Chinese Monkey Snub Sets Off Simian Search
Despite the feng shui expert, they’ve taken the monkeys off the table.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Zoo may have the nation’s only monkey lair approved by a feng shui expert. There’s only one problem: No monkeys.
The city spent $7.4 million building the China-themed primate enclosure — complete with Canary Island palm trees, artificial trees with extra springy limbs, and a viewing structure with Chinese-style tilework — after China promised to lend the zoo a trio of rare golden snub-nosed monkeys.
But now the Chinese government has taken the monkeys off the table, leaving zoo officials searching for suitable stand-in simians to take the place of the golden monkeys, known for their blue-faces and blond-hair.
“Within 60 days, some lucky monkey will have a home there,” City Councilman Tom LaBonge, whose district includes the zoo, said Thursday.
Zoo spokesman Jason Jacobs said negotiations with Chinese officials broke down several weeks ago, but he did not know why.
Frank says: