November 24, 2019 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
Month xx–xx, 2019
LOCAL
CLASSIFIEDS
PAG E 15
Seeing Red!
Adorable red panda cubs debut at Prospect Park Zoo
BY BEN VERDE
Brooklyn cutest new residents
made their public debut
this week.
The Prospect Park Zoo’s
two new male red panda cubs
are finally old enough to strut
their stuff in the public eye –
and they don’t disappoint.
The rouge tinted raccoons
– which are not related to giant
pandas – were born over
the summer in their indoor
den, where they were cared for
by their mother, Willow, until
they were ready to venture outside.
Now they’re making themselves
at home in the red panda
habitat – climbing up trees,
frolicking across their enclosure
and munching on Bamboo
leaves, the rascals.
The Styan red panda, which
is closely related to Brooklyn’s
ubiquitous masked bandits,
the North American raccoon,
is a subspecies from the eastern
portion of the Himalayas.
The Styan’s panda is slightly
larger and redder than other
pandas – and in this reporter’s
opinion, much cuter.
Check out Brooklyn’s newest
procyonids at the Prospect
Park Zoo 450 Flatbush Ave.
near Empire Boulevard in
Prospect Park, (718) 399-7339,
prospectparkzoo.com Open 10
am – 4:40 pm.
Deadly
fungus
treated in
Brooklyn
BY ROSE ADAMS
Brooklynites suffered the highest
infection rates of a deadly, drugresistant
fungus in New York, with
more than 200 out of the state’s 388
cases occurring in Kings County, a
health report revealed on Wednesday.
Candida auris, an antifungalresistant
yeast infection, has germinated
in New York for the past
two years, with the number of
cases jumping from 37 to 388 between
2016 and 2018, according
to the report. The disease is notoriously
diffi cult to diagnose and
treat, and doesn’t respond to common
anti-fungal treatments used
to combat similar infections, according
to the the Center for Disease
Control.
The deadly fungus preys on
patients who have weak immune
systems and use invasive devices,
such as ventilators and catheters,
and the elderly are especially susceptible
to infection — the average
patient is 69 years old. About half
of people who contract C. auris die
within 90 days, although some patients
who suffer from it may die
from a combination of causes, according
to the New York Times.
The infection tends to proliferate
in healthcare facilities, where
it spreads on equipment, clothing,
and skin, according to the report,
which released the names of medical
facilities in the state that have
treated C. auris patients.
In Brooklyn, 52 healthcare facilities
made the list — including
15 hospitals, 35 nursing homes, and
Continued on page 1
Just when you thought red pandas couldn’t get any cuter. Julie Larsen Maher, Prospect Park Zoo
Vol. 8 No. 47 UPDATED EVERY DAY AT BROOKLYNPAPER.COM
/prospectparkzoo.com
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