Volume 2, No. 20. October 25, 2002
Headline
news
At a time when a half dozen major, developing stories around the world are vying
for space on the front pages of newspapers and at the top of newscasts, the
biggest news it seems seeped out of Toledo, Ohio, earlier this week. The Toledo
Zoo is sending its two koalas back to the San Diego Zoo, which had “permanently
loaned” the marsupials to the Ohio institution.
Toledo Zoo simply can no longer afford to feed the koalas, who arrived in 1991
amid much hullabaloo and accompanying sponsorships. But in more recent tougher
economic times, the corporate assistance for the koalas’ upkeep has tapered
off. Meanwhile, the zoo is annually paying $44,000 for the eucalyptus browse
alone, and another $22,000 to have it shipped fresh from Florida and Arizona
twice a week. “That worked out to 18 percent of our overall food budget,”
said Andi Norman, the zoo’s public relations manager. By comparison, two
elephants, two rhinos and four hippos get by on just $23,000. Given the economics,
and after two years of consideration Toledo Zoo finally decided to send the
koalas back to San Diego and are waiting for quarantine arrangements to be finalized.
All of this may not seem to be such big news among zoos, and Norman herself
counted only on handling local fallout once the news broke (“Some people
are upset that we’re taking out the koalas, and some are upset that we
were spending so much,” she said). Then the calls started coming in. A
half dozen of them came from radio stations and newspapers in Australia, where
one deejay suggested that Toledo could keep its koalas if everybody in his country
sent one envelope each containing a eucalyptus leaf.
Then Norman received a phone call from London: that would be the news director
for a Toledo radio station, London Mitchell, she thought. “They said, ‘No,
it’s London, England.” The BBC, specifically, who wanted to do an
interview with Norman. “Don’t you have more important news to cover?”
a shocked Norman asked.
Why the international interest in the story? Norman theorizes the cause may
be due to the headline on the local newspaper’s story that first broke
the news: “Zoo fed up, sends koalas packing.”
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