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AMERICAS 
Stingray pool to hot to handle
Thursday, 17 July, 2008
Stingray (AAP)
An apparent malfunction in the heating and cooling system of a pool killed 16 stingrays at a suburban Chicago zoo, officials said.
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The dead fish were among 32 stingrays in a temporary summer exhibit at the facility that also included nurse sharks, white-spotted bamboo sharks and horseshoe crabs.
The 60,000-litre pool where the rays were kept has a heating and cooling system that keeps the water temperature 26 degrees Celsius since stingrays are highly sensitive to water temperatures, said zoo spokeswoman Sondra Katzen.
The temperature in the pool somehow rose to around 31.6 Celsius.
"It's pretty devastating," Katzen said. "It's a pretty tragic accident."
The incident was not the first unusual death at the zoo this year. In January, a male giraffe died from strangulation in what officials deemed a "freak accident."
Source: AP/SBS
Click here for more off-beat stories
The dead fish were among 32 stingrays in a temporary summer exhibit at the facility that also included nurse sharks, white-spotted bamboo sharks and horseshoe crabs.
The 60,000-litre pool where the rays were kept has a heating and cooling system that keeps the water temperature 26 degrees Celsius since stingrays are highly sensitive to water temperatures, said zoo spokeswoman Sondra Katzen.
The temperature in the pool somehow rose to around 31.6 Celsius.
"It's pretty devastating," Katzen said. "It's a pretty tragic accident."
The incident was not the first unusual death at the zoo this year. In January, a male giraffe died from strangulation in what officials deemed a "freak accident."
Source: AP/SBS
