Monkeys withheld from zoo
2009-06-11 22:09
Los Angeles - The Los Angeles Zoo will not get a trio of rare golden monkeys from China as promised, after the city spent more than $7m to build them a new home and hired a feng shui expert to see that it was suitable.
City Councilman Tom LaBonge said on Wednesday withholding the monkeys was the Chinese government's decision.
Then-mayor James Hahn went to China in 2002 seeking pandas for the zoo, but returned with the promise of the blue-faced, blond-haired monkeys as substitutes, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.
The special exhibit - costing some $7.4m - was designed to create the sense of a rural Chinese village.
Zoo Commission president Shelby Kaplan Sloan says the zoo will find other monkeys for the space.
- SAPA