Good news, the squirrel monkey has been found tonight in a park; someone saw him and put him in their backpack and took him to the police station, who then transferred him back to the zoo. Banana Sam will have a Happy New Year!!!!
Although possible, I believe the person who stole this monkey decided it wasn't worth the jail time or fines and decided to make up this story to keep his/her hands clean
Can we get back to some real comings and goings at SF Zoo?! (we pay too much attention to sensationalist newspaper quips for our own good here ...) I would like to know how the zoo is developing? What new animals? New plans for exhibits? and the like ... Thank you!
This actually isn't sensationalist. This zoo has a history of security breaches and stolen animals. A few years ago their koalas got stolen by some teenage dopes as presents for their girlfriends. The fact that it is still happening speaks to the continuing management problems with this zoo. The future of the zoo seems to be that they want to build more playgrounds. There are no publicly known plans for new animal exhibits to replace the current bad ones. There are hippos back at the zoo.
If some dumb**** wanted to steal an animal no barriers or anything will hold them back. As such this whole charade is sensationalist. It has nothing to do with management problems, just the way that some media inside SF see fit to report on zoo matters. Hence, my quip that I would like to get back to reading about zoo news and not banter and blah-blah. Safe to say we disagree. Let us keep it that way. So, again ... what about some real news (as suggested previously)!
There is no need to be rude Kifaru Bwana. I was just observing that the San Francisco Zoo has a history of animal heists that most zoos don't seem to. This is relevant news for the SF Zoo as it points out that they still have major security lapses to fix. To be fair, this may be publicized more for them and other zoos likely have similar problems that don't get "sensationalized" as you point out, but the security of the SF Zoo is a long-standing concern and one of several problems that they need to fix going forward. Like you I am very interested in what the future holds for the zoo exhibit-wise and animal-wise. There doesn't seem to be much information out there other than statements in the recent profile of the director that they want to build several new playgrounds and an unspecified North America area. To my mind one of the most interesting exhibits that they could build would be a new polar bear complex to complement the newish grizzly exhibit. There are no polar bear exhibits in California outside of San Diego (the zoo and SeaWorld), other than the increasingly outdated one at SF. A good new polar bear exhibit would bring much positive attention to this zoo.
At a time when most other American zoos are either holding steady or increasing visitor numbers San Francisco Zoo has fallen from 1.1 million annual visitors to around 850,000 visitors in the space of 3 years: City deparment announces zoo attendance ?finally starting to come back? | Kamala Kelkar | Under the Dome | San Francisco Examiner
Here's a bit of "real news": there is a banner suggesting a new squirrel monkey exhibit is to be built on the demolished flight cage site next to the Tropical House. Looks like nothing very special, but in the context of recent history of the SF zoo it does constitute progress. No start or completion dates are mentioned. One can only hope that the 17-year old "kidnapped" squirrel monkey will live long enough to see its new home.... The continued security lapses and Zoo's ongoing bad publicity are directly relevant to the future of the collection and exhibits. Until the community feels confidence in the Zoo's direction and managerial competence, it is very unlikely the public interest and financial support so desperately needed there will materialize.
Interesting that the 850,000 visitors were from fiscal year ending June 30, 2010. Their budgeted visitor estimate for fiscal year ending June 30, 2011 was 728,640 and the zoo estimated visitors for fy ending 2012 is 728,640. It appears that the number of visitors continues to decline.
Notes to current references- The Squirrel Monkey incident made the news, the one a few weeks prior did not. There was a theft from the Children's Zoo with the same MO. A Rabbit and Parrot were stolen. I don't think they were ever recovered. Not sure why one incident would make the news and not the other, maybe the animal circumstances. Rescued research monkeys bring more positive publicity for the Zoo. There PR teams outreach is always questionable. Who's fault is any of this? Security is never up to par there. From what I understand the Zoo just plain does not want to hire enough Security guards for whats needed. As recent profile shows, the Zoo Director sure draws a decent salary, yet is never on the grounds actually making a difference. Maybe she should be making less and those who could make a difference should be working more. Whether more guards could have prevented this, I don't know. I just now that there isn't enough when the place is open and having one to patrol the whole place at night doesn't seem like enough. ... I now hear that there are cameras installed at the areas that were breached and there are 4 guards at night. The new Squirrel Monkey exhibit under construction near the Aviary is supposedly scheduled to be done within a year. AND it will include a childrens play area! oh yay! The exhibit photo looks horrible. Nothing natural looking, infact its mostly to be constructed of white materials? I would like to see the Director pitch funding upgrades to donors, rather than funding new exhibits.
In reference to poster "themightyshaw", can you sense "disgruntled, litigious, fired ex-employee?" I sure can.......
Well, I certainly don't think that bringing issues to light that I think are a problem at the Zoo makes me a "disgruntled, ex-employee". Ridiculous. I have many blogs, both pro and con and one that's both. Nothing wrong with being honest about the state of things, both good and bad.
Inti, a Bobcat who has lived behind the scenes for over a decade, is now on exhibit in Cat Kingdom. 'Inti' the bobcat on display at San Francisco Zoo - San Jose Mercury News
I just received a solicitation from the zoo in the mail for an annual pass. A leaflet inside explains some future plans for the zoo, although it does not give a timeline. Here are scans of the leaflet (front, then back):
Oh goody! In another brilliant move to improve their zoo the city of San Francisco is going to make zoo visitors' lives more inconvenient and miserable by eliminating free parking. The best part is that they're not doing it to raise revenue for the zoo, but because they just want to. Way to go San Francisco. Next plan: parking meters at SF Zoo - SFGate
For those of us who are familiar with the San Francisco Zoo's layout, Inti's enclosure is directly East of the Lion House; or, at forty-five degree angle from the Lion Fountain. It leaves something to be desired. There's a decent-sized, albeit fake, tree in the center of the exhibit along with a burlap hammock for him to lounge about in. No water appears to be in the enclosure, and actual flora is non-existent. I'll get a better picture on my next trip. That said, according to the zoo's Facebook page their Baird's Tapir, Goober, passed away on Sunday from an aggressive form of oral cancer. The length of that proposed squirrel monkey exhibit is roughly forty yards long. That's more space than any of the other primates have at the zoo except, maybe, the chimpanzees. Hopefully they demo at least one of the walls between the other species to give them more space if not completely redoing the Primate Discovery Center.
A Francois Langur was recently born; S.F. Zoo welcomes Giants rally (langur) monkey | SFGate Blog | an SFGate.com blog
