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Of all the problems on Mayor Bloomberg's mind -- smokers killing non-smokers, people chaining themselves to
 firetrucks and a budget hole bigger than Fresh Kills -- you can be pretty sure that a pregnant baboon named
 Mitara is not one of them.

But she should be, because Mitara offers a glimpse at why Bloomberg's proposal to close the Prospect Park and
 Queens zoos is so preposterous.

Thus far, coverage of this proposal has focused on all the human children who will be deprived of contact with
 nature if the zoos are closed. Forget the zoo-less children -- they'll grow up, develop normal habits like
 drinking, smoking and sleeping around, and move on -- but what about the animals?

"People think you can just close the zoo and move them, but you can not," said Robin Dalton, director of the
 Queens Zoo, which has 400 residents. "Every single animal has specific parameters under which they live."

Dalton's colleague at Prospect Park -- where Mitara is gestating nicely, thank you -- says that animals
 literally climb the walls of their pens, pace for hours or rip at their fur when they're under great stress.
 Need I remind you of Gus, the once-neurotic polar bear?

"Animals have psychology," said Don Moore. "When a human loses his job, there's stress. It's the same thing for
 an animal -- but even more intense."

Mitara and her six baboon brethren are what zoo people call an established social unit. And any social worker
 -- human or otherwise -- will tell you that breaking up a family can create more problems than it solves.

"Humans deal with stress better than animals because we've developed additional institutions outside our
 families -- churches, schools, businesses -- that accept outside members," Moore said. "Animals don't have
 that."

They're animals, not gar-animals. You can't mix and match them from one social group to another.

Do that, Moore says, and animals often react by just hiding in a corner and shutting down. Moore calls it
 "folding the tent."

Sure, animal can be moved -- although YOU try to find a crate that can fit a sandhill crane and its 6-foot neck
 -- but no zoo in the country has the space to take an entire social group.

Then again, Dalton has been getting some interest.

"People are calling and saying they want to take our animals," Dalton said. Zoo people? "Well, not exactly. I
 did get a call from a guy who said he wants to start a zoo. He sounds enthusiastic, but I don't he knows what
 he's doing."

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gersh.kuntzman@verizon.net