Results tagged “regensteincenter”

Can the Lincoln Park Zoo finally catch a break? The last two years haven't been kind to the zoo, despite the opening of the fantastic new Regenstein Center for Apes and the African Journey habitat. Three of the zoo's elephants died, ultimately causing them to give up trying to keep the pachyderms in Chicago. Two gorillas and a camel also died, then another small monkey had to have an arm amputated after an accident. These incidents, especially the elephant deaths, led to widespread criticism from animal rights groups. Then if that weren't bad enough, three langur monkeys died in May 2005 after eating leaves from a yew tree that shouldn't have been near their habitat in the first place, and then a gorilla bit a zookeeper the following July.

A 47-year old male sits in a windowless basement, tapping away at a computer screen. Each time he makes a correct response he gets a reward, namely getting to tap away at the computer some more. He gets stressed when he's away from his work for too long, and someday he hopes to move up to using the computers to crunch some serious numbers.

Chicagoist has told you much about recent weirdness and tragedy at the Lincoln Park Zoo, and the saga continued yesterday morning when a school field trip spotted a wild coyote roaming the grounds. The coyote surprised a group of pre-schoolers, all of whom were ushered to safety behind a nearby wall but will be scared shitless of dogs for years to come. Zookeepers attempted to restrain the young wild thing with nets, but he escaped their grasp and fled the zoo without futher incident.

With over 40 births, the Lincoln Park Zoo has one of the highest rates of lowland gorilla births in the world. And they just added one more - the first to be born in the Regenstein Center for African Apes, which just opened on July 4.

We don't know about you, but Chicagoist absolutely can not wait for this long holiday weekend to begin!! We've tried to round up everything that's going on in Chicagoland, but if there's something we've missed that's sure to be a good time feel free to add it in the comments. Happy Fourth of July!