Bad week in the animal kingdom

Cinder 1994-2009

I love me some Cinder. Love her, I have loved her since she was born, and we have visited her at least once a year since then. She is so funny, and I just want to hug her. I even took Holly and her girls to visit her when they came from Pennsylvania last year--that is how much I love me some Cinder. I think I love her cuz she was nekkid, in that all her hair fell out from alopecia. Cinder did not care if she had hair--unless of course she got sunburned, then I imagine she cared.

My mom thinks maybe she was related to us. That could be. There is a lot of nekkid in this group too.

Anyway, I just heard this on the news and took this article from the St Louis Zoo website to post here. The following pics came from there too--but the one on the top I took this year. She was such a ham, it was fun to take pics of her.

Sad News About Cinder

Cinder, a 14-year-old chimpanzee at the Saint Louis Zoo who was best known by her fans as "the hairless chimp," died suddenly and unexpectedly on Sunday afternoon, February 15, 2009. She will be very much missed by our staff, our volunteers and visitors.

Sunday started out as another normal day in the Jungle of the Apes, according to Curator of Primates Ingrid Porton. As always, upon arrival the keepers checked all the apes. Eight of the 11 chimpanzees were at various stages of a cold that was going through the group. Cinder, one of the first to catch the cold, had none of the runny nose and cough symptoms she had shown last week. She welcomed the keepers with her signature pant-greeting while presenting her belly for tickling. Her appetite and attitude were good.

The keepers were busy giving all the apes their afternoon snack when they heard a series of alarm barks coming from the chimpanzees. They found Cinder collapsed on the floor with alpha male, Hugo, next to her. He tried to get her to respond. After separating the group from her, the keepers and zoological manager of primates began trying to resuscitate her even before veterinary help arrived. She was immediately given emergency drugs intravenously. Resuscitation attempts were continued, but without success.

A necropsy with preliminary results from the Saint Louis Zoo's pathologist did not show an obvious cause of unexpected death. Further laboratory tests are being conducted on tissue samples, blood samples and bacterial cultures taken from the necropsy. Results from the tests are expected in three to four weeks.

"Her death is a huge shock to all of us who took care of and watched her grow up," says Porton. "Cinder was an unexpected baby. Her mother, Mollie, and father, Smoke, were brought to the Saint Louis Zoo to become foster parents to Hugo. The two were experienced parents, but their last baby had been born nine years earlier, and it was thought that offspring was to be their last. Thus, the Zoo was surprised when Mollie gave birth to a healthy girl on August 9, 1994."

Background on Cinder

When she was five months old, Cinder began losing her hair. Zoo veterinarians, along with medical specialists in dermatology, determined she had a condition called Alopecia universalis. An autoimmune disease, it also occurs in about 2% of the human population.

"We were worried about negative reactions from visitors when Cinder lost all her hair," explains Porton. "We didn't want her viewed as a freak so that they couldn't see her as another member of our chimpanzee family who had a distinct and complex personality. Although some visitors were disconcerted by her naked state, most people showed compassion and genuine interest.

"Cinder's unusual appearance never affected her relationships with the other chimps. Many people remarked that humans could learn a lesson from our group."

Cinder was there for the introduction of all five foster brothers and sisters. She was a coddled baby when Jimmy, Hugo and Mlinzi were accepted into Mollie and Smoke's family. She was jealous of Mollie's attention when Holly and Bakari were fostered into the growing family but showed a maternal attitude towards young Tammy when she joined the family in 2003. Although she had no hair for Tammy to cling to, Cinder let the youngster ride on her back.

"We still miss Cinder's mother, Mollie, who died in 2004 at approximately 37 years of age," adds Porton. "Her 41-year-old father, Smoke, is still with us. Though Cinder died at a relatively young age, we find solace in the fact that she lived an active, happy life, developed close social relationships within her ever-growing family group and learned to love the great outdoors at Donn & Marilyn Lipton Fragile Forest, where her naked body was transformed from a pale white to an attractive tan."

Various zoo creatures

Ok, even I am getting tired of this. Here are some more good pics from Saturday

This is Bongo--he is some sort of endangered something that is going to be returned to his native land. He is a big ol thing for something that I think is a kind of antelope or like animal.
I hate ostriches--I think they are going to peck my eyes out. One came close once--stuck his head in the car window and took a button off my shirt. Also there are some that live near me, and more than once, I have come close to running over his cranky ass. A bird just does not need to be that big, I don't see any good that can come of it.

Zebras are swell--although this one is a bit round.

This is an Asian elephant. I dont know which one this is, but when Raja was born (he is now the king of the zoo) it was a very big deal. Barry and I were not married yet but we went and saw him when he was a couple of months old--there was a very long line. He was so cute. He kept laying down to rest. I wanted to kiss him. He weight 340 pounds the day we were there. Now Raja is a daddy--he had two babies this year, it was a very big deal. I have not seen them yet.

These give me a headache

But they still make cool photos---I like giraffes. More than one at a time makes my eyes cross, but I think that is what I like about them.


Do you ever think about giraffe balls? I never did until Julie and I went on a drive thru wilderness thing and there were some--I had to look right up at them. They were white. It was fascinating, since I had never thought of them before.


There was a Dooney & Bourke purse like this one last year--I wanted it bad, but Barry made fun of me.

This is my second favorite pic--young ones of every species are a little goofy, arent they?

Birds everywhere

One of the features of the St Louis zoo is the flight cage thingy--it was built for the 1904 Worlds Fair. I paid more attention to the birds this time because Holly likes them.

One of the neatest ones in there was this bird with the fringey butt. I don't know what it was, but she was pretty.



I think this is a juvenile fringey butt bird. It had some pale champagne feathers instead of being pure white. I bet that goes away as it gets older.



I don't know what this thing is--it was just cool looking with this funny bill. I cannot imagine what it does with that thing. It looks like it could row a boat with it. His head is kind of ugly too. The picture turned out so well.

On the list of funny billed birds, these guys were in the pond near the flamingos, and not in the flight cage. Their wierd bill things were floppy, I have no idea what they are either.

Cinder: best thing at the zoo

This is Cinder, she is a chimpanzee that has alopecia universalis. I remember when she was born and she was fine for a while, but before long, she was nekkid as she could be. I think she is 10 or 11 now. I like nekkid things

She is one of the best things at the zoo because she is so different. I was so excited to show her to Holly, Court and Sarah, so it was swell when she decided to come outside to their new habitat and climb a tree. She does not always come out to see people. Saturday, she came out just as I was giving up and I was so relieved. There is no way to accurately describe her so people get how cute she is. She got up in her tree and stretched out to practice her poses---you would have thought she knew I was trying to get a good shot of her. Either that or she thought the Penthouse photogs were there.

I love her, she cracks me up.




If she had some hair, she would look like this one---he (??) must have felt left out at all the attention she was getting as he climbed up after and over her and started pouting. He was pretty cute too, but he is no Cinder.

Flamingos are an interesting bunch

For example, what the heck is going on with his legs? His knees go backwards. I do not understand that.


And lookie here, they are all orange and their butt feathers stick up! This is a beautiful color of a bird. Or for anything for that matter. Except my hair, which sometimes looks a lot like this in the mornings--especially in the summer.

One thing that I did not know is that they are a bickering bunch of birds---several of them argued the whole time I was taking photos. I cannot imagine what they were carrying on about it, but two would start in on it and then others would get in on it and the original ones would drop out---I am not sure they even knew what they were arguing about.

Penguins and puffins

I have two things to say about this deal: one, penguins and puffins are WAY funnier than I ever thought they were. Two: they smell like shit. Make you retch kind of funk, they are nasty smelling creatures. Despite this, you have to stand in line for a while to get in their new habitat.

It was worth it though, as they are hysterical.



One thing about them I like is that their arms are very short--like mine.


Also, there are some random fat ones--like me. This poor fool is so fat he is stuck. And he does not even care. I envy that.


Some of them just run their mouths a lot--like me.


And some of them have a serious mean look ---that is all I have to say about that. Most of them looked like very pleasant animals though.

This dude is a puffin--look at his unfortunate beak. It looks like it is three different beaks smashed together to make one---it is kind of sad. They do not seem to know they are funny looking though.

It might be because they are dumb--at least this one below is. He was flaunting his fish and everyone in the building knew full well that he was going to lose it if he did not take better care of it---everyone but him that is.


Dumb puffin.

This HAS to be a boy bear

Check him out--he is airing out his package.

I can imagine no other explanation for this behavior.

Boys have no shame.







This is a black bear. Or a spotted something bear. Hell, I don't know. After a while, all the bears run together.

Oh I remember--it is a spectacled bear--this is his partner--he had a happy smile and was the only bear that was not walking in circles like he needed to up his meds

Polar bears? In the midwest?

Well sure! With pretend snow and everything! I think there was some drama last year with apolar bear that died at the St Louis zoo-- I wonder if this dude is lonely? He sure did pace in some circles.

I really liked his feet.

Aren't those great feet?

I love me a zoo

Love it love it love it--always have since I was little bitty--we got at least once a year, usually more. St Louis has a GREAT zoo and it is free, on top of everything else. How bout that for a deal!

We went Saturday, with Holly, Court and Sarah, Julie, Ash and Charlie--it was swell. I got so many good pics, I am just going to post as few as I can stand to post--but knowing me, that will be a lot.

I am one of those wierdos that has patterns everywhere--I have to do the zoo in the same order every time, or I miss things-same deal at WalMart or I get home with no toothpaste. That is probably how I will post them too--

On that note, the first stop on my zoo tour is the bears--they are to the left of the North entrance (and I HAVE to go in the North entrance, don't ask me why, but I know if I don't, I will never find my car again).

Grizzly bears are first--we only saw one most of the time, but another one turned up and went swimming--unfortunately, he was too close to the edge for me to get a photo of him.

Here is a sad thing about bears in a zoo--I think they go a little crazy--most of the bears were kind of OCD. Or they were asleep. The awake ones had a pattern they do--hey, wait a minute, I just admitted to having that too. At least my pattern is bigger than theirs.

That left me focused on grizzly bear 1, and turns out I really like their feet. Look at the nails on this beast! I would not get between ol boy and the pic a nic basket, would you?


They have cute feet. But thank goodness, I finally found someone with funkier feet bottoms than me---it is a shame it is a zoo animal but I will take what I can get.

OK, enough grizzly bear for one day.