Gone too soon: Just days after its March 9 birth, a newborn golden lion tamarin—a small yellow-orange monkey—has died, BREC’s Baton Rouge Zoo says. Zoo keepers found the baby in an extremely weakened condition Monday morning and immediately took it to the zoo’s George Felton Jr. Veterinary Hospital. The baby tamarin died later that day. BREC says LSU veterinary staff will perform a necropsy later this month to help determine the official cause of death. More than 40% of all golden lion tamarins die within the first 30 days of life, according to BREC.
On fire: An oil production platform near Bayou Sorrel in Iberville Parish caught fire after an explosion this morning while employees were dismantling the platform, the U.S. Coast Guard says in a news release. The Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit in Baton Rouge was notified of the fire at about 9:15 a.m. today. Two people were on the platform at the time of the explosion, but they were unharmed, the Coast Guard says. Louisiana State Police and the Coast Guard Sector New Orleans are leading the investigation, Iberville Parish Sheriff’s Office spokesman Maj. Johnny Blanchard says. The platform has the storage space to hold up to 420,000 gallons of crude oil. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. It is unknown as of press time whether any oil leaked from the platform.
Under investigation: Federal regulators have formed a four-member panel to investigate the death of a man who was working on an oil platform rig in the Gulf of Mexico, The Associated Press reports. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement says Roy Miller, a Nabors Drilling employee, was fatally injured last Thursday during “maintenance activities” performed for Houston-based oil and gas operator Whistler Energy LLC. FuelFix.com says the worker has been identified as Roy Miller of Mississippi. The platform rig is located roughly 150 miles south of New Orleans. All drilling operations were suspended following Miller’s death.
