A Thief at the National Zoo

by Ron Roy

  Everyone looked at KC. She blushed. “It had to be Dirk,” she said. “Once we knew that the Tigers Eye was hidden outside the party room, the rest was easy. Dirk dropped it into the moat when he took the cubs back to the enclosure. He was the only one who could have done that.”

  “Mr. Chu has agreed to let the zoo keep the Tigers Eye for a year,” the president said. He looked at Dr. Tutu. “Where will it be displayed?”

  “Someplace near the tigers,” Dr. Tutu said. “Right, Mr. Chu?”

  Sunwoo’s father nodded. “Yes. People will come to see the tigers. They will also see the Tigers Eye and read its history. This will be a good thing for the tigers.”

  Mr. Chu winked at KC and Marshall. “It has already brought luck!”

  Did you know?

  Did you know that the Sumatran tiger cubs that KC and Marshall met will grow to weigh about 300 pounds? They also have webbed feet and love to swim. But Sumatran tigers are critically endangered, which means that there are very few of them living in the wild—fewer than 500, in fact.

  Luckily, there are many people who want to help the tigers. Zoos like the National Zoo do a lot of work to save Sumatran tigers and other endangered species from going extinct. They make sure the tigers in the zoo are healthy. They give them a safe place to have babies. And they work with local people in Asia to find ways to live near the tigers in peace.

  The National Zoo has been doing work like this for all kinds of animals for over a century! When it first opened in 1889, North American animals like bison and beavers were quickly disappearing. The zoo was a safe place for them to live. Over the years, many more species of animals all over the world became threatened. Helping endangered animals became a main goal for the zoo.

  Today at the National Zoo, you can see nearly 400 different species of animals. Anyone can visit for free. If you are too far away to visit in person, you can visit anytime on the Internet. Just go to nationalzoo.si.edu. You can even see the Sumatran tigers live on their Tigercam!

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2007 by Ron Roy

  Illustrations copyright © 2007 by Timothy Bush

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House

  Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Roy, Ron.

  A thief at the National Zoo / by Ron Roy; illustrated by Timothy Bush.

  — 1st ed.

  p. cm. — (Capital mysteries; 9)

  “Stepping Stone book.”

  Summary: KC and Marshall investigate the theft of a precious emerald,

  brought by representatives of the Chinese government to bring luck to two

  baby tigers born at the National Zoo.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-49826-7

  [1. Tigers—Fiction. 2. Stealing—Fiction. 3. National Zoological Park (U.S.)—

  Fiction. 4. Washington (D.C.)—Fiction. 5. Mystery and detective stories.]

  I. Bush, Timothy, ill. II. Title.

  PZ7.R8139Tgt 2007 [Fie]—dc22 2007021739

  v3.0