[402] in Humor
HUMOR: Opera Overwhelms Okapi at Copenhagen Zoo
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (abennett@MIT.EDU)
Wed Aug 10 11:03:23 1994
From: abennett@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 94 10:59:54 -0400
To: humor@MIT.EDU
As I always suspected about opera..
-Drew
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (Reuter) - Opera music proved fatally
stressful for a cud-chewing mammal from the forests of central
Africa. The okapi threw a fit, collapsed and died in Copenhagen
Zoo as arias filled the air from a concert by the Royal Danish
Orchestra.
A zoo spokesman said the five-year-old okapi was overwhelmed
by last Saturday night's singing and music at an adjoining park.
``Unusual sounds give wild animals stress and the okapi
started to pant violently from shock when the opera music began.
It threw a fit and dropped dead in its compound,'' he said.
The okapi's mate and six-month-old calf were untroubled, but
the orchestra offered to change the venue for future open-air
concerts or erect sound-insulation devices if its music is
deemed a threat to the lives of zoo animals.
