Julia Adeney Thomas reviews Ian Jared Miller’s “The Nature Of The Beasts: Empire And Exhibition at the Tokyo Imperial Zoo.” (January 2014)

Jia Jia eats bamboo next to her birthday cake made with ice and vegetables at Ocean Park in Hong Kong as she celebrates her 37th birthday. Jia Jia broke the Guinness World Records title for “Oldest Panda Living in Captivity."

The white-headed buffalo weaver is native to the African countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda

I took some photos today at the Toledo zoo.

Scientists have found a new centipede under mountains in Croatia. It was named Geophilus hadesi after the Greek god of the underworld. The fearsome predator has powerful jaws and poison glands and it is one of only two centipedes that spends its whole life underground.

Last week, a flood in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi killed 19 people, with six still missing. Rain caused the Vere River to burst its banks, flooding the city and its zoo, killing animals and allowing others to escape. Initially, all of the zoo's seven tigers and eight lions were thought dead, but last Wednesday a man was killed by an escaped tiger, prompting Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili to criticize zoo officials for providing false information.

One of San Diego's oldest residents has died. The Los Angeles Times reports that the Galapagos tortoise known as Speed has been euthanized at an estimated age of more than 150 years. Speed had been living at the San Diego Zoo since 1933. He was brought to California as part of an early effort to preserve the endangered species from the Volcan Cerro Azul Island of the Galapagos Islands, off Ecuador.

Authorities say at least four Norwegian teenagers are suspected of stealing a Humboldt penguin egg and three newly-hatched penguin babies from an animal park in western Norway. Police spokesman Yngve Skovly says seven people were seen on a security video climbing over a fence late on Wednesday to enter an enclosure where the three-week-old babies lived at the Atlanterhavsparken saltwater aquarium outside Aalesund.

A Japanese zoo has apologized for naming a baby monkey Charlotte after the newborn British princess following complaints at home. The Takasakiyama Natural Zoological Garden said Thursday it was considering renaming the macaque. It was flooded with angry calls and emails Wednesday hours after announcing the name for its first born monkey of the year, a tradition at the city-run zoo in southern Japan.

The Grady County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that all of the animals have been accounted for. TUTTLE, Okla. — The owners of Tiger Safari have confirmed that some of their exotic animals are on the loose. The wildlife refuge was hit by a tornado in the May 6 storms, and some of the animals have escaped.