaphrodite ostriches. Big thanks to Tizzie at 9622.net.
posted by ColdChef on Feb 15, 2006 - 10 comments

The Human Zoo exhibit at the London Zoo aims to "demonstrate the basic nature of man as an animal and examine the impact that Homo sapiens have on the rest of the animal kingdom." The public takes part in the display (fig leaves required). "Over four days the 'animals' will be cared for by the zoo's keepers and 'kept entertained through various forms of enrichment...'" There are even some photos of them monkeying around.
posted by Moral Animal on Aug 25, 2005 - 17 comments

Blogger claims to hack National Zoo panda name vote. The National Zoo has opened its poll on the name for the new baby panda. Readers of DCist, Wonkette, and other Washington blogs quickly developed the nickname "Butterstick" for the infant panda, based on the oft-quoted description of the panda's birth weight. "Butterstick" was of course not among the name choices on the Zoo's website. So bloggers went ahead and altered the voting form, allowing you to select that name.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Aug 25, 2005 - 31 comments

Pandas! "You are watching live images of Mei Xiang, a giant panda, and her newborn cub at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. The cub was born at 3:41 a.m. on Saturday, July 9."

Details here. Warning: make sure you have a high tolerance for cuteness.
posted by sdrawkcab on Aug 21, 2005 - 26 comments

How to make matzah. Not the square Manischewitz stuff, mind you, but the real deal! Sure beats buying it for $15-30 a pound. And don't forget to give some to your gorilla.
posted by greatgefilte on Apr 24, 2005 - 43 comments

Melissa Kaplan's site is not just about green iguanas. Anapsid.org provides information on behavior, health, prey and feeding, captivity issues, and more regarding Cyclura (blue) iguanas, chelonians, amphibians, crocodilians, lizards, snakes, and even invertebrates and arachnids.
posted by breezeway on Apr 21, 2005 - 5 comments

Don't piss off the chimpanzees. Really. They'll chew your **lls and face off.
posted by digaman on Mar 4, 2005 - 67 comments

"The creation of the Nuclear Power Plant at Sellafield (formerly known as Windscale) was a bonus for the local zoo, as large tracts of land were made available and cheap by people moving away or dying."
posted by mr_crash_davis on Nov 11, 2003 - 15 comments

US soldier kills rare tiger in Iraq zoo
...during a drunken night of revelry involving - you guessed it - feeding the animals. Geez, this occupation gets better every day.
posted by mapalm on Sep 20, 2003 - 100 comments

The Infrared Zoo. The frisky puppy is hot. The python is not.
posted by srboisvert on May 27, 2003 - 15 comments

The switch zoo for the species dysmorphic.
posted by srboisvert on May 9, 2003 - 5 comments

...perfectly legal to keep a chimp in a broom closet... What happens to zoo animals when they get old and unphotogenic? When the zoo needs to make room for these? (sadness-making warning)
posted by amberglow on Aug 7, 2002 - 23 comments

The end of free zoo day in Buffalo, NY Darn! Sometime a group of folks can really ruin it for the rest of us. But this was out of hand!
posted by punkrockrat on May 29, 2002 - 38 comments

"In a park in Bali, they found a monkey, a pig-tailed macaque, kept in a cage so small it could not lie down properly, and with one leg chained to the bars.
posted by leafy on Mar 26, 2002 - 6 comments

Saga the bear has her own webcam. "The web camera is located inside one of the winter dens in the Bear Park Grönklitt, where the female bear Saga hibernates. At the time, when she started hibernating she was already pregnant. Now, we are curious how many cubs she will have given birth to."
posted by mr_crash_davis on Jan 17, 2002 - 6 comments

Learn your ABCs... A very nice piece of flash (via harrumph)...
posted by TNLNYC on Feb 9, 2001 - 3 comments

When the phone drops into the lion's cage, it's gone man. Just forget about that phone, even if it came with a great 10-cents-a-minute deal.
posted by mathowie on Mar 21, 2000 - 6 comments