The Quad Cities’ zoo will get national publicity tonight. The director of the Niabi Zoo is in New York City to appear on the “Late Show with David Letterman.” Tom Stalf is scheduled to take the stage with well-known zookeeper and Letterman regular Jack Hanna, of the Columbus, Ohio, Zoo, who Stalf says has been his longtime idol. Stalf drove in a van with a few helpers from the Quad Cities to New York with several unusual creatures.Stalf is bringing a half-dozen baby animals from the Quad Cities, including a lion cub, a cougar cub, a porcupine, a lemur (lee’-mur) and twin one-week-old antelopes. Since show host Letterman is a new father, Stalf says that’s the motivation for the bevy of youthful animals.Stalf says animals don’t know how to follow a script and he was initially afraid they’d go wild under the bright lights on live T-V. He says now that he’s talked with the producers of the show, and they say they don’t care if that happens.Tomorrow, Stalf and Hanna are also taping a segment in New York for “Larry King Live,” which he found surprising, isn’t always live. It’ll air sometime in the next few weeks. The Niabi Zoo is located just south of Rock Island in Coal Valley, Illinois, across the Mississippi River from Davenport, and is considered the Quad Cities’ zoo.
