I visited the place after doing a talk on the subject of animal management at an international conference in Kent, England some years ago. It was interesting, as the U.K. had over a century of experience in the keeping of wild animals, as opposed to the USA. I'd assumed that they'd be way ahead of us. That was a bad assumption.
At Chester Zoo, I watched as an elephant keeper interacted with an Asian elephant cow, and noticed that she had developed a habit of lowering her head and dropping her right tush onto his head. I suggested that this was not a good thing, and he assured me that it was entirely accidental.
My reply: "No, elephants don't make mistakes. That's on purpose." Some folks just can't deal with facts.
Sure enough, shortly after returning home, I got a call. That keeper was dead; the cow had in fact plunged her right tush straight through the top of his skull. Sometimes, reading behavior sucks.
Thick plumes of black smoke billowed into the sky as the blaze spread through the tourist attraction this afternoon. The fire had taken hold of a building that houses the Monsoon Forest habitat as firefighters scrambled to the scene. Inside the affected enclosure was believed to be Sumatran orangutans, Sulawesi macaques and the Sunda gharial crocodile as well as a number of rare birds.
Chester Zoo is home to more than 21,000 animals, with the affected Monsoon Forest habitat being the UK's largest zoological building.
All animals, staff, and visitors are presently being evacuated from the premises.
