Chimpanzee death at KC Zoo disturbing
Lewis DiuguidKansas City Zoo officials said they have corrected problems that led to the death of a male chimpanzee last December. Let’s hope so because how 13-year-old Nusu died is disturbing.
Nusu had been starving and weighed less than 94 pounds instead of a normal 150 pounds. A story in The Kansas City Star today reports that the chimpanzee was at the bottom of the social order among other chimps at the zoo, and they were keeping him from food.
He lost 37 percent of his body weight in about 20 months. Daily notes by zoo keepers failed to indicate Nusu’s tragic decline or separate him from the rest of the chimps. A report by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which monitors zoos, cited the Kansas City Zoo for five cases of noncompliance in the animal’s death.
Another adult male chimp died in August 2010 from complications of high body heat and stress from being put in with other male chimps.
Zoo officials have to do a better job of providing for all of the animals in their care and that includes noting any bullying among the animals and taking the appropriate action immediately.
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