Zoo Introduces New Species

[beetbox]

Comment: This isn't satire.

Look at the humans, Daddy! Zoo introduces new species

By Cahal Milmo

Published: 27 August 2005

Jo Cook had good reason to be wary of the latest arrivals in the large-mammal section of London Zoo yesterday. Since evolving from primordial slime, the species they represent has been responsible for destroying 844 other species, and some 800 million of its own kind.

Fortunately, the new humans' enclosure at the zoo, next to five bemused langur monkeys and four nonplussed sloth bears, was populated by five of the more agreeable specimens of the genus Homo sapiens. Rather than destroying the planet, their main activities seemed to be playing "Connect Four" and listening to Radio 2. Three more human specimens will enter today.

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Ms Cook, 28, a senior mammal keeper who normally looks after bears and apes, had just returned from delivering hula-hoops to ensure the "behavioural enrichment" of her new charges. She said: "They are far more demanding than my usual animals. We have to keep them occupied and entertained. I gave them a football to do some exercise. It is important to keep the weight off them."

The spectacle of five of the planet's most advanced great ape species hanging about in swimwear on Bear Mountain, the 91-year-old Grade II-listed terraces that once housed polar bears and grizzlies, is the opening salvo in a campaign by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), which runs the zoo, to highlight humanity's status as a "plague species". Nearly 15,600 separate species are believed to be threatened with extinction caused by human activity.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article308376.ece

[Trillo]

1. Similar to what Mr. Smith said to Neo in The Matrix.

Don't remember which episode. Something about our similarity to a virus. Similar to the idea of "plague species."

[DIKB]

2. Taken from Bill Hicks.

"Make no mistake my friends, we are a Virus with Shoes."

[question everything]

3. And photo