Babylon's Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo

When the Iraq War began, conservationist Lawrence Anthony could think of only one thing: the fate of the Baghdad Zoo, located in the city center and caught in the cross fire. His worst fears were confirmed when he entered Baghdad and discovered that full-scale combat and uncontrolled looting had killed many of the animals of the zoo. But not all of them. Even during the heat of battle, individual U.S. soldiers had taken the time to help care for the remaining animals, and a few of the zoo's staff had returned to work in spite of the constant firefights. Together, the Americans and Iraqis had managed to keep alive the animals that had survived the invasion. Babylon's Ark chronicles the zoo's transformation from war-torn chaos to peaceful park, and the heroic efforts of Anthony and others to restore the zoo's inhabitants to health and safety. Along the way, Anthony recounts hair-raising efforts to save a pride of Uday Hussein's lions, close a deplorable black-market zoo, and rescue Saddam Hussein's Arabian horses form a hidden stable in Abu Ghraib.