Lincoln Park Zoo: This Chapter Closes
By Andrew Peerless in Miscellaneous on Jul 12, 2005 5:05PM
We know, we know... you've had enough already. Believe us, Chicagoist is as sick of writing about dead animals at the Lincoln Park Zoo as you are of reading about them. But that American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) audit into the recent string of animal deaths has ended, and we'd be remiss if we didn't close the door on this story by filling you all in on what exactly went wrong at the ol' LP.
Full details on the deaths of Wankie and three langur monkeys, after the jump.
Okay, a quick recap on Wankie, the third and final Lincoln Park Zoo elephant to die within the past year: She met her demise en route to her new home at Salt Lake City's Hogle Zoo, growing listless and still shortly after departing from Chicago. Veterinarians were unable to improve her condition, and brought her suffering to an end once she reached Utah.
According to the AZA report, Wankie's official cause of death was a bacterial lung infection, possibly exacerbated by the stress of her move. That sounds somewhat "standard," we guess, but get this: Wankie's metal shipping crate was improperly heated, meaning the poor gal spent 34 hours in near-freezing temperatures on the back of a flatbed truck. The report also expresses "concern" over the fact that Wankie was shipped out a mere three days after she'd shown signs of a colicky illness.
So, we've got a sick elephant on a freezing truck - and on top of that, the veterinarian sent along for the ride reportedly "had some difficulty implementing some of things she wanted to have happen." Apparently, although the transport team included experts from four zoos, the trucker that was hired to transport the entire crew had his own say in Wankie's care - and repeatedly denied requests to install a warming tarp due to worries about delivery time. Yes, delivery time.
In the end, it sounds like a dangerous trip made worse by a "too many cooks in the kitchen" situation, in which the least qualified cook of all got the final say. Nice work, folks... this is outrageous.
While we're stewing over that, let's discuss the langur monkeys that died the week after the Wankster, following a move into an outdoor exhibit previously occupied by gibbons. The monkeys reportedly died from ingesting toxic yew plants, which had been growing adjacent to the exhibit for 14 years.
Chicagoist had admittedly never considered the toxicity of the planting beds in and around the zoo, but we'd tend to think that "don't plant poisonous plants next to the animals' homes" would be pretty high up there in the "How to Run a Zoo" handbook. For a decade, the zoo has been reviewing the toxicity of all new plants, but its policies have never included the re-examination of established planted areas (embattled zoo president Kevin Bell admitted that it "should have"). Ummm... we agree. For now, all yew plants have been removed from the zoo premises.
So, that's about it... along with these oversights, the report does highlight the "professional" and "caring" nature of the zoo and its staff. Chicagoist has never doubted the intent or motivations of the zoo and its employees, but we do have to question the AZA's decision to give the report to zoo officials and implement their recommended changes before publication (It'd have been nice to have screened and edited our middle school report cards before giving them to our parents, wouldn't it?).
Okay, now that's it for this story. No more dead animals, no more Lincoln Park Zoo... until an adorably cuddly litter of lion cubs is born sporting Chicagoist shiny bean t-shirts (which could totally happen), that is...
Image courtesy of newsynews.com