The Journal News from White Plains, New York • Page 23

The baby book boom Page C3 SECTION Ann Landers Good Life Television Comics C2 C3 Thursday, August 18, 1988 The Journal-News, Rockland County, N.Y. FRIENDS NEIGHSOrtS MARIE DILLON 1 nrru 100 EW Animals are at home in their spruced-up Central Park address By Lisa Fay Kaplan Staff Writer 1A 1 1 1 I he temperature in Central Park last week had passed 90 degrees, and the air was soaked with humidity. Perspiration poured from A4 'A" -'AW. 7f v. 1 New Yorkers who walked through the new Central Park Zoo, which reopened last Monday after $35 million and four years of renovation.

Only Fin, the California sea lion and the zoo's budding star, looked cool and content as he sliced and dove through 100,000 gallons of water in his brand new pool. "It's a lot better than the old zoo," said Sam Zylberberg, a 26-. year-old lawyer who was taking a long lunch to check out the zoo. "You don't feel sorry for the animals. You envy them, especially in heat like this." The new zoo looks like a paradise for the approximately 450 animals not including 100,000 leaf-cutter ants that now call midtown Manhattan home.

A his-and-her pair of polar bears lumber along an island of artificial rocks surrounded by a clean, clear moat. Gentoo penguins romp on a replica of the Polar Ice Cap that is continuously cooled to 35 degrees. A green iguana perches amid authentic-looking tree trunks and vines carved from epoxy and latex. Tropical birds soar through a simulated rain forest brightened by 6,500 square feet of And those leaf -cutter ants work their own glassed-in farm before a closed circuit television camera, which shows their comings and goings on three screens. The new zoo's construction of A Reeve's muntjac is one of the animals on display in a new habitat at The Central Park Zoo.

Reeve's muntjacs, which are also known as 'barking deer1 because of the sounds they make, are found In East Asia. original Central Park Zoo had been designed in 1934 with what was then considered standard housing for animals. But by the 1970s, the place had become a depressing, squalid eyesore that Gordon Davis, New York City's former commissioner of parks and recreation, once called "a Rikers Island for animals." Money talk The New York Zoological Society aimed to change all that in 1980 when it signed an agreement with the city to renovate and eventually manage the Central Park Zoo and similar zoological projects in Queens and Brooklyn. Demolition of the old zoo began in 1983. Although the renovation budget natural animal habitats is vastly for the Central Park Zoo was different from its previous collection estimated at 18.3 million, bv the 1 i 1 time the project was completed, the 01 edges in wnicn animais paceu neurotically behind iron bars.

The GannttSth Harriaon I A. lllllil! tit III I lirilllll II IIIV Peter, Paul, but, sorry, no Mary NEW VAN FOR ARTWORK; Every time the Rockland County Arts Council had to transport supplies and large works of art to exhibits, it would have to borrow or rent transportation. This made it very expensive. So the Center appealed to Assemblyman Robert Connor for aid in procuring State funds. By springtime this year, the center not only had a new white van, but it had the center's logo, all due to the efforts of Connor.

STAND-UP COMICS. Peter and Paul, sorry no Mary, are in this comedy team that opens off Broadway at 6:30 tonight at 236 West 78th Street. Peter Harckman and Paul Beals, both graduates of Clarkstown High School North, are ready to claim their places as two of New York's brightest and most original young comics. The team, fresh from their smash two-night headline in June at the Duplex, appear regularly at Comedy U. Grand in SoHo, and are regulars of the New York cabaret circuit.

Peter, an alumnus of Dickinson College, Carlisle, is employed as a media planner. Paul, a graduate of the New York State University at Pittsburgh, is an advertising account executive in New York City. Paul's mom, Peggy Beals of New City, remembers it this way: "When Paul was a freshman and Peter a sophomore at Clarkstown North, they were in the chorus always singing away having fun. I guess they just hit it off from the beginning. One of them would say something, and the other would finish the sentence." So instead of watching "Cosby" re-runs tonight, take a drive to Manhattan and watch the boys do their stuff! VFW APPOINTMENT: Congers' own Gerald C.

Degroat, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2607, was appointed 1987-88 National-Aide-de-Camp by the VFW National Commander-in-Chief Earl L. Stock, of Ft. Plain, N.Y. Stock, head of the over two-million member organization of overseas veterans, commented, "It is because of the tireless efforts of civic and patriotic-minded citizens like Comrade Degroat that the veterans and the communities the VFW serves have been affected in a positive manner." THE RUGGED LIFE: The title of an illustrated scroll presented to Elba Lovatt of Nyack, by Donald Tobey, longtime friend on the celebration of her 90th birthday, describes her emphatic feelings on "The Rugged Life." A move is being considered to burn or at least seal off the slightly disreputable verses. Lovatt, it is said, could care less.

A portion of Tobey's poem for your eyes: We sing heigb-ho to the rugged life, at dear old Merriewold, To sleep out under the starry skies, to brave the heat and the cold, To crawl out on a frosty morning and take a dip in the lake. Well, I'll stay under the covers, you kin go to shiver and shake. Elba is the widow of Edward Lovatt, former Mayor of Nyack and for many years President and Chairman of the Marine Midland Bank. She was not overwhelmed by the 130 or more friends and relatives who crowded the Merriewold Clubhouse in Forestburgh, N.Y., on July 9 to sing "Happy Birthday," and partake of the refreshments. Despite her years, she still attends the First Reformed Church, where she was an organist, and the Nyack Garden Club, the Morning Music Club, and other activities.

Her husband was prominent in Nyack activites for many years; on the Board of the First Reformed Church, in Rotary, the Masons, the YMCA, ASPCA, over 50-year- member of the Mazeppa Fire Club, and others too numerous to mention. The party, an inspiration of Connie Nelson, daughter and husband Bob of Rochester, included Mrs. Clinton Lovatt of Pomona; the Sweets of West Nyack; Mrs. Frank Volk, of Pompano Beach, Mr. Clarence M.

Travis II, of Moodus, Mrs. Clarence M. Travis HI of Poughkeepsie; and the Perrys of Blauvelt. Marie Dillon's column appears Monday through Friday. The columns "People Next Door" and "Roaming Rockland" have been discontinued.

I city had spent $22.3 million and the society had contributed about 13 million to the zoo's construction and beautification. The zoo's annual $3.6 million operating budget will be split by the society and the city. The Central Park Zoo, located on 5.5 acres off 64th Street and Fifth Avenue, is now divided into three "climatic zones" arranged around a formal garden and a sea lion pool. Whereas the old zoo seemed to flow into the surrounding park, the new zoo is distinctly separate. The climatic zones Tropic Zone, Temperate Territory and Polar Circle center around brick buildings.

Some animals, such as the polar bears, sea lions, seals and monkeys, live in outdoor exhibits. But many of the 100 species on view At right, a young visitor tries to get up dose and personal with a passing sea lion. Sea lions are some of the big stars of the outdoor displays at the newly renovated Central Park Zoo. The new zoo tries to recreate animals' natural habitats In three 'climatic zones' that are arranged around a formal garden and the lion pool. i i 5 I i 3 H1 are kept indoors in temperature controlled areas.

Richard Lattis, who directs the Please see NEW ZOO, C2 it it 3 3 mencan zoos are adopting new roles To do at the zoo The Central Park Zoo is located In Central Park oft Fifth Avenue at 64th Street. April through October, the zoo is open Monday through Friday, 10 am to 5 p.m.; Saturday, Sunday and holidays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. May through September its open 10 am to 8 p.m. on Tuesdays.

November through March, the 200 is open every day from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission costs $1 for adults, 50 cents for adults 65 and older, 25 cents for children 3 to 12, and free for children under 3. For further information, call the zoo, (212) 861-6030. extra space, but aren't fooled by fake jungles or veldts.

The wildlife settings do, however, "help provide the visitor with a sense of appreciation for the conservation of wild places." Setting the trend Busch Gardens was a trend setter in 1965, enclosing human visitors on a monorail while the gazelles and zebras frolicked unfettered on 60 acres. In the early 1970s, drive-through parks proliferated. Since then, realistic settings have multiplied. In 1987, the zoo association's 132 members spent nearly $500 million building or renovating exhibits, Wagner said. The Bronx Zoo's Jungle World, a indoor microcosm opened in 1985, boasts five waterfalls, a cloud machine, 100 species of tropical plants and 780 animals, including endangered Bali mynah birds.

In St. Louis, schoolchildren and scholars can study ecology and endangered species next spring while viewing one-celled animals and a "living model" of a Missouri Ozarks stream at the zoo's new $16 million, educational complex. Visitors in Atlanta perch on a wooden observation platform, a la safari, to experience the world's only naturalistic, multi-family gorilla complex. The zoo was renovated after it lost accreditation amidst grisly stories of animal abuse. Such creativity was spawned by the "The new role of zoos is coming about because there are too damn many people," Conway said.

"Within the next 20 or 30 years, we will lose, at the very least, 20 percent of the remaining plant and animal species on earth." Concern for habitat "Years ago, zoos used to judge themselves and others by how many different kinds of animals they had," said Gerald S. Lentz, zoological manager of Busch Gardens in Tampa, Fla. "Whether they were taking proper care of them was secondary." Now, the move is away from just lions, tigers and bears, said Charles H. Hoessle, director of the St. Louis Zoo.

"Animals aren't in cages anymore," he said. "They're in spacious enclosures, in a much more aesthetically pleasing environment. Modern exhibits are being designed to cater to their behavioral needs." Busch Gardens boasts 21 Asian elephants and other endangered species among its 3,300 mammals, birds and reptiles. "Where we can put animals on grass with natural foliage, fresh, bubbling water and open sky, it makes us feel a whole lot better and as far as I know, the animals like it better," said Lentz. Robert Wagner, executive director of the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums, which grants accreditation, said the animals thrive in the By Kiley Armstrong The Associated Press NEW YORK American zoos, increasingly a place where cooped-up humans view free-roaming beasts, are uniting to save endangered species and even returning them to the wilderness.

"Zoos are becoming a last resort for vanishing species," said Dr. William Conway, director of the New York Zoological Society. "Municipal peoples, who are farthest from wildlife but who support zoos, are ultimately beginning to play an ever larger role in helping to sustain wildlife." The trend is evident at the new Central Park Zoo, where the wilderness is duplicated in the heart of the city using the latest state of the art. Experts fine-tuning the Central Park Zoo let the animals tell them what changes to make. Birds in the tropical rain forest were taught where to fly in times of danger, sea lions from the New York Aquarium were invited to work the kinks out of the new pool.

"It's quite common in ape exhibits to put sunflower seeds on the floor so animals have something to do to keep them occupied, or artificial termite mounds with honey or mustard," noted Marvin Jones, registrar of the San Diego Zoo. "It's a way of easing their boredom." Such amenities are necessary: zoos must breed more endangered species while at the same time captivate public sentiment for that cause. advent of fiberglass and Gunite, a mixture of concrete sprayed over steel, said Jones. "Europeans still tend basically toward the square, bare cages. Americans are really the trendsetters in this area." it i.nnil.11 iinl afl ir- at itLOiilVtfVrftirrit wiiifiriliifiirtrfi "tiirtitf-'iifliT f.

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