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Just by looking at its denizens, you'd never detect the air of gloom and doom hovering over the Queens Zoo in Flushing yesterday.
Claire and Mel, bald eagles, took turns sitting on an egg in their wooded compound.
Poncho and Cisco, rare South American spectacled bears, licked peanut butter placed on tree stumps in their custom- made habitat.
Birds sang cheerily in the trees.
Only a banner draped over a table next to a sign asking visitors to sign a petition signaled the cause for alarm:
"SOS! Save New York's Zoos and Aquarium," the banner blared.
Even if the state legislature decides to help bail the city out of its fiscal crisis, City Hall says that it will have to eliminate all $5.6 million in funding given annually to the Queens and Prospect Park zoos. This will force...