Three mountain lions, two tigers and two grizzly bears were the first animals at the Oakland Zoo to be vaccinated for the coronavirus.
“Oh! Archie the ferret,” adds Dr. Alex Herman, vice president of veterinary services at the zoo. “I forgot about him. He’s on the list too.”
Herman says it has been a lot of work keeping the Oakland Zoo’s animals safe from COVID-19. So far, none of them have contracted the coronavirus.
“All keepers [are wearing] PPE (personal protective equipment),” she told NPR’s Morning Edition. Plus, “really strict protocols for hand washing and food preparation.”
Documented cases have alerted zoos to the potential for some animals to contract the virus and become sick. Two gorillas at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park got it. As did Nadia, a Malaysian tiger, at the Bronx Zoo. And in Denmark, the government culled millions of mink.
The Oakland Zoo applied to get an experimental vaccine from Zoetis, a veterinary pharmaceutical company giving more than 11,000 doses to dozens of zoos.
“We have really big responsibility to be stewards of these beautiful animals, and certainly the evidence shows the benefit far outweighs the risks,” Herman said.
The zoo is relying on its prior training with the animals to get them to accept the shots.
“Basically, they [veterinary nurses] train the tiger to lay against the chain link fence, and then one animal care person will squirt goat’s milk — I think, is the real treat for the tigers — in their mouth, while the other people give them an injection.”
It’s not often you get a debut album from artists with more than 100 gold, platinum, multi-platinum and diamond albums already under their belts. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are doing just that: Their first album “Jam & Lewis, Volume One” drops Friday.
In the mid-1980s, Jam and Lewis were approached by A&M Records. They’d been in the Prince-produced band The Time, and A&M wanted some of that “Minneapolis sound” for themselves. They asked if Jam and Lewis wanted to produce anyone on the record company’s roster.
Jam and Lewis picked Janet Jackson. That partnership yielded six #1 albums and three Grammys.
At the time, Jam and Lewis had been working on their own album, but when Janet Jackson heard a demo of their song, “What Have You Done for Me Lately,” she chose it for her own record. It became a worldwide hit, and turned Jam and Lewis from an aspiring recording duo to the most in-demand producers in pop music.
“It was the song that launched her career basically and ended ours — at least as artists,” Jimmy Jam told NPR’s Rachel Martin.
Now, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis finally have an album with their names on the front instead of the back. But they’re not entirely on their own: “Jam & Lewis, Volume One” boasts a number of legendary guest singers including Mariah Carey and Babyface.
“Overall we call the sound of the album ‘New-Stalgia,'” Jam says. “It’s the idea of hearing something new and the excitement that comes from hearing something new; but also that very familiar, comfortable moment that takes you back to a really nice place is also cool.”
