For the first time in nearly 20 years, the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo once again has Mandrills on exhibit.

The mandrills, which are the world's largest species of monkey, are housed in the zoo's Primate, Cat & Aquatics Building. There are two males and two females. The males - Dwezill and Woody - came to Cleveland from Disney's Animal Kingdom, and the two females - Zenani and Eebi - came from the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, New York.

The Cleveland zoo has exhibited mandrills beginning in the 1950s, but hasn't had any since 1992.

Native to the western African nations of Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabo, mandrills are the largest species of monkey and are closely related to baboons and drills. Mature adult male mandrills feature one of the most brightly colored faces in the animal world, with a long muzzle with red and blue stripes, red nose and lips, and a yellowish beard.

A spotted leopard was one of just six animals kept at an Ohio zoo after a highly publicezed animal escape in late 2011. Officials announced on Monday that the leopard had been euthanized after it was hit by a lowering door between two enclosures and suffered a several spinal cord injury.

The leopard, a male, was cared for at the Columbus Zoo under a state-issued quarantine order. The other five animals from the escape were two additional leopards, two primates, and a bear. The animals' owner committed suicide in October after releasing dozens of exotic animals, including bears and tigers, which were subsequently killed by authorities near Zanesville.

On Sunday morning, a zoo keeper was moving the leopard between enclosures for routine feeding and cleaning when the animal unexpectedly reversed course as the door was being lowered. The animal was struck on the neck. A zoo veterinarian attempted to use chest compressions to restart the unresponsive animal's heart.

After further examination revealed that the leopard's spinal cord had been irreversibly damaged and it could not breathe on its own, a state veterinarian on-site decided to euthanize the big cat.

On Tuesday, the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo introduced one of the most unique looking prosimians, the aye-aye, making them just one of six zoos in the United States to have one on exhibit.

The aye-aye is native to the island nation of Madagascar. It is seldom seen, and is a nocturnal tree-dweller. The mammal's eerie-looking appearance has given it a bad reputation among the people in Madagascar, who consider the aye-aye to be a harbinger of bad luck and sometimes death. As a result, aye-ayes are often killed on sight. Combined with habitat loss through deforestation, the species is threatened in the wild.

The aye-ayes unique look -featuring larger eyes, ears and fingers - have been adapted to help it hunt in the dark for various insects and larvae. The aye-aye taps branches and tree trunks by listening for bugs burrowing beneath the bark, and the gnawing away the bark to use its long, skinny fingers to scoop out its snack.

An Ohio increase expert says that the state is seeing a "shocking" increase in deer ticks, which can carry Lyme disease.

Richard Gary, an entomologist with the Ohio Department of Health, says that 183 ticks submitted to his agency last year were confirmed as black-legged ticks, which are also known as deer ticks. An additional 1,830 of the ticks were found on deer heads collected from hunters by other state offices. Some were found to carry the Lyme bacteria.

Between 1989 and 2009, only 51 deer ticks were identified throughout the state.

Deer ticks are most prevalent in the Ohio's eastern and southern counties.

Information about Lyme disease is now being sent out to health professionals throughout Ohio. In 2010, there were 44 reported cases of Lyme disease in Ohio.

A wetter-than-normal fall has left Ohio's farmers with stockpiles of manure left over because the weather made fertilizing difficult. As a result, the state's streams are now at risk of pollution.

The concern is that farmers who were unable to spread the manure on their fields in the fall, when record rains fell, will now spread it over frozen, snow-covered fields this winter. Spreading the manure on the frozen ground could mean that the animal waste could be easily be washed into waterways during a quick thaw or rainstorm.

Runoff of the manure would threaten fish, and contains phosphorous that feeds the toxic, blue-green algae found on Ohio lakes, including Lake Erie and Grand Lake St. Marys, Ohio's largest inland lake. Algae blooms not only threaten health, but also the state's fishing and tourism industries.

Ohio's farm animals produce more than 17 million tons of manure annually. According to Ohio EPA records, in 2011, Ohio experienced 39 manure spills into streams. Four of those were during the winter months.

Kevin Elder, head of Ohio's Livestock Environmental Permitting Program, says that he believes the state got a lucky break. He said that the relatively warm weather over the past two weeks gave Ohio's large "megafarms" the chance to put a lot of their manure onto fields.

Thousands of people have joined a breaking campaign on Change.org calling on Ohio Governor John Kasich to ban the sale of exotic animals after over fifty animals escaped from a private Ohio zoo on Wednesday.

Liz Dumler, a concerned Ohio citizen, launched the campaign on Change.org after as many as 56 exotic animals - including tigers, lions, bears, wolves, and leopards - escaped a zoo through gates left open by owner Terry Thompson, who was found dead in his house. As of Wednesday evening, around 50 of the animals had been shot and killed by police, and at least three animals – a grizzly bear, a mountain lion, and a monkey – were still at large.

"As an Ohio native, I was shocked and outraged when I learned of the deaths of the exotic animals that were kept as pets in Zanesville, Ohio,” said petition creator Liz Dumler. “Sadly, the lack of laws and regulation in the state of Ohio concerning the sale and ownership of exotics have allowed this situation to happen. The deaths of these innocent animals shouldn't be in vain, let's change the laws in Ohio concerning exotic pets in their memory."

A dead lion lays near the fence at the Muskingum County Animal Farm in Zanesville, Ohio.

Dozens of exotic animals escaped from a wild-animal perserve in a rural area in eastern Ohio where the owner was found dead on Tuesday, prompting police officers armed with assault rifles to launch a massive hunt for the wandering animals.

Three school districts in the Zanesville, Ohio, area closed for the day, and classes were also cancelled at some private and special schools as the remaining big cats, bears, and other wild beasts from the Muskingum County Animal Farm were hunted down. Along the highways, flashing signs warned "Caution exotic animals" and "Stay in vehicle".

Once rare, peanut allergies have been on the rise in recent years. Now, there may hope for suffers of both peanut and egg allergies, as scientists have been successful in curing the allergies in mice. The technique has not yet been tested out on humans, but there is hope that it may work.

Researchers have uncovered a way to "turn off" allergic reactions to peanuts and other foods by tricking the immune system.

In a written statement, Dr. Paul J. Bryce, assistant professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, said:

"We think we've found a way to safely and rapidly turn off the allergic response to food allergies."

During experiments on mice specially bred to have a condition that mimics severe food allergies, scientists attached peanut proteins to blood cells known as leukocytes and reintroduced them into the mice's bodies. Then, the mice were allowed to eat a peanut extract and researchers observed that there were no allergic reactions.

Bryce said:

"Their immune system saw the peanut protein as perfectly normal because it was already presented on the white blood cells. Without the treatment, these animals would have gone into anaphylactic shock."

Last week a reindeer herder discovered the remains of a baby woolly mammoth in Russia's Arctic. This discovery has caused excitement in the scientific community, especially as the herder said that the carcass was "perfectly preserved" by the permafrost that surrounded it.

The baby woolly mammoth was discovered in the same remote region where Lyuba, another woolly mammoth calf, was found four years ago. A team of experts that will be handling the the new discovery are planning to fly to the regional capital of Salekhard, where the remains will be stored in a cooler to prevent them from decomposing.

Scientists say that giant woolly mammoths, which grew up to ten feet tall and weighted up to eight tons, have been extinct since the earth's last Ice Age, which is believed to have occurred 1.8 million to 11,500 years ago.

The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo welcomed a new baby giraffe this week as the eldest female giraffe at the Zoo, Lindi, 26, gave birth to a male calf. The baby giraffe, whom has been named Trevor, was born on July 11 in the giraffe barn.

Trevor is the first successful offspring for Travis, 4, who came to Cleveland from the San Diego Zoo in 2008. Soon after his birth, the zoo's Animal Care and Veterinary Services staff noticed he had an umbilical hernia that might require surgery to repair, so Trevor is being closely monitored to make sure that his condition does not worsen. The decision to perform surgery, however, has not yet been made.

Giraffes give birth standing, and calfs are about 6-feet tall at birth, and weigh between 100 and 150 pounds.

Other giraffes at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo include Jada, 4, Grace, almost 3, Shirley, 5, and Jhasmin, 5. Trevor is Lindi's eighth offspring. She has lived at the zoo since 1985.

Giraffes typically live 15 to 20 years in the wild, and a few years longer in captivity.