It is Sunday and Sundays should be filled with leisure, fun and happiness.

So, I thought I’d bring you this (mostly cut and pasted) story about the new (Oct 2011) Carousel at the LA ZOO.  Evidently, it was donated by the Moss’ who own Zenyatta.

The music that plays is waaaaaaay better than most Carousels because this carousel has the rights to play A&M hits (Moss is the “M” of A&M music) and the animals are replicas of endangered species.

All ride fees (and donations that sponsor a particular figure) go towards conservation projects at the zoo.

Nice!

I didn’t see who made all the figures, but they seem like an amalgam of the old style and new style of design.

 

 

THIS CAME IN AFTER I WROTE ABOUT CAROUSELS.

After I wrote the post about Horse Carousels (linked here), I received this email (thank you):

Dear Dawn  – FABULOUS.  PERHAPS YOU ALREADY  KNOW THIS, BUT APPROX TWO  YEARS AGO, AT THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY ZOO ( INSIDE) THE ENTRANCE AREA   THE MOSS’S  – THE OWNERS OF THE RACEHORSE ZENYATTA , ANN AND JERRY MOSS  PRESENTED – ALONG WITH SOME OTHER FAMOUS SONG- PEOPLE ( CANNOT REMEMBER ALLTHEIR NAMES)  OF COURSE, JERRY MOSS IS THE “M” OF A&M records’  as with Herb Alpert  a beautiful carousel.
 
The carousel plays lots of their produced songs, i. e. Sting comes to my mind …. And two of the carousel horses are replicas of ZENYATTA & GIACOMO (a Kentucky Derby Winner – can’t remember which year, but fairly recently within the last 10 years a gorgeous roan, he is now mostly white – I saw him at his ranch last year in Santa Ynez valley –
 
Anyway, ALL THE ANIMALS ON THE CAROUSEL REPRESENT ENDANGERED SPECIES.  I guess they are great philanthropists of the LA County Zoo.

Wow… that seemed really cool.

I wanted to check it out.

THE LA ZOO CAROUSEL:  THE TOM MANKIEWICZ CONSERVATION CAROUSEL

Yup, all the animals on the carousel are endangered…  except the unicorns and the famous race horses Zenyatta, Giacomo and Tiago…

But still, the idea of teaching children about endangered animals is a very good thing.  I wish they would have put a Mustang on there.

From the LA TIMES:The $2.5 million Tom Mankiewicz Conservation Carousel opens Thursday.
Most of the 66 figures on the merry-go-round represent zoo animals. A trio of horse racing elite, Zenyatta, Giacomo and Tiago, pay tribute to owners Ann and Jerry Moss. It was their financial gift to the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association that launched the carousel project.
Revenue from $3 carousel rides will go toward conservation projects at the zoo.
The Moss family named the carousel after the late screenwriter because he was an avid supporter of conservation efforts. Before he died last year, he personally sponsored the carousel’s dung beetle chariot.
You can do more than watch a peninsular pronghorn, maned wolf or serval at the Los Angeles Zoo. Now you can ride them too.

AND MORE…:

The Tom Mankiewicz Conservation Carousel will open next week on a hill overlooking the Elephants of Asia exhibit at the LA Zoo, so soon you’ll be able to ride a poison dart frog while rocking out to Styx. Awesome. The carousel’s major donors are A&M Records cofounder Jerry Moss and his wife Ann Moss, who provided a soundtrack from the A&M catalog, including tracks from the Police, the Go-Go’s, Cat Stevens, Janet Jackson, the Carpenters, and more. The carousel revolves around a painted mural of animals “in unexpected settings — from Malibu to Hollywood,” according to a press release, and is covered in depictions of Indian paintbrush, sequoias, quail, and other California flora and fauna.
Riders can take a spin on 66 animals, including a lowland gorilla, a Chacoan peccary, a peninsular pronghorn, a blue scarab, a double-wattled cassowary, “and one of the Zoo’s freeloading night visitors, a skunk.” There are also three racehorses, representing the Moss’s own horses. (And it was Ann Moss’s idea to include a unicorn, since “imagination is becoming endangered,” according to the LA Times).
Donors can buy individual animals for $25,000 (it gets them a plaque for 15 years and 25 free rides a year, according to the LAT). Slash and his wife Perla already nabbed the snakes on a log, Holly Robinson Peete has the praying mantis, and the bear cub is sponsored by the Elton John Charitable Fund. Still up for grabs: the baby rhino, the clownfish, and the bee.
Carolyn Hennesy of Cougar Town provides the recorded voice instructions.
The carousel was named for screenwriter and former Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association chairman Tom Mankiewicz, who died last year (he sponsored the dung beetle chariot). Rides will cost $3.?· The Tom Mankiewicz Conservation Carousel [LA Zoo]

If you go there, please take a photo!!

HORSE AND MAN is a blog in growth… if you like this, please pass it around!