Zoo Plans Holiday Feast for the Beasts

Many families partaking in the traditional Thanksgiving feast will need to exercise some of that pumpkin pie and turkey out of their systems this weekend. One way will be to explore the Los Angeles Zoo during the “Beastly Feast” celebration Thursday through Sunday.

Tiny geckos and giant elephants, green toads and red-faced primates, hippos, lions, tigers and bears are among the more than 1,500 animals to be found at the zoo. Species from throughout the world will be fed Thanksgiving treats.

The Zoo in Griffith Park is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call (213) 666-4090.

MARINE SCIENCE

* The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History’s Sea Center will sponsor an appearance by Judith Love Cohen, author of “You Can Be a Woman Marine Biologist,” at noon Saturday. Cohen will read from and sign her book in an event geared to girls between 7 and 13. Several women working in the marine sciences will also be on hand to answer questions. Call (805) 962-0885.

SCIENCE FOR KIDS

* Entomologist Steven Kutcher, mosquito and spider provider for movies such as “Jurassic Park,” will share his spider facts and give children ages 5 and older an up-close display of live emperor scorpions in workshops at the Kidspace Museum on Saturday at 2:30, 3:15 and 4 p.m.

* On Sunday, live tarantulas and fuzzy spiders will crawl to Kidspace for a workshop for children ages 5 and up at 2:30, 3:15 and 4 p.m. Call (818) 449-9144.

SCIENCE POLICY

* Reed Tuckson, president of the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine, will speak about “Health: At the Crossroads of Society and Culture,” at 11:30 a.m. Monday in Thorne Hall, Occidental College. Call (213) 259-2783.

MEDICINE/HEALTH

* “New Biological Approaches for Psychoses,” will be discussed by Stephen R. Marder at 12:15 p.m. next Tuesday in a psychiatry forum at the Hastings Auditorium, Hoffman Medical Research Center, on USC’s Health Sciences Campus. Call (213) 342-3711.