This weekend, the Detroit City Council voted 7-2 against a plan to transfer the zoo's operations and most of its funding to the nonprofit Detroit Zoological Society. The transfer would have made the zoo eligible for $4 million in state funding but now the zoo is reportedly in danger of closing.

• Council declines to give up zoo control ... but says city cannot afford to keep open (Detroit News)


• Council members defend zoo vote, hope for revisions to plan ... (Crain's Detroit Business)


• The Future of the Detroit Zoo ... audio feature from Dustin Dwyer (Michigan Radio)


• Zoo fiasco shows how quickly Detroit forgot XL lesson ... Daniel Howes says Detroit's dysfunction is so deep many don't know it's even there (Detroit News)


• Animals, kids & business
  ... Zoo provides "unique educational experiences that even the best of
  our public and private schools simply cannot on their own" (Patricia E.
  Mooradian editorial in Freep)


• Detroit City Council Decides the City Doesn't Need a Zoo ... author adopted a penguin, wonders about its fate (Detroit Wonk)


• FIVE THINGS: About the Detroit Zoo ... accidental origins, first "barless" zoo, Penguinarium, 1/2 million elephant rides, Wanda & Winky (Freep)


• Detroit Zoo web site ... now featuring "Macaroni Penguins"


• Detroit Zoo Photo Pool on Flickr ... "In hopes of preserving memories of the Detroit Zoo please post your pictures..." (above photo courtesy Anton Olsen)

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