Americans have God-given right to be wrong

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Dear Otus,

Am I the only one who finds this inter-species animal breeding at the Little Rock Zoo offensive? I mean, it's going against the laws of nature.

Those four recently named Malayan liger cubs may be cute, but they're an abomination that is a stench in the nostrils of God.

-- Felicity Merriman,

Bella Vista

Dear Felicity,

It was wholly a pleasure to hear from you and, since this is America, it is entirely your privilege and prerogative to be incensed and outraged over absolutely anything.

It is also your God-given right as an American to be absolutely wrong, misguided, ill-informed, dogmatic and intransigent to the point of stultiloquence.

As an aside, I also question why you placed the U.S. Flag Forever Stamp upside down on your envelope. Was it an attempt at civil protest? If so, it is disrespectful and ill advised.

The United States Flag Code, Title 36, Chapter 10 (amended by public law 94-344), dictates that a flag flown with the union down should be used "only as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property."

Upside down is an international sign of distress, but that wouldn't help France, Italy or Norway. Those flags look the same either way.

Back to your question. If it's any comfort, you are not the only one concerned about inter-species breeding at the Little Rock Zoo. In fact, since our article about naming the ligers last week, I've received four other protestations (two letters, two emails).

For the record, they came from Chrissa Maxwell of Hot Springs Village, McKenna Brooks of Lonoke, and Kit Kittredge and Saige Copeland from Little Rock. All expressed identical reservations as you.

First of all ladies, I agree that the Malayan liger cubs are adorable. They are also an integral part of the zoo's mission to further research into endangered species through the preservation of threatened DNA in ancillary hybrids.

Long gone are the days when zoos existed to simply show city folks what strange and exotic creatures look like up close.

Today, there are plenty of sheltered urban children who are as equally fascinated by the common white tail deer as they are by the exotic chital of India. They are as likely to be as awestruck by a goat as a gazelle. Zoos need a larger purpose to justify their existence.

That's where the Association of Zoos & Aquariums' inter-species breeding program comes in.

This hybrid research is not the same as the vanity breeding of so-called "designer" dogs such as cockapoos and labradoodles. This is serious business with scientific ramifications in numerous disciplines.

For those who doubt the value of such endeavors, be reminded that there is no longer any debate as to the value of mules and hinnies to society.

A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse; a hinny comes from a male horse and a female donkey.

Are mules a "stench in the nostrils of God?" I doubt it. Neither are the liger cubs, the offspring of Bakari, the zoo's male lion, and Suhana, the 5-year-old Malayan tiger who came to the zoo as part of the Species Survival Plan.

When they are old enough for exhibit in the spring, the ligers will join the other hybrids in the zoo's special inter-species display area adjacent to Lorikeet Landing.

Current inhabitants in the award-winning exhibit include two juvenile tigons (hybrid of a male tiger, female lion) on loan from Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Eureka Springs, and a pair of grolar bears from southern Nunavut in Canada.

The grizzly/polar bear hybrid is one of the few known to occur naturally in the wild.

In addition, the Little Rock Zoo has one of the most extensive zebroid collections in the U.S. The zebra/equine hybrids, which have a wide variety of shapes and stripe patterns, include four zorses, a zonkey, two riding zonies and a miniature horbra.

There are several pair of camama (camel/llama hybrids), and three coaticoons, the product of a nuisance male raccoon trapped on Orchard Lake and donated by state Rep. Andy Mayberry from Hensley, and a female coati from Brazil.

The zoo's latest coup puts the facility on the cutting edge of phylogenetics. The zoo's reptilian inter-species project has successfully hybridized a pygmy Nile crocodile and a lesser Antillean iguana. The resulting iguanadile has the front end of an iguana and the hindquarters of a croc.

At two months, she is already amazingly adept at Mullerian and Batesian mimicry.

Until next time, Kalaka reminds you that she also will be ready for display in early spring. Meanwhile, look for her photo on the zoo's website, LittleRockZoo.com, and suggest a moniker on the "Name the Critter" link.

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