China Stiffs L.A. Zoo on 3 Rare Golden Monkeys
By wchung | 02 May, 2025
The Los Angeles Zoo will not get a trio of rare golden monkeys from China as promised, after the city spent more than $7 million to build them a new home and hired a feng shui expert to see that it was suitable.
City Councilman Tom LaBonge said Wednesday that withholding the monkeys was a decision by the Chinese government. He said the city’s disappointed.
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 special exhibit — which cost about $7.4 million — 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.
6/11/2009 9:13 AM LOS ANGELES (AP)
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