Calgary Zoo admits it may be to blame for deaths of 41 stingrays last spring
at 13:50 on February 3, 2009, EDT.
THE CANADIAN PRESS
CALGARY - The president of the Calgary Zoo says human error almost certainly is to blame for the deaths of 41 stingrays last spring.
Clement Lanthier's admission comes even though zoo officials said late last year they would probably never know what killed the animals.
Lanthier says he's 99 per cent sure a lack of dissolved oxygen in the water tank killed 41 of 43 cownose rays.
He also says a faulty life support oxygen pump and an increase in temperature probably contributed to the deaths.
Lanthier says the zoo's main expertise "is not in fish" and that's something it needs to work on.
The zoo had just opened a $250,000 stingray exhibition that allowed visitors to touch the rays when the creatures died quickly and mysteriously.