Results tagged “zoo”

It’s classic rock night at the Zoo tonight from 6-9 pm. The "Music in the Zoo" program features cover bands: The Eagles Have Landed (Eagles music), The Rubber Souls (Beatles music), Highway 61 Revisited (Bob Dylan music), Cubensis (Grateful Dead music), The Heist (The Who, The Doors, and Led Zeppelin music) and Up Stream (popular Reggae music). Food and beverage offerings and 10 interactive animal education and conservation can be found throughout the Zoo. Picnics are also permitted. Tickets are $16.50 for adults and $10.50 for children ages 6 to 15. Children 5 and under are free. The animals will be up and out until 8 pm.

Okay, so these picks aren't related to Bastille Day...but if you must celebrate the storming of the Bastille, then we suggest grabbing a baguette and some fromage, and heading over to one of these events tonight:

When former Mayor James Hahn visited China in 2002, hoping to get panda exhibit for the LA Zoo, he came back with the promise of three golden monkeys for 10 years. Now that is not even happening, according to the Daily News. "We did pursue it with the Chinese government, but our understanding is they were no longer responding to our inquiries," Zoo Commission President Shelby Kaplan Sloan said. "We are working to bring in other simians and think we can come up with something the public will respond to and be just as attractive." More than $7.4 million was spent on the exhibit, which will now be used for other Asian primates, birds and miniature deer.

    

Yesterday to gear up for the annual Beastly Ball, the LA Zoo hosted a special event where the California bears were treated to special preparations by chefs from top L.A. restaurants. Chefs included Jason Park, chef, Yamashiro Restaurant; Erik Ritter, chef, Malo; Calogero Drago, chef/owner, Celestino Ristorante; Jack Rogers, chef, Spitfire Saloon; Patrick Luechai, chef, Typhoon; Akira Hirose, owner/chef, Maison Akira; Gerardo Ochoa, chef, El Cholo; Francoise Koster, La Poubelle, and Gloria Pink, Beverly Pink Wolfe, Tom West, of Pink's Famous Hot Dogs.

Welcome a new baby saki monkey to the Santa Ana Zoo! Born on May 18th, the child's sex is still unknown, but zoo officials say it's healthy and full of energy. It is the fourth born to its parents Dakota and Aaliyah. The full family can be seen at the zoo's Tropical Rainforest multi-species exhibit.

      

It was in 1915 when fourteen sculptures of lions and elephants graced the now-gone Selig Zoo in Lincoln Park. Movie producer William Selig had commissioned Carlo Romanelli, a sixth-generation sculptor from Florence, Italy, to create the life-sized concrete statutes that adorned the Mission Revival style entrance gates at the zoo.

One of the six endangered California Condors released at Pinnacles National Monument in 2003 has died at the Los Angeles Zoo. After the bird was found shot, it was brought to Los Angeles to be treated, but died Monday due to complications from lead poisoning after the bird ingested lead ammunition from hunters (oddly enough, the gunshots and ingestion were not related). On the brighter side of things. Two condors (313 and 303 if you really want to be specific) have mated and are watching over their egg right now just outside the National Monument on a privately owned ranch. This is the first condor nest near the monument in 70s years, according to the National Park Service.

Who knew distant relatives to the boar could be so cute? Last week Friday, three Chacoan peccaries were born at the zoo and are currently on exhibit.

      

This past weekend at an Earth Day cleanup in the Valley, a few teenage boys came upon a rattlesnake while picking up trash. Unfortunately, the overzealous teens killed it, something you're not supposed to do (as the San Diego Zoo says, "these beautiful animals are important to the environment because they control rodent populations.")

  

Two baby golden lion tamarin monkeys were born last month at the Santa Ana Zoo at Prentice Park. Interestingly enough, this is the second time in 2009 that twins of this species have been born at the zoo--twins were also welcomed in January.

              

By 9:30 a.m., one half hour before opening time Saturday morning, a few rows of the LA Zoo's parking lot were already filled with cars. As families filled the ticket lines, snow donated by Union Ice began to fall onto four exhibits in the back of the park where the bears, tigers, leopards and takins live.

The Santa Ana Zoo has a bunch of new animals including the aptly named bald eagle, Spirit, who "omes to Santa Ana from a rehabilitation facility in Alaska due to a wing injury that precluded her from being released back into the wild," according to a zoo statement. Last month, the zoo's monkey population increased to 52 when twin red-handed tamarin monkeys were born. The two will be available this weekend at the Zoo’s 57th Birthday Party event. Also: the zoo is preparing for the arrival of more animals including a pair of pretty pink roseate spoonbills for the walk-through bird aviary, a sloth, and a giant Amazonian centipede, supposedly one of the largest centipedes in the world.

The LA Zoo is now home to two groups, or mobs, of Meerkats, who are native to southern Africa. Two reside in the cute-as-ever Winnick Family Children’s Zoo and four just arrived from the North Carolina Zoo making their home at the meerkat habitat.

     

Last week, we introduced you to a group new baby animals at the LA Zoo. There actually was one more, but no photo was available... until now. In the zoo's own words, meet the newborn black duiker (along with photos shown last week):

In an 11 to 4 vote, the LA City Council voted to continue construction on the the six-acre, $42-million Pachyderm Forest that has been a hot button issue between animal activists and well, other animal activists, since late October. The elephant issue dominated the meeting for more than two hours as both sides explained with extreme passion and reason why the council should vote their way. EARLIER: What celebrities including, Cher and Robert Culp, said at the meeting.

      

The battle over Billy's future home at the LA Zoo is contentious today at city council. A group of celebrities were the first to speak today and they were all against the continuation of the zoo's Pachyderm Forest. They rather "free billy" and see him go to a more open space, which they believe is better to Billy's livelihood. Here are excerpts from what each celebrity said:

The LA City Council is fielding general public comment right now, but behind them in a packed council chambers is are animal lovers, activists and experts waiting to speak on whether the six acre pachyderm forest exhibit for LA Zoo's lone elephant, Billy, should stay continue construction or continue to be on hold.

It's all on now! The zoo and others, who want to keep Billy from being ousted to some elephant sanctuary or elsewhere, just enlisted Slash from Guns n Roses for this video (and most recently got Jack Hanna on their side, too). And to make it a Happy Gilmore moment, the "Free Billy" folks have Bob Barker. Now, tap gloves.. go!

Brenda Scott Royce, the director of publications for the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association who has written in defense of the zoo that wants to keep building their controversial pachyderm forest, has come out again on the Huffington Post against the activists clad in their "Free Billy" t-shirts.

  

A lesson on why you shouldn't jump the fence into the Gorilla's home... they might think there are veggies inside you. More of LAist's ape coverage here.

How's this for timely? GLAZA, the friends-of group to the LA Zoo, announced late last night that they'll pay the $1.2 million annual debt service for the exhibit. Basically, that relieves the city's general fund of this debt and will allow construction to continue, they say. This comes right before the City Council will sit down today and possibly vote on the fate of the controversial elephant exhibit.

Yesterday, the LA City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee voted 3 to 2, recommending construction to halt on the LA Zoo's $42-million elephant exhibit. Originally given the go-ahead in 2006, Councilmember Tony Cardenas recently brought the issue back up saying that Billy, the lone zoo elephant, has pathological problems and that a city-owned elephant sanctuary would better suit him and any future elephants. The issue became heated with some of the largest crowds showing up to City Council meetings in recent memory. Yesterday's vote does not mean construction will stop, but is a heavy recommendation for when the full council votes on it. Those who support the exhibit going forward say USDA guidelines for sanctuaries are much less strict than those for zoos. The City's financial wing says stopping the exhibit after spending nearly $10 million also isn't such a good idea.

Brenda Scott Royce, director of publications for the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association, sounded off this weekend at Huffington Post about all the elephant talk going on these days. Animal activists and Councilman Tony Cardenas want the exhibit currently under construction to halt work and have a search a large expansive elephant sanctuary. Royce, along with others, believe the exhibit is just fine. Their point of view has not gotten as much press, so here's some of it.

In what could be one of the largest public turnouts for a city council meeting in years, former Price is Right host Bob Barker was the first to comment on the Los Angeles Zoo elephant controversy a minute before 11 a.m. this morning.

Already under construction is a 6-acre elephant exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo. But tomorrow, the city council will take up a motion to stop the project. Animal friendly Councilman Tony Cardenas wants the city to develop a 60-acre elephant preserve instead. Joyce Poole, a pachyderm expert, said the zoo's elephant--Billy--is bobbing and swaying his head. "I know that some people believe that elephants do that in the wild, but having observed elephants for many, many years, seeing perhaps 10,000 different individuals ... I have never seen head-bobbing and I have never seen swaying," Poole said. "This type of behavior is pathological. It is a result of being in a confined space."

Known as a friend to the animal community, Valley Councilman Tony Cardenas will propose closing the LA Zoo's elephant exhibit--that is only home to one pachyderm--and open a sanctuary in another part of the city, such as the foothills on the edge of the city. The problem with the current exhibit is space, according to Cardenas, who has changed his mind after he voted for the expansion of the exhibit last Spring. "They want to put as many as 10 elephants there. It's only three acres of roaming space. That is not enough for one elephant, much less 10," Cardenas said, per KNBC. "What people don't realize when they see elephants in a zoo is that they create these foot issues and arthritis that leads to their death."

A five acre brush fire broke out near Travel Town and the LA Zoo this afternoon around 12:45 p.m., according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. 32 LAFD fire companies reported to the scene with help from LA County, Burbank and Glendale fire departments totaling approximately 200 firefighters on the ground. As of 2:00 p.m. no injuries, evacuations or damaged structures were reported and a knockdown had not been declared yet. "It's not progressing in a way that's it's blowing through the brush," LAFD Spokesperson Ron Myers told LAist on the phone. He said they are making progress on perimeter control.

             

It was a beautiful night at the Los Angeles Zoo; perfect weather and a perfect setting made the LA Zoo's annual "Beastly Ball" an event to remember. Celebrities and guests wandered the grounds of the zoo, feasting on gorgeous dishes prepared by the city's best restaurateurs and interacting with friendly animals like a boa constrictor, an armadillo, and a gray horned owl. Participating restaurants included Yamashiro, Typhoon, Pink's, Malo, El Cholo, Fabiolus Café and many, many others.

The city is entering on of the worst budget woes it has ever faced. And while it's been talked about for sometime now, the effects are now becoming more apparent. Yesterday in a long city council meeting over most things money, the most controversial subject of water and power rate hikes ended with the increases on hold for further discussion, but admission to the LA Zoo went up 40% for some, initially raising prices $2 for all age brackets and $1 bumps for the next two consecutive years. The move is expected to save nearly a half million dollars.

Stunts come in all shapes and sizes, but the one planned for next week at the Santa Ana Zoo is absolutely elephantine--at least for one pachyderm named Tai.