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Courtesy National Zoo
The female died after having had to be anesthetized twice in two days, first for a regular check-up and then again after she became agitated during recovery and appeared to have injured her hind legs. The zoo said preliminary necropsy results suggest the oryx died of "exertional myopathy," which can be related to over-exertion and/or hyper-excitability. The male oryx died after going into cardiac and respiratory arrest while being anesthetized for a routine reproductive assessment.
Scimitar-horned oryx, which were native to north Africa, are now extinct in the wild. The zoo now has one oryx remaining on exhibit and 13 in Front Royal.
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So, basically the two rare, extinct-in-the-wild animals were needlessly killed by the Zoo with anaesthesia-related mishaps? That's terrible. When animals come out of anaesthesia, they do typically have a period of hyperactivity where they need to be closely monitored lest they hurt themselves. Unless there were underlying health concerns, or the animals were elderly, this should not have happened.
Thank you, Dr. TinDC for your expert medical advice. Your comment really pisses me off. I'm sure the veterinarians were callous and negligent or maybe they just wanted to knock off a few animals for the fun of it. Or maybe it was the fact that both of the oryx's were old. Their life expectancy in the wild is thought to be around 20 years.
Maybe they were hungry?
i would like to have a vet chime in here, because we all tear each other apart over accusations about things that i doubt most of us are trained in.
(disclosure: my sister's a vet.)
Well, my sister lives in the Great Ape House, so I feel more than qualified to say that I wouldn't trust these guys with my old socks. It's well known that at night, the orderlies drug the animals, dress them as characters from Dickens' "The Old Curiosity Shop" and make them perform lewd acts on eachother. The pandas then sell the footage to their commie pals. Don't believe me? Check out dickensianbestialitycarnival dot com IF YOU DARE.
i would like to have a vet chime in here, because we all tear each other apart over accusations about things that i doubt most of us are trained in.
Welcome to DCist!!
And Liz, good luck with this. I've given up trying to explain why an AR-15 is less dangerous than a deer hunting rifle.
You're right Wizzyliz, because it's not like the National Zoo doesn't have a long history of needlessly killing animals due to incompetence. That just couldn't be true, could it?
How about you educate yourself Wizzlyliz on National Zoo mistakes over the last 5 years. sheesh! read the paper once in a while.
exactamundo. The vets at the National Zoo are best at hastening the deaths of their wards. Justice Holmes once said that to question the validity of the Smithsonian would be akin to laying hands on the Ark of the Covenant. The national zoo vets, however, are like bizarro-world Noahs; killing two of each animal.
Do you work at the zoo? Do you volunteer there? Please, please, please enlighten me about the past five Death Star years at NZP. Because I think I'm missing something.
You are stuck in the past, man. Or ... maybe you are one of those hard core zoo haters that anxiously await the next death so you can live more comfortably with your hatred of institutions that actually work to save endangered animals and contribute to the medical and scientific breakthroughs which help protect them both in the wild and in captivity.
But back to my question: what animals at NZP have been killed at the hands of scientists and keepers?
well, dizzyliz, check pretty much every link on this page. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/26/AR2006072600621.html
Long standing patterns of neglect, alteration of medical records, a zebra dying of starvation, and my personal favorite, indirectly causing the death of an elephant by not conducting a federally required test that could have revealed tuberculosis. Let's state that again - it's not that they simply didn't catch it, they didn't even do the test. Sure, it's "in the past", but that pattern of neglect, coupled with having a rare animal die because zoo staff couldn't be bothered to care for it properly after it's first go under the gas puts the burden on you and your acolytes to show that things have changed. Waiting for your sure to be underwhelming riposte.
I agree that the National Zoo has a bad history of animal husbandry. My point was that during the past five years it's improved. It's not perfect but where humans are involved nothing ever is. And on that note, the biggest threat to animals in the wild is habitat destruction and poaching.
The National Zoo has been successful in many areas of reintroducing endangered animals back into the wild. One of the scimitars from the Front Royal facility joined a group of others to live in a protected area in Africa. The golden lion tamarins were saved from extinction due to NZP's research and reintroduction program. So for the unfortunate loss of a few animals, the zoo's record of saving animals from extinction is quite high. Furthermore, the recent births of the clouded leopards, red pandas and other critically endangered animals is a good track record that bears mentioning.
I'll end with this. What are you doing to save animals other than spouting off your outrage at the accidental (yes, accidents do happen) and unfortunate loss of two beautiful and extinct-in-the-wild creatures? As for me, I'm very much involved.
no, the Zoo's record, put simply, sucks. This is reinforced by the recent deaths, which, by every current indication, are likely due to negligent/incompetent administration of anesthetic and the follow-up treatment thereof. For christ's sake, your lot can't even keep a zebra from freezing to death. They're able to do that at the World Famous Topeka Zoo, where I can assure you it gets a hell of a lot colder.
Your point that "So for the unfortunate loss of a few animals, the zoo's record of saving animals from extinction is quite high," is sheer sophistry. Might as well say, "well, besides that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"
Finally, your call out of "What are you doing to save animals" is just precious beyond words. That line of reasoning is the last refuge of the intellectually bankrupt. Just like one can validly criticize Bill Buckner without being in pro baseball, one can validly criticize glaring icompetence at the national zoo.
so, what am I contributing? I'm calling shenanigans on your self-serving, hypocritical defense of an organization that obviously cannot be trusted to police itself. Good day.
Hey, Fin. I bet you're one of those punks that throw sticks at the animals and then complain about how badly they're treated.
nah, I'm one of those guys who is dumbstruck by the sycophantic, myopic troglodytes the zoo selects as volunteers. Perhaps it's a stratey aimed at diverting attention away from how horrible the veterinarians are. See you next Tuesday.
Liz, I LOVE the National Zoo, and I love me some animals, too. Nevertheless, this group has had a pretty bad decade in terms of incompetence, neglect, and/or poor management, and whatever remedial actions they're taking don't seem to be working, as the recent oryx episode suggests:
Pattern of Mistakes Found in Zoo Deaths
“Neglect, misdiagnosis or other mistakes have marked the deaths of 23 animals at the National Zoo in the past six years, and some veterinary records are incomplete or were changed after the fact, according to documents and interviews with current and former zoo employees.”—WaPo 12/7/03
National Zoo Faulted; Chief Quits
“Significant flaws in care and management at the National Zoo threaten the well-being of the 2,700 animals at the park, according to an independent review requested by Congress.”--CBS News 2/25/04
Bald Eagle Killed in Attack at National Zoo; Nation's Emblem of Freedom Dies on Independence Day After Fight With Unknown Animal
“The male eagle was found by a zookeeper early Thursday, suffering from severe puncture wounds in his abdomen. He was in a corner of the enclosure amid signs of a struggle with a predator that is not a zoo animal…” WaPo 6/6/03
National Zoo Stinging After 14 Fish Found Dead
“A mechanical problem at one of the National Zoo's pools on Monday may have led to the deaths of 11 stingrays and three other freshwater fish. Tests showed that water from the pool showed low levels of dissolved oxygen, meaning the deaths could have been the result of a mechanical issue instead of a biological problem.”--NBC News 5/27/09
National Zoo Investigating Deaths of 2 Young Zebras
“Two young zebras of an endangered species died at National Zoo facilities this winter, apparently because keepers failed to feed them enough fat and protein and keep them sufficiently warm during Washington's frigid nights, officials said Friday.”—LA Times 2/26/00
And, as Monkey pointed out a little earlier, we lost some Red Pandas to rat poison a year or two ago. I really hope they straighten things out soon, because the NZ is a wonderful setting for what should be a premiere facility for animal care and human education, and quite frankly the animals deserve better.
There are two ways for animals to get out of the National Zoo: rat poison or anaesthesia. Either way, you're going out feet first.
Unless you have lovers in need in Milwaukee...
I wonder if there are enough of these rare antelope around to develop accurate risk tables for anesthetizing them.
The oryx were hit by Metro buses.
Shouldn't that be "oryxes"? Or "oryces" or "oryci" or "orcs"?
Uhm! Me and Mama CHUD Chinatown Sue have an alibi.
mmmm....Oryx.
Liz, I'm no expert and didn't say I was, but the one thing I do know from unfortunately having pets requiring anesthesia over the years, is that you don't anesthetize animals if not absolutely necessary, and when you proceed, do so with a great deal of caution. After all, the only difference between anesthesia and euthanasia is a matter of dosage, right? Hopefully the zoo will make some positive changes as a result of these incidents. I wouldn't have chimed in as I did if the zoo didn't have a pretty poor track record along these lines going back many years, as others have pointed out.
Phencyclidine (aka PCP aka "Loveboat" in DC) is still frequently used as an animal anesthetic and is what's in the tranquilizer darts. Sounds like one of these animals might have had an "emergence reaction" getting off the 'Boat.