Word: zoo
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...Lewis and Clark first sighted one in 1805, California condors soared freely from the Baja Peninsula to the Pacific Northwest. Until last month, just 27 of the orange-pated scavengers survived, all of them in the protected aviaries of the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo. Then on April 29 at 5:38 p.m., there were 28. Named Molloko, the Maidu Indian word for "condor," an ungainly chick, 6.75 oz., pecked its way out of its shell to become the newest member of the embattled clan -- and the first California condor ever conceived in captivity. Said...
From the start, like hovering matchmakers, zoo officials tried to anticipate their charges' libidinal needs. Molloko's parents lived for three years in a "condorminium" measuring 40 ft. by 80 ft. by 22 ft. high -- enough room for condor courtship. Since human contact might distract the big birds, staff members observed them from a blind. Says David Rimlinger, manager of the San Diego park's bird department: "They had plenty of privacy, and the enclosure was big enough for them to get away from each other if they wanted...
...elaborate preparations paid off in January, when the pair finally mated. On March 3 the female laid a 4 1/2-in.-long egg which was placed in an incubator. After 55 days, the developing chick began pecking a hole in the top of its pale green shell. Like midwives, the zoo staff encouraged its efforts by tapping the shell with a thin wire rod. The percussive duet lasted 52 hours, until a hole the size of a quarter had formed. A few hours later, the team carefully removed the remaining fragments and Molloko emerged. By week's end bird handlers were...
Pablo Escobar Gaviria, generally acknowledged to be head of the Mafia, as the cartel is known locally, became something of a local philanthropist, building a zoo, soccer fields and an entire suburb of low-cost houses that is still called Barrio Escobar. In the manner of feudal serfs, residents in Barrio Escobar refer to their benefactor with cap-doffing deference and slip the Spanish honorific Don in front of his name...
Peasants tell an entirely different story. To them, the drug lords are Robin Hoods, providing housing, roads and money. Pablo Escobar-Gaviria, the acknowledged head of the Medellin cartel, has built soccer fields, a zoo and an entire suburb of low-cost housing. The cartel even fields political candidates. A case in point: Cartel Member Carlos Lehder-Rivas is running for a state legislative seat in this month's elections. Never mind that Lehder is in a Jacksonville jail while on trial for drug trafficking...