Clever chimps at Kansas City Zoo make brief break to freedom
Seven chimpanzees used an improvised ladder from a tree to scale a wall and briefly escape their enclosure at the Kansas City Zoo on Thursday, a zoo official said.
One of the chimps apparently pulled a log or a branch and leaned it against the wall of the enclosure, giving the primates a leg-up to the top, zoo director Randy Wisthoff said.
The animals did not have any contact with zoo visitors, as they escaped into an area reserved for zookeepers, he added. There are 12 chimps in total at the zoo, which was closed after the incident.
“We had a ringleader,” Wisthoff said. “He got up on the log and got some others to join him.”
Using food to entice them, the zookeepers herded the wayward chimps back into an indoor enclosure. The chimps were on the loose for around an hour.
Wisthoff said zoo staff regularly checks trees in the area of the chimps for fallen limbs but in this case a chimp apparently pulled a log or large limb out of a tree. (Reuters)
Tiny Minnesota museum’s canoe a 1,000-year-old historic find
For 46 years, a canoe thought to date to the 1700s sat in the back of a display case as a minor exhibit at a small museum run by a volunteer historical group in Minnesota.
But this week, archaeologists who conducted radio carbon tests on the canoe said it was crafted almost 1,000 years ago, making it the oldest canoe in the state and shedding light on early navigation of Minnesota lakes.
The association got the canoe in 1960 and placed it in the museum starting in 1968, Ferrin said.
The dugout canoe was hollowed out of a single large tree, said Ann Merriman, nautical archaeologist for Maritime Heritage Minnesota, which researched the age of the canoe and seven others as part of a Maritime History Minnesota project.
The canoe was found in 1934 buried in mud in Lake Minnetonka, a large body of water in suburban Minneapolis, by a family building a dock, Ferrin said.
It passed through various museums until the pioneer association acquired it and later put it on display at an old schoolhouse converted to a museum, Ferrin said. The museum is only open Saturdays and by appointment.
Archaeologists estimated the canoe was made between 1025 and 1165. No longer a background piece, the canoe has been moved to a prominent spot in the museum. It is also coveted by at least one major Minnesota museum, Ferrin said. (Reuters)
Ohio man who harassed disabled kids to tote ‘BULLY!’ sign
An Ohio man who called his neighbor “Monkey Mama” as she held her adopted, disabled African-American children, and has smeared dog feces on their wheelchair ramp, was ordered by a judge to carry an “I AM A BULLY!” sign on a busy street this weekend.
Edmond Aviv, 62, who was accused of harassing his neighbor in the Cleveland suburb of South Euclid for more than a decade, pleaded no contest to fourth-degree disorderly conduct in March.
Meting out his punishment, South Euclid Municipal Court Judge Gayle Williams-Byers sentenced Aviv to spend Sunday, April 13, on a heavily trafficked intersection with the placard, which must be “large enough for a normal person to see the sign from 25 feet away.” The judge also sentenced Aviv to 15 days in jail. (Reuters)