Category Archives: Zoos

Animal welfare violations swarm Miami zoo owned by ex-drug kingpin in Tiger King

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Endangered snow leopard had leg amputated and capybara died at Mario Tabraue’s controversial roadside facility

An endangered clouded leopard had a leg amputated and a capybara died following botched breeding attempts at a controversial Miami roadside zoo owned by a convicted drug trafficker featured in the Netflix documentary Tiger King.

Federal wildlife inspectors found multiple other violations during a March inspection at Zoological Wildlife Foundation (ZWF), including dilapidated, insecure or unsafe housing conditions for wild animals, filthy cages, and water and food contaminated with algae and dead insects.

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‘True patriot’: White House pays bizarre tribute to Harambe 10 years after gorilla’s death

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White House made lengthy post about gorilla shot dead at Cincinnati zoo after a toddler entered his enclosure in 2016

The White House has posted on social media a tribute to mark Thursday’s 10th anniversary of the death of a figure it called “a true patriot”.

The hero was not a human, however; it concerned the infamous case of the 400lb western lowland gorilla that had been named Harambe, which was shot dead at the Cincinnati zoo after a toddler entered his enclosure and interacted with the animal.

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Indian billionaire’s son offers to house Pablo Escobar’s hippos at his private zoo

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Anant Ambani revives offer to transport 80 animals, all descendants of Colombian drug kingpin’s pets, to India

It remains one of the strangest conundrums in modern zoological history – what to do with the descendants of Pablo Escobar’s hippos?

The animals – herbivores native to sub-Saharan Africa – were originally imported into Colombia by the drug kingpin for his own entertainment. But the beasts and their offspring were left to roam free after his death in 1993.

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Florida officials investigate planned ‘Sloth World’ attraction after 31 sloths die in warehouse

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Languorous tree dwellers from Guyana and Peru died from ‘cold stun’ in warehouse with no power or running water

Wildlife officials in Florida said in a newly released report that dozens of sloths taken from South American rainforests for display at a controversial new tourist attraction in Orlando died in the care of their new owners.

An incident report from the Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission (FWC) said that 31 of the mammals procured from Peru and Guyana by the owners of a forthcoming attraction called Sloth World perished in a storage warehouse more than a year ago, between December 2024 and February 2025.

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South Koreans breathe sighs of relief as escaped wolf is returned to zoo safely

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Nine-day search for two-year-old Neukgu gripped nation and sparked safety concerns for animal and public

The internet in South Korea erupted in celebration as a two-year-old wolf that escaped from a zoo was captured safely after a nine-day search that had gripped the nation and made the animal a national celebrity.

The male wolf, named Neukgu, burrowed out of his enclosure at the O-World zoo in Daejeon on 8 April. Animal rights activists questioned whether the wolf could survive outside the zoo and also worried he might be killed during capture, something that happened to a puma that escaped from the same zoo in 2018.

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Chesney the kangaroo found three days after hopping away from farm

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Marsupial escaped from enclosure at Wisconsin’s Sunshine Farm on Wednesday after he was spooked by stray dogs

How does a kangaroo escape a petting zoo?

It’s not the opening line to a dad joke. If you’re Chesney the kangaroo, you scale an 8ft (2.5-meter) fence and go on the lam for three days, giving your keeper sleepless nights and sending residents of a small Wisconsin town on a search that would end happily on Saturday.

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Officials race to contain virus outbreak after 72 captive tigers die in Thailand

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Dozens of the animals in Chiang Mai region first began to show signs of illness earlier this month

A highly contagious virus is believed to have caused the deaths of 72 captive tigers in northern Thailand this month, with officials racing to contain the outbreak.

Teams are urgently disinfecting enclosures and preparing to vaccinate surviving animals.

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‘A life of captivity’: Canada refuses marine park’s request to export its whales to China

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Fisheries minister says rehoming Marineland’s cetaceans in China would only ‘perpetuate the treatment’ the whales have endured

Canada’s government has refused a request by the beleaguered Marineland theme park to export its remaining 30 beluga whales to China due to concerns that the whales will face further mistreatment.

Marineland, an amusement park, zoo and aquarium in Niagara Falls, has one of the largest captive whale populations in the world, and has long been mired in controversy amid reports of poor conditions for the animals on display.

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India’s supreme court orders inquiry into giant zoo run by son of Asia’s richest person

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Activists claim Anant Ambani’s Vantara facility has no plan to return its endangered species to the wild

India’s supreme court has ordered an investigation into a vast private zoo founded by the son of Asia’s richest person over allegations of illegal wildlife imports and financial misconduct.

Home to a reported 200 lions, 250 leopards and 900 crocodiles, Vantara in western Gujarat state describes itself as the “world’s biggest wild animal rescue centre”. It is run by Anant Ambani, a son of Mukesh Ambani, the billionaire head of the conglomerate Reliance Industries, and was one of the venues for his extravagant wedding celebrations last year, where celebrities were encouraged to wear “jungle fever” outfits.

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Four rare Barbary lion cubs born at Czech zoo

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Lion that once roamed northern Africa has been extinct in the wild since 1960s

Four Barbary lion cubs were born recently in a Czech zoo, a vital contribution for the small surviving population of a rare lion that is extinct in the wild.

The three females and one male were seen playing in their outdoor enclosure at Dvůr Králové safari park on Wednesday under the watchful eye of their parents, Khalila and Bart.

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Man died of ‘blunt force injuries’ at US zoo after suspected kangaroo fight

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South Carolina officials investigating death of Eric Slate, 52, and conditions of the petting zoo owned by his brother

Officials in South Carolina are investigating the death of a man who was believed to have been killed while fighting a kangaroo in an enclosure at a children’s petting zoo.

Eric Slate, 52, died of “multiple blunt [force] injuries”, according to Tamara Willard, the chief deputy coroner of Horry county, as reported by WPDE News.

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Chester zoo unveils £28m ‘Africa’ facility – complete with chilly giraffes

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Nine-hectare site home to 57 species including rhino, zebras and ostriches in UK’s biggest such development

“Although we are trying to replicate Uganda and Kenya we are actually in Cheshire so the weather is slightly different,” admits Chester zoo boss, Jamie Christon, on a fresh and very grey Monday morning.

But ignore the chilliness and screw your eyes and you could well be transported to a sweeping African savannah where, one day, there will be giraffes, zebras, antelopes and ostriches roaming majestically side by side.

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Cloned black-footed ferret gives birth in ‘major milestone’ for conservationists

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Antonia the ferret becomes first cloned animal of an endangered species to successfully produce offspring in US

A cloned black-footed ferret has given birth, becoming the first-ever cloned animal of an endangered species in the US to successfully produce offspring in what officials recently hailed as a “major milestone”.

In an announcement at the beginning of November, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said that a cloned black-footed ferret named Antonia had given birth to three kits in June after mating with a three-year-old male black-footed ferret at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) in Front Royal, Virginia.

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Cotswold wildlife park successfully breeds endangered Madagascan lemur

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Greater bamboo lemur births in captivity are extremely rare and park is only UK collection to have bred it this year

Cotswold wildlife park has successfully bred one of Madagascar’s most endangered lemurs.

The as yet unnamed youngster was born to a breeding male, Raphael, and female, Bijou, at the wildlife park.

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Brown bear in Kent recovering well after UK-first brain surgery

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Conservation trust says Boki ‘not out of the woods’ yet but doing well after operation to drain buildup of fluid

A brown bear that underwent brain surgery in the first operation of its kind in the UK is doing well but is “not out of the woods” yet, a charity has said.

Boki went under the knife on Wednesday after an MRI scan revealed he had hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid in the brain.

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Shropshire zoo seeks runaway ‘beloved’ capybara

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Telford’s Hoo Zoo and Dinosaur World urges public to report sightings of Cinnamon and not approach her

A zoo has issued a plea on social media for help in finding a capybara named Cinnamon which escaped from its habitat in Shropshire.

Hoo Zoo and Dinosaur World posted to its Facebook page on Monday announcing its “beloved capybara” was at large.

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Mr Greedy, the penguin progenitor of more than 200 chicks, dies aged 33

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The virile bird was euthanized by Maryland zoo due to health problems, and is survived by Mrs Greedy

A zoo in Baltimore is mourning the death of an African penguin that helped save his kind from extinction by leaving behind more than 200 descendants while living far longer than expected.

The remarkable creature in question is Mr Greedy, who was euthanized because of health problems related to his age: 33, or well past African penguins’ 18-year median life expectancy, said an announcement from his home, the Maryland zoo.

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Melbourne zoo welcomes rare southern white rhino calf to the world

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New male baby of near-threatened species born at Werribee open range zoo to be named in public competition in coming weeks

A very large bundle of joy was quietly delivered to a Melbourne zoo last Sunday as a southern white rhino gave birth to a male calf.

Mother Kipenzi, 11, and father Kifaru, 15, welcomed their 60kg baby into the world in the early hours of 18 August, Werribee open range zoo announced.

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Final artwork in Banksy animal series removed by London Zoo

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Staff replaced stencil art of gorilla helping animals to escape with reproduction to preserve ‘significant moment’ for zoo

Stencilled on a shutter at the entrance to London Zoo, the mural showed a powerful gorilla lifting up the metal barrier and creating a dark hole just big enough for other animals to use to make a speedy getaway.

Now, Banksy’s ninth and final artwork in his animal-themed London series has itself escaped, removed in an attempt by the 196-year-old zoo to “properly preserve” a “significant moment” in its history.

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Belfast zoo inquiry after worker ‘locked in enclosure with lions’

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Council investigating after one worker apparently left enclosure and locked it leaving colleague trapped inside

Belfast city council has launched an investigation after a worker at the city’s zoo was allegedly locked in an enclosure with lions.

The incident happened last week when two workers entered the enclosure while the pride of Barbary lions were in their den. One worker left the enclosure and locked it, leaving the lions free to roam and the colleague with nowhere to go, the Belfast Telegraph reported on Thursday.

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