Good News/Bad News at Lincoln Park Zoo

By Prescott Carlson in Miscellaneous on Jan 15, 2009 8:30PM

Let's start with the bad news. Like your ever-shrinking 401(k), the Lincoln Park Zoo's endowment fund took a significant hit last year -- a whopping $7.6 million in total. The bad loss is forcing the zoo to trim $1 million from its annual budget, which will include cutting programs and laying off staff. The positions the zoo is looking at getting rid of "will involve staffers working in animal care and welfare... but they also will touch on other zoo operations, such as concessions, grounds, administration, education and conservation." Zoo president Kevin Bell has pledged to take at least a 10% cut in his $352,500 salary -- we hope Bell can tighten his belt enough to get by in this day and age on only $300k.

Because of the budget crunch, the zoo must be thrilled at the good news that it has been awarded a $1.5 million grant by The Davee Foundation to help create a new research division called the Urban Wildlife Institute. The institute will study how us Chicagoans interact with the critters around us and will try to "integrate landscape and animal ecology with epidemiology research to create a holistic approach to ecosystem health as it applies to urban settings." That's, um, great? We should have paid more attention in biology class.

And in other good zoo news, OHMIGOD look at the preshus baybee monkeh!! Ahem. Specifically, the primate (pictured) is a Francois' langur, an endangered species from Southeast Asia. The mother, Pumpkin, gave birth to the infant monkey on Monday, and it is currently nameless -- suggestions, anyone? Pumpkin has previously delivered one other baby at the zoo, and the birth will help further rebuild the zoo's langur population after the hit it took a few years ago.

Photo courtesy Lincoln Park Zoo