BACK IN THE PINK NEW CENTER SYMPTOM OF L.A. ZOO'S RECOVERY SOURCE} BY DANA BARTHOLOMEW STAFF WRITER.

When Caesar the gorilla complained of a tumor on his mighty neck, it took the Los Angeles Zoo's own ``Doc'' Doolittle and nine keepers to heft him to the operating table.

The surgery was successful, but ferrying the 600-pound silver back in a fishing net from the outmoded clinic to his pen was not. A nauseous Caesar nearly died of a heart attack.

near death was enough to mobilize support for a $10.5 million animal health center critics say symbolizes the Los Angeles Zoo's recovery from civic embarrassment to contender for the country's top zoo.

``The Los Angeles Zoo has been a turnaround kid: They're moving, they're setting standards,'' said Bill Foster, chairman of the accreditation committee for the American Zoo and Aquarium Association.

``L.A. is emerging as a leading institution and a model for other institutions who are struggling,'' he said.

Foster should know: Five years ago, his team nearly yanked the zoo's accreditation for poor management, internal power struggles, health and safety violations, and obsolete, vermin-infested animal exhibits.

Chimpanzees forced to gambol about a bare mountain of feces-encrusted concrete. Polar bears, orangutans and bears huddled in substandard housing. Penguins decimated by disease. Then the demise of Hannibal the elephant, who died sedated and forced to kneel inside a crate destined for Mexico - mourned at his funeral by 250 tearful zoo critics.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture cited the zoo for more than 100 violations. State safety inspectors, called in to investigate an unconscious zoo keeper circled by a rhinoceros found faulty doors and locks on the tiger and gorilla pens.

But today - a new Los Angeles Zoo.

Exhibits now reflect natural habitats. Chimpanzees bask under a tropical waterfall and canopy. A $15 million Red Ape Rain Forest exhibit that opened in July just got a federal go-ahead to breed endangered orangutans. A $12 million elephant and underwater hippopotamus display - ``these great big hippo jaws staring at you in the glass,'' a zoo official noted - is in the works.

The zoo is being called a botanical garden. The docent program is considered the best in the world.

Furthermore, attendance breaks records, from less than 1 million in 1995 to an expected 1.5 million this year.

Administrators now answer directly to City Hall. And two bond measures made expansion plans possible.

``I think we've gotten ourselves out of the problem-plagued rank,'' said Manuel Mollinedo, the energetic director the city brought in five years ago to reform the zoo. ``People feel good about what we're doing.''

Now, the Los Angeles Zoo has been given a one-year reprieve by AZA accreditors. Mollinedo was even asked to sit on its board.

Though many credit Mollinedo's leadership, some laud City Council President John Ferraro, while zoo officials credit Mayor Richard Riordan.

Ferraro led an ad hoc committee formed to hire a zoo director and direct a turnaround.

Putting the zoo in order also meant splitting power between parks officials and the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association, the private fund- raising arm criticized for mismanaging the zoo's food concession.

GLAZA's role was scaled back, while Riordan appointed a Zoo Commission and established a Zoo Department led by Mollinedo.

Chief Veterinarian Charles ``Doc'' Sedgwick, one of the country's six pioneering zoological veterinarians, was also recruited. Sedgwick, 68, of Burbank assembled a crack veterinary team and worked with Mollinedo to open new exhibits for the zoo's 1,200 animals.

Sedgwick also spearheaded the Animal Health and Conservation Center. His duty done, Doc retired Sept. 30.

``It'll be a big loss,'' said zoo veterinary assistant Marnie Lamm, echoing sentiments of many zoo staff. ``He has a depth of knowledge few have.''

By next summer, the new 28,500-square-foot center will showcase medical equipment to care for the large and small, be it a constipated rhinoceros or condor with a cold. Lest the 23-year-old Caesar again fall ill, he'll even have his own gorilla trolley.

The zoo, which historically encouraged visitors to toss food and peanuts to the animals, was remade, the public re-educated.

``They fed (elephants) dirty Kleenexes, anything to interact,'' recalled Sedgwick, his silver buckle highlighting a buffalo head. ``Coins even. I remember posting a (dead) alligator and found eight pounds of copper pennies in his stomach.

``Animals were expendable; they were just expendable,'' he said.

No more.

Gretchen Wyler, founder and president of Ark Trust, an animal rights group and harsh critic of the former regime, was asked to sit on a zoo advisory committee.

``The chimps couldn't be happier, the orangutans couldn't be happier, the gorillas couldn't be happier - I'm thrilled,'' said the former actress. ``The great apes have it made at the L.A. Zoo.''

What's needed, she said, are new exhibits for elephants and giraffes. ``I wouldn't waste a minute if I didn't believe they want to become a real top zoo - and I think they're on their way.''

Perhaps they are.

Proposition A1, the parks bond, and Proposition CC, a $56 million capital improvement bond, have financed the turnaround.

Though the Los Angeles Zoo's $13 million budget equals the advertising budget alone for the San Diego Zoo (the Los Angeles Zoo ad budget is $800,000), administrators believe the quality gap is closing.

Said Mollinedo: ``I want to build the best zoo in the country - I want to be No. 1 in education, No. 1 culturally, and I want to be No. 1 scientifically - so that in a few years we may even top the Bronx Zoo, considered the best in the country.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Opossum Bugsy gets treatment at the L.A. Zoo.

(2) Recently retired Chief Veterinarian Charles ``Doc'' Sedgwick comforts Sweet Pea, an ailing black rhino at the L.A. Zoo.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer