Two peacocks escape zoo, wander through Brooklyn's Prospect Park and delight kids

Two peacocks walked and flew around Brooklyn’s Prospect Park and Botanic Garden after escaping from the zoo. The naughty birds had just been given free range of the zoo and took their freedom a little too far.

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Men's mags duel over OH zoo gone wild

GQ and Esquire face off over the exotic predator release in OH. Esquire goes all action adventure. GQ tries to figure out how lion, tigers and bears were unleashed on suburbia.

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I'll have a rare crocodile with my Mexican-themed kitsch, please

alligator mississippiensis at South of the Border's Reptile Lagoon

South of the Border now lures I-95 travelers with a roadside reptile lagoon full of alligators, turtles and snakes and endangered crocs.

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NC rescuer unaware they saved Heidi the cross-eyed possum

Heidi the cross-eyed possum was orphaned, probably by a car, then raised at the NC Zoo in Asheboro before heading to 3 European zoos and fame.

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Heidi, the fat, American cross-eyed possum, dies in German zoo

Heidi, who was orphaned in NC and hand-raised, became a celebrity in Germany. She was fat and ultimately arthritis did her in.

Keep reading Heidi dies. The fat, American, cross-eyed possum charmed the world from a German zoo

Mexican wolves get good news, but is it enough to turn the species around?

Mexican Wolf Release

Mexican wolf numbers are up slightly, the FWS actually released two and a new management is in the works. But is it enough to save this stalled species rescue?

Keep reading Mexican wolves get good news, but is it enough to turn the species around?

Nova Scotia still paying $20 coyote bounty; Wild bald eagle courts one at zoo

Nova Scotia is going back to barbaric bounties, offering trappers $20 per coyote pelt. They hope to kill 4,000 that way. Finland wolves and ND coyotes also under attack from poachers and snowmobiles.

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Charming hobo dog gets place at Best Friends, MO tries to repeal prop B

Dozens fed and tried to catch Rusty in Oak Brook, IL. After 3 year chase, he’s headed to UT’s Best Friends.

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North Korea: Creepy to Animals, Too

What do you get for a fellow despot of an impoverished country? How about a menagerie? Conservation groups are pissed that Zimbabwe is sending North Korea a mini-menagerie–two of every species from Hwange National Park.

Somalia gave Kim Il Sung an Ass photo by (stephan)

You can only imagine how a nation that can’t provide food and electricity for its own people will treat elephants and lions from Africa. Actually, you don’t have to imagine. Some news reports make it seem ambiguous where they might go. But there’s only one zoo in North Korea and it’s totally sad, crappy, creepy and unaccredited.

Asia Times reports that a bunch of animal fighting films have come out of North Korea and pits animals against each other to fight to the death–just the kind of flick our Supreme Court endorsed.

“In all probability, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il sanctioned the filming of Fighting Animals, or at least gave it his curious approval – though there is no evidence he was directly involved despite his well-documented interest in filmmaking,” the Asia Times says. “The film’s producers would have needed access to rare and valuable animals and the only place in the country that holds them is the Central Zoo in Pyongyang.”

The Pyongyang Central Zoo was hit by bird flu

Aside from the animal fighting scandal, Lonely Planet says all the animals at the Korea Central Zoo, also known as the Pyongyang Central Zoo, “look pretty forlorn Worst off are the big cats…kept

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Instead of Going to a Roadside Zoo, Go to the FL Rehabber Who Rescues Their Rejects

Tiger brothers rescued by Wildlife Rehab or Hernando

If you’re looking for an animal attraction in central Florida that doesn’t make you feel icky about how they treat the animals, check out Wildlife Rehab of Hernando. Jimmy Jablon started out taking in local native wildlife–raccoons, alligators, fox–but demand for exotic animals turned out of homes and those creepy roadside attractions.

When you go to the shelter, less than an hour north of Tampa, you’ll get much closer to animals than you would in a zoo and your donation for a tour ($17.50 for adults, $8.50 for kids) will go to help maintain these animals and save others. “We let all the people that come here get close to the animals,” he says. “You stand a foot from the tigers and the monkeys are on a fence next to you.”

Right now Jablon could use the donations, after spending $8,000 for tests and surgery for a 160 pound lion cub that’s now recuperating in his house to ward off infection. Jablon has seen so many of what he calls “photo cubs”–big cats misused to pose for cute pictures when they’re young–that he recognized the syndrome. The cat had been underfed and improperly fed and her skull wasn’t growing to keep up with her brain. Jablon drained more of his savings from working in the insurance business to pay the vet bills, which he had been hoping to get a break on for rescuing the animal.

Recently he did get a big

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