the new urban jungle . . . is a growing movement led by cities like San Francisco, New York, and Leiden to restore active and vibrant natural systems in urban areas. Far from the eden-like depictions of nature of yesteryear, i.e. the garden of earthly delights (nonetheless, still attracting some dynamic new christian converts), the movement has morphed into today's backyard and grassroots environmental movement which is more and more a picture of hybridity, compromise, mixed-use, and ultimately, taking nature out of the walled islands of zoos, aquaria, national parks and other thick-walled institutions and offering a different kind of everyday "unmediated" community experience with the new urban wilderness. VIDEO LINK
posted by huckhound on Jul 6, 2006 - 1 comment

Bill Frist <3s gorillas. I find this quite charming.
posted by MrMoonPie on May 24, 2006 - 80 comments

Poor Oscar can't get any. Maybe he needs some tips on how to deal with the dirt-flinging girl in his life? Maybe he needs some other kind of help?
posted by mudpuppie on Feb 7, 2005 - 2 comments

Zookeeper! Match 3 or more animals, don't let the clock run out. (Shockwave req'd)
posted by arto on Jun 25, 2004 - 10 comments

Little Joe waited at the bus stop before continuing his bid to escape the authorities. The 300-pound gorilla had just broken out of his Franklin Park Zoo enclosure for the second time in two months, overcoming a newly-installed electric fence, injuring two people and terrifying others. The gorilla was hit with four tranquilizer darts but had managed to pull at least one of them out. Little Joe's namesake reminds us that we've known for at least 70 years that big apes in the middle of cities can cause major problems. Why are they still there?
posted by soyjoy on Sep 30, 2003 - 32 comments

PandaCam: Bai Yun’s cub(male) is big enough that now there’s something to see on the webcam in her birthing den at the San Diego Zoo. She’s quite the attentive mother and he’s becoming quite the wiggly baby. You can also view videos here.
posted by lobakgo on Sep 26, 2003 - 12 comments

Private zoos in China. This is one of the saddest pieces I've ever read--all the stories are terrible but especially the one on the bears. I thought the article made a good point on the focus on human right violations in China with a lack of attention on the treatment of animals. There should be some kind of organization either from outside or internally that addresses this issue.
posted by zinegurl on Dec 27, 2002 - 17 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

Like the rest of Europe, Germany is going through a histrionic BSE scare. So Germans switched to sausage and pork. And then they were told pork contains anabolic steroids. So they switched to venison. And then they were told it might have BSE too. So the Germans, who hate veggies, are starting to "starve." And raid zoos for meat. Hey, where'd all this paté come from?
posted by aaron on Jan 27, 2001 - 5 comments

A couple months ago, a panda was born at the San Diego Zoo. It was a big achievement and the team is chronicling the progress online. Also, thanks to the wonders of the web, you can see it live at the panda cam page. Right now, I'm seeing the panda tossing in its sleep.
posted by mathowie on Nov 1, 1999 - 0 comments