North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 08/01/1994

The big winner tonight we talked to Dr. David Jones director of the North Carolina Zoo. Well

good evening everyone I'm Mary Lou Hart charge lead you could join us tonight. We continue to enjoy some well-deserved vacation time off but we are expecting her back tomorrow so will be very much welcoming her tomorrow for tonight so we're starting off Monday with a bang. Part one of a five part series on the North Carolina Zoo. Now make sure you have a piece of paper and pencil handy once again because we've got another brochure to give you so make sure you take down the address a little later on. The guest this evening Dr. David Jones the director of the North Carolina Zoo and we've been hearing so much about it in the news lately DNA testing in connection with the O.J. Simpson case and we'll tell you how it's being done here in North Carolina. First though we begin with our series You know summer is the perfect time for a visit to the zoo and the North Carolina Zoo has been rated number two in the nation by the National Magazine family life. This Thursday the new North American continent exhibit will be opening and to celebrate each night this week we'll take you to the zoo and even show you some things that most visitors never get to see. The zoo offers fun and a learning

experience to kids and adults who visit but it fulfills another purpose as well as Maria Lundberg explains the zoo is just as interested in preserving animals as it is in exhibiting them. You're the North Carolina Zoo. Most people come to see the animals but exhibiting animals isn't the first priority for the zoo. It's saving them especially rare species like the African elephant without help from zoos like this one. These endangered species may not continue to survive for many more years. This habitat offer sanctuary to the African elephant the largest land animal in the world. They've been brought to the brink of extinction due to poaching for their

ivory tusks. African elephants were placed on the endangered species list in 1989. In fact there are only 13 male African elephants in the United States. One is here in North Carolina. Many zoos are fighting for animal conservation and a collaborative program called the Species Survival Plan or SSP. Ron Morris general curator of the North Carolina Zoo says the program is designed to keep species from dying out. That is the ultimate goal of the species it's to manage the captive populations so that in the event that there is advantage to reintroducing captive animals to bolster wild populations in the future then that is possible. If we don't manage the animals in that way then they are just inevitably going to become extinct in zoos as well as in the wild. Like the elephant the southern white rhino has gotten into trouble because of its horn which is sought by poachers. It is also the subject of an SSP. In fact the

North Carolina Zoo participates in seven species survival plans by combining information from more than 100 zoos in the country. The animals are treated as a single population which can be cared for and bred in captivity. The southern white rhino is less endangered than other rhinoceros species. Today more than thirty five hundred of them live in well protected African parks and reserves. Another animal in the species survival program is the adult crane which inhabits wetlands in central and southern Africa. Agriculture and river flooding have contributed to its loss of habitat and only 6000 are left on earth. The Bali Mynah Bird found in the aviary is one of the success stories of the species survival program. The species is found only on the island of the valley in the nation. At one point there were only 18 Valley miners remaining in the wild extremely endangered.

We're currently breeding that species and so some of the birds that we raise here at the zoo could possibly be and re-enter base and to the wild at some point the forest glade habitat is home to a family of lowland gorillas including the first baby gorilla born in North Carolina. The vegetation in this exhibit resembles a clearing in the African jungle where these animals live. Chimpanzees were placed on the endangered species list in 1909. This habitat resembles their native African leading chimpanzee expert Dr. Jane Goodall considers it the best exhibit in the country. The North Carolina Zoo has a special role in the chimpanzee species survival plan. Since zoo veterinarian Michael Loomis is the advisor for the program and it gives us a lot of information on what's going on with a population of chimpanzees as a whole in the country not just the chimpanzees we have here in North Carolina.

One of the main emphasis here is that we have any zoo has really has conservation and involvement in species survival plan is one way that we can be and conservation efforts. Certainly we want to continue to be the place people think of as a great place to go for an enjoyable day out. But once they're here we hope to learn a little bit about nature and about the role these animals play in their environment. If we continue to lose one species of animal after another that environment our world is not the same place and it starts to break down. The North Carolina Zoo is doing some of the most important work in the world to help these species survive but also to educate the public about how our survival may depend on learning to share our world. Well in the near future the North Carolina also participate in a species

survival plan for the Red Wolf. Officials are specially excited about this program for the Red Wolf. As part of their mission to protect and preserve wildlife there is to encourage a school groups to visit and learn more about their environment. Now if you would like to visit the zoo it's located on Highway 1 59 6 miles south of Asheboro. It is open from 9 to 5 7 days a week admission including transportation by tram is $6 for adults and $4 for children and senior citizens. Now for more information you can call 1 800 4 8 8 0 4 4 4. Or send for a free brochure with lots of information on the zoo. Just mail a self addressed stamped stamped envelope to zoom North Carolina now P.O. Box 1 4 9 0 0 RTP NC 2 7 7 0 9 dash forty nine hundred. Now tomorrow night in the second part of the series Maria looks at feeding time at the zoo and what it takes to feed 900 animals a day.

Joining me now is Dr. David Jones director of the North Carolina do. He's here to fill us in on all the new and exciting things taking place at the zoo in Asper and Dr. Johns thank you so much for joining us this evening. You've got some wonderful new things happening at the zoo. I haven't been there lately so fill me in on what I'm missing. Well so far people have seen Africa as a scene after we now have a brand new region North America. There are 11 elements in it and the Sonora desert which was the first one opened in September last year. And we have four of the 11 for more of the 11 elements opening this week on the fall. And they all the polar bear the mole the swamp exhibit with alligators and cougars and perhaps best of all for the children. A little touch and scent of plants and domestic animals so that this week and then in April the end of April next year we got five more exhibits including

grizzly bear black bear wolves puffins and a big American prairie exhibit with bison and then finally probably the the most detailed exhibit in June which is called streams. Which is a mountain stream flowing through a lot of different exhibits lots of different species and fish and reptiles and frogs and salamanders and bobcats and all that. It's a fun is a great big lake at the bottom. So loudly keeping you pretty busy out there AREN'T THEY are the guys I tell you our guys are absolutely at full pace for the last few months. You know tell me that this only sounds wonderful but it also sounds very expensive. Well is there a need for that. Yeah. The function of the modern zoo particularly That is such a marvelous sight that we have in this state 80 percent of these are in big towns. We're so lucky to have this fifteen hundred acres site so much you can really present animals in the environment which which means some of the built environment is very sympathetic to the

natural environment and it's set in the UAR Hills lovely countryside. So that is expensive to do it properly but the job of a modern zoo is to really make people aware of the issues. What is the connection between man and the natural world around them whether it's animals or plants and it in order to do that well. The these statics are the picture that you present the fish are you present in which your animals are a part has to be attractive if you can do that which is fun and it brings people there. Then of course you can get the message of the more serious messages of fun to children and adults alike because I see it as more of an appreciation where you would take a polar bear used to very cold weather and bring him into North Carolina. How do you recreate that is just amazing to me you know. That brings up a topic that we just saw our story tonight by Maria Lundberg about species preservation. Is that a big role as far as your concern is for a zoo.

Well about a tenth of all living animal species on Earth at the moment are highly endangered. Fortunately the polar bear through great care in the wild recently in America and Russia is not as badly off as it was but you know in the U.S. particularly great carnivores the others that it will see later in the year the grizzly bear and the black bear for example are in great danger. And so the value of zoos is to maintain a genetic pool. We're going to see in the next 20 30 years a continued decline particularly in big wild species. I'm sure we'll get it right and I'm very optimistic that ultimately man will be sensible about managing the wild populations but zoos do many things I mean they keep a reserve population of these key species. They provide a lot of the basic research animals most important or they make people aware of what the issues are. In keeping big candles the awful if we lost the grizzly bear and America a hole you know the most affluent nation on Earth should be able to find a space for its big

carnivals and zoos are particularly good at telling people about that. And you want really a lot of people to come in and see these beautiful displays that you now have and show I'm not and I understand you've got a few other things included in this faceless sort of war from the public. Do you tell some of the other new things at the zoo. Well I have said that the polar bear exhibit will knock you out. It is the best in the world today but allied. Yes of course there are the animal exhibits which most people will want to see but allied to that the new gate that is close by these exhibits is very accessible for people who have difficulty getting around the gates of Africa is very hilly and so some people do have problems with that. There are two huge new shops one run by supporting society and another by the zoo itself marvelous I've never seen tea and I've been around the world quite a bit and I've never seen teachers go to the shops and then of course a lovely very good catering outlet looks out

of one of the lakes at that entrance and then we just open another 300 seat restaurant right in the middle of the zoo so off to Africa you get something to eat and drink and then the other one North America tell me that. Jones We just have a little bit of time left and I want to make sure people understand. For those people who are watching right now and are really interested and perhaps would like to see the new facelift of the zoo How long would a family how long would it take a family to say get through the zoo comfortably seeing the exhibits. Is there a way to analyze that. Well the family that's reasonably active and the you know walking you can get sued for. But what we recommend is that people come in what other entrance. Walk a little bit then to the trams go right through the side and then walk a little bit more. Take it in stages. All right very good watch. I can't wait to go there myself. Dr. David Jones thank you so much for joining us can't wait to go to the zoo. Good to be here. Thank you.

Well in just a moment Mitchell Lewis will have the statewide news report and a little later in the program. I'll investigate the practice of using DNA testing to solve criminal cases. Don't go away. Right. Good evening I'm Michel Louis. Here's a review of the news from across North Carolina. The 2000 campaign as you Marines who have been stationed off the coast of Haiti for almost a month are step closer today to an invasion of the impoverished island nation. The United Nations Security Council has cleared the way for a possible U.S. led invasion to oust Haiti's military

leaders. However the resolution authorizing the use of force gives no timetable for the possible invasion preparation for the military assault appears to have already begun. Twelve hundred Marines and Navy SEALs have wrapped up a five day training exercise on the eastern coast of Puerto Rico. Many of those Marines taking part in the mock invasion are from Camp Lejeune. A frequent critic of Benjamin Chavis is calling for the executive director of the CPA to step down at least temporarily. Joseph Madison a member of the CPS board of directors wants Chavis to step aside while the group investigates the settlement the Oxford native made with a former employee who accused him of sexual harassment. Chavis denies those allegations but says he paid $64000 to marry Stansell to quote protect the in double ACP from exposure to false and slanderous allegations and quote the woman is seeking an additional two hundred fifty thousand dollars from the civil rights organization.

The state Supreme Court has ruled that natural gas companies can use about 50 million dollars they have in escrow to build pipelines to extend services into rural areas. More than a third of the state's 100 counties do not have natural gas service. The General Assembly allowed gas companies to charge customers for expansion in 1991. The state's four gas companies decided instead to use 50 million dollars they received in refunds from their main supplier after the federal government determined that Transco Energy Corp. had overcharged the companies for gas. Advocates for residential and industrial customers sued last year arguing that the money from Transco should have been rebated to gas customers and not used for expansions. The skies were cloudy over much of the state today and there were scattered showers in the Piedmont and along the coast. Highs were in the 70s in the mountains and in the 80s everywhere else. Tonight skies will be partly

cloudy with a slight chance for some thunder shower activity statewide. Most will be in the low 70s everywhere but in the mountains where it will be about 10 degrees cooler tomorrow it will be partly cloudy again statewide and there will be the usual 20 to 30 percent chance for some afternoon thunderstorms. Highs will be in the 80s. But it's possible it may hit 90 degrees along the coast. There is a new banking giant in North Carolina BB&T is merging with Southern National to create the southern national corporation. The new companies banks will go by the name branch banking and trust this other national corporation to be based in Winston-Salem will have the largest market share in the state with 18 billion dollars in assets. Each of the two companies will have members on the board of directors and on the management teams there will be some cutbacks at BBN TI's Wilson office and some other nationals office in Lumberton as upper management executives move to Winston-Salem.

The bank plans to cut about 10 percent of its 80 700 employees half of the cuts will be layoffs. The other half through attrition. If the merger is approved by federal banking regulators Southern National Corp. will be the sixth largest financial institution in the southeast and the thirty fifth largest in the nation. Duke University Medical Center plans to cut as many as fifteen hundred jobs as part of a major cost cutting measure. The hospital will layoff 600 to 800 employees over the next two years and another 700 to 900 jobs will be cut through voluntary retirement and the consolidation of some positions. The medical center is accepting early retirements from employees before deciding who will be forced to lose their jobs. The hospital's goal is to trim annual expenses by 70 million dollars 60 percent of the hospital's budget goes to personnel. The stock market posted a solid gain today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose over thirty three and a half points to close at thirty seven ninety eight point seventeen at

financing issues lead decliners by nearly two to one. It's two hundred fifty eight million shares were traded on the New York Stock Exchange both the Standard and Poor's 500 Index and the Nasdaq composite index rose nearly three points today. And now for some stocks of North Carolina interest. We've all been hearing about the O.J. Simpson case in the news lately.

As you may know some of the evidence which may be used in the case are results of DNA testing on blood found at the crime scene although those DNA tests will be done in Maryland. One of the nationally known experts in the field is right here in North Carolina a professor at N.C. State University has been working in the field of DNA testing along with the FBI and the FBI. In the story you're about to see the procedures being done are identical to those being used in the O.J. Simpson case. The only difference is in the Simpson case a private company is doing the research instead of a governmental agency. In the days of Sherlock Holmes this was the way to obtain clues to a crime. But that's all changed due to technology. But every time a felony crime of rape or homicide occurs in the state of North Carolina and the evidence is scant. The problem is taken here

to the State Bureau of Investigation lab in Raleigh. That's where a special agent in charge Mark Nelson and his team try to scientifically solve the crime. It begins by extracting deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA from evidence found at the scene of a crime from say a blood stain or any other body fluid. DNA is a four letter genetic code. It's the sequence of these letters that makes DNA our molecular blueprint half of our code is from our mother. The other half from our father. The next step in the lab is to get the DNA into a usable form of these DNA molecules which strongly long very unusual very difficult to work with. So in order to work with these We're going to digest we're cutting into manageable sized pieces. We do this in our next stage by using an enzyme which chops DNA in a very specific sequence the DNA sample is then separated and transferred to a membrane. Then the probing process begins whereby we use a piece of

human DNA. Manufactured human do you know I haven't done sequences. Only going to bind to one location in an individual's gene pool of genetic material so it's going to seek out its complementary sequence and each one of these lanes are smears and we will then expose this piece of probe the membrane to a piece of X-ray film and wherever that binds that radioactive material binds to the membrane it's going to fog the film in which you wind up with a series of dark bands on a clear background. Once this process is done six times these images are then analyzed to determine who the unknown samples are coming from and who may still be a suspect in the crime. While a DNA match may absolutely prove or suspects innocence. Prove guilt. That's where Dr. Bruce We're from North Carolina State University comes in. Professor we are teachers statistics and so you stay. He became involved with DNA investigations when a student of his who worked with as

be-I said that the lab needed help determining how many people in the population have that particular DNA matter because even with these what sounds like fairly extreme numbers like 1 in a million though maybe even one in a billion that's the chance of seeing this particular type from a person taken at random off the street. Those numbers sound very extreme but in fact they are quite defensible right. That really has the chance of finding this particular thing on a chart if the suspect was not guilty. Since DNA is so unique to all of us once the analysis is made in the probability tests are completed where is confident enough to take his data to the courtroom and testify. And here we have the DNA taken from from from the victim this is a blood sample from from the victim from the rape victim and here are blood samples from two suspects that there were two pieces of DNA in each line one from the math and one from the father. Here is the Unites Hakan from from New York a

gentle swab from the victim. This is my all day and I say this is from the rapist from the criminal skies and we can see that this pair of pains pretty much matches up with those including the suspect and excluding that suspect to use the information in court. We are must show how many people in the population have this band. How many have this second band. These two numbers are then multiplied together to get the probability factor. The numbers come from a database comprised of random DNA from blood samples he obtained the knowledge through the help of the best in the field and sea state we have a long history of expertise in these two fields of statistics and genetics we have two very large departments one statistics and one genetics so I can get help from my colleagues and vice departments and with the help of NC State and Professor we are in 15 cases he's testified in. There have been 15 convictions.

Dr Weir began using this technique about three years ago and he's traveled throughout the United States to testify in court. There are still only about six other experts like Dr. Ware throughout the country who specialize in this technique. We want to hear from you. Simply call our viewer comment line at 9 1 9 5 4 9 7 8 0 8. Or write us at P.O. Box 1 4 9 0 0 RTP NC 2 7 7 0 9. You can fax a message to 9 1 9 5 4 9 7 0 4 3 or try our Internet address UN CTV at aol dot com and please give us a daytime phone number in case we need to follow up. OK now that's the same address where you can receive your free brochure about the zoo and tomorrow we will continue with our five part series on the zoo. Maria Lundberg will tell us about feeding time at the zoo tomorrow and she'll also be here with another story for you music lovers about

a sax quartet so you won't want to miss that. Now Audrey will be back tomorrow. I will not my parents are in town to visit me so I'm going to take the day off and spend it with them but I'll be back here Wednesday. For now that's all I'm Mary Lou Hart shark hope you have a wonderful evening. I'll see you Wednesday but Audrey were here Tuesday night.