AR-News: New shipment of gorillas is held up

[=?windows-1255?B?8e7j+A==?=]

From:primfocus at waste.org

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040504/APN/405040745

New shipment of gorillas is held up

The Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- 
A hitch has cropped up in a complicated gorillas switch that means South
Carolina's Riverbanks Zoo will be without a set of the animals for at least
eight weeks.

Riverbanks returned four gorillas Monday to Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago,
which had sent them to Columbia while their exhibit was being renovated.

In exchange, Riverbanks was to get gorillas from the Philadelphia Zoo, which
was getting some gorillas from St. Louis. But a St. Louis gorilla tested
positive for tuberculosis and the train broke down.

Philadelphia officials refused to accept the possibly infected gorilla and
decided to wait until they are assured of getting replacements before
shipping their three males to Riverbanks, said Satch Krantz, executive
director of Riverbanks.

Gorillas are a huge draw for zoos.

Krantz said preliminary TB tests often show false positives, but a more
conclusive test takes eight to 10 weeks.

Riverbanks knew about the positive test before returning the gorillas it had
to Chicago, but decided to send them along anyway.

"They've made a big, big deal about these animals coming back," Krantz said.
"It just wouldn't be right to keep them here."

---

Information from: The State,


the wild, cruel beast is not behind the bars of the cage. he is in front of it - axel munthe

"Never doubt that a small group of dedicated citizens can change the world. 
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."      Margaret Mead
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-news/attachments/20040505/06dba8c3/attachment.html