Zoo Not Keeping Adequate Records, City Audit Reveals : Management: Officials say new curator will improve method for keeping track of animals. Generally, the report is laudatory and says problems are minor.

The Los Angeles Zoo is not keeping adequate records of the 2,000 animals in its collection, according to an otherwise laudatory audit released Thursday on the facility’s shipment, loan and sales policies.

City officials responded by saying they have dealt with the most serious criticism in the review by hiring a general curator a week ago to fill a position that had been vacant for two years.

Les Scholpert, general curator of the North Carolina Zoo, was selected for the $64,000-a-year job after a six-month nationwide search that attracted 18 candidates, said Elliott Porter, personnel director for the city Department of Recreation and Parks.

“One of the reasons we’ve had managerial and record-keeping problems at the zoo is because that position has been vacant,” Porter said. “He’ll be supervising those functions when he starts work late this month.”

The audit was ordered in March by City Council President John Ferraro after the death of the zoo’s five-ton African elephant Hannibal during an ill-fated attempt to move him to a Mexican zoo.

The elephant’s death triggered demands from animal welfare activists for an independent investigation of zoo management, increased oversight of operations and a halt to the shipment of animals.

“The problems we found were relatively minor,” said Bill Koenig, who headed a team of auditors for the city administrative officer. “All required federal, state and local approvals were obtained by the zoo for shipments, purchases and loans. They did it right.”

Koenig also said city auditors “found significant concern among zoo employees about the welfare of the animals. The problems we found (with record-keeping) may simply be related to the fact that they are not paper pushers like me.”

Although the audit team reviewed 19 changes in the zoo’s animal collection, 10 selected randomly, it “specifically stayed away from the Hannibal case,” Koenig said.

“That is because Ferraro has established an independent commission to study the circumstances surrounding the elephant’s death,” he said. “Beyond that, the death involved medical and veterinary issues that we are not qualified to comment on.”

The six-member commission investigating Hannibal’s death is expected to release its findings in August, an aide to Ferraro said.

Meanwhile, in a letter dated Thursday, Ferraro gave zoo officials 30 days to submit a schedule for implementing the audit’s recommendations or present alternatives.

The audit recommended that the zoo:

* Maintain a master file for each change in the composition of its collection instead of keeping such records in “separate files in multiple locations.”

* Submit an annual report to the Recreation and Parks Commission on the status of animal breeders, brokers and dealers that the zoo contracts with.

* Set expiration dates for all changes approved by the commission and submit a semiannual report on pending changes.

“These are a few fine-tuning things that need to be done--and they will be done,” said Mark Goldstein, director of the 113-acre zoo. “I feel very comfortable with their recommendations. . . . The one about a master file is right on target.”

The arrival of a new general curator, Goldstein said, “will tighten the ship.”

There was a tense moment two weeks ago, however, when Goldstein worried that the curator would turn down the position.

“Scholpert and his wife were in Los Angeles when the earthquake hit (on June 28),” Goldstein said. “He still said yes.”