
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 10, 1990                   TAG: 9007100128
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ED SHAMY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EMU IS AMONG WHO'S NEW AT THE ZOO

A birth. A borrowed bird. And an endangered cockatoo strolling down a Georgetown street in Washington, D.C.

Ah, yes, all is on an even keel at the Mill Mountain Zoo.

The simplest to explain is the borrowed bird - an ostrich-like emu - which is now wandering among the wallabies at the zoo. The young emu is on loan from a private breeder, who will take the bird back when it matures to its full height of about 4 feet.

Then there is the street-walking cockatoo.

The Moluccan cockatiel, an endangered species far from its native Malaysia home, was spied while on a stroll in Georgetown. A passerby scooped up the rare find, eventually moved to Roanoke and donated the bird, said zoo director Beth Poff.

Just how and why it all happened aren't quite clear, but Poff suspects the bird was legally purchased at a time when it was not considered so rare. The cockatoo probably escaped from its rightful owner and since then has been upgraded to an endangered species.

The bird was donated to the zoo during the winter but was kept under wraps until a new display was completed. Visitors saw the bird for the first time late last week.

And finally, the birth of a red panda at the zoo has so far gone off without a hitch.

The panda was born June 23 to Overfield, the zoo's male, and Brieanna, a female on loan from the Knoxville Zoo. They have been together at the zoo since June 1989. The gestation period for the pandas is four to five months.

Zookeepers have not yet been able to determine the kitten-sized panda's sex, but have been weighing it regularly to make sure it continues to grow. Visitors cannot see the young animal. It is kept in a nesting box, and the box is being kept shaded and even iced by zoo keepers to make sure the female panda is not forced outdoors by the heat.

Because of a breeding agreement, this cub eventually will become the property of the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. The pandas' next cub will be the property of the Mill Mountain Zoo.

Poff said that about 30 zoos in the country have red pandas, which are native to the southern Himalayas and are related to the giant pandas.

There have been mixed results with breeding the pandas in captivity, she said.

by CNB