Om, shanti, shanti, shanti, Wednesday..... Tonight: After you visit Stephen Colbert's adopted eaglet Stephen Jr. at the SF Zoo, stop by the zoo's Great Hall for a talk by the Gilman Int'l Conservation Foundation, about their efforts to save the okapi. The okapi is an endandered zebra/giraffe-y-like African eland whose pleasing combination of vowels and consonants gives it a place of honor in the hearts of obsessive crossword puzzlers like ourselves. Reception at 6:30, talk......

News from the fauna! A male blue heron from Fairfield is recovering from a pellet gun wound to its wing at the International Bird Rescue Research Center. Because blue herons are protected under federal migratory bird laws, injuring a heron is a felony -- and because people love animals, there's a $5000 reward for information leading to an arrest. They're watching the bird closely because it seems very anxious to fly away (understandably). In happier local bird news, Stephen Colbert's adopted bald eagle was hatched (go to "Stephen Jr. Hatches") at the SF Zoo the day before the earthquake anniversary. Exciting! Also: it was cool when he ate the bird's placenta, to be just like Tom Cruise (go to "tip/wag Tom Cruise"). And in your last bit of local animal news, the City and County of San Francisco's been sued by a Sacramento pit bull advocacy group, over the new mandatory pit bull sterilization law. The Coalition of Human Advocates for K9s and Owners ("CHAKO"), through its attorney and founder Dawn Capp, alleges that the policy discriminates against disabled people, who should be permitted to breed pit bulls to use as guide dogs or service dogs. Check out Capp's blog for more information -- the most recent entry castigates the Denver location of the next Real World because of the city's anti-pit bull legislation....

Yay San Francisco Zoo! Not only did it win back its accreditation, but it also vaulted into Comedy Central gold with an inspired intern's (possibly unauthorized?) email to the Colbert Report show asking if Stephen Colbert would be interested in having a baby bald eagle named after him. Genius! The picture to your left is a still from the show, featuring John Ashcroft's rendition of "Let The Eagle Soar," as Stephen picked his namesake hatchling-to-be. (Click here to watch the video -- it's labeled "Stephen Jr.") According to the zoo, this is all part of its Bald Eagle Breeding Program, which was started in 1985 to repopulate California with eagles after they almost died out because of DDT. Since 1991, the SF Zoo has released 90 bald eagle chicks into the wild, and this year, the eagles have laid 17 eggs so far, one of which is Stephen Jr. When they hatch, about half of the chicks will be raised on Catalina Island, and the other half will be raised at the conservation center and released on Santa Cruz Island. Check out on the right what little fuzzy Stephen Jr. will look like when he makes it out of his chiton shell! Webcam fans, watch the eggs here (site appears to have down for now, but will hopefully come back up soon -- click on Eagle Nest Cam). John Ashcroft fans, click here for video and audio clips of "Let The Eagle Soar."...