The crisis on Wall Street has claimed its most exotic victims to date, with unemployment notices being extended to those with bushy tails, spiny backs and horns.
The Bronx zoo, the oldest city zoo in America, has succumbed to a multimillion dollar hole in its budget and ordered the shipping of hundreds of animals to other institutions. The list of species that will be banished from the park include lemurs, porcupines and antelope.
The sacking of the animals follows a decision to close four exhibits, chosen because of a combination of how maintenance costs and relatively low public appeal. Animals that also include deer, bats and foxes will be shifted to other zoos and aquariums around the country.
Steven Sanderson, head of the zoo, said the changes were forced by a combination of the global economic downturn and challenges facing wildlife conservation. "The new plan will make us stronger and more flexible in an uncertain world," he said.
Behind the plan is a budget shortfall of $15m (about £10m) caused largely by a drastic fall in philanthropic donations to the zoo since the downturn began to bite last autumn. The reduction in charitable income accounts for about $13m of the shortfall, with a further $1.7m of cuts being passed onto the zoo from New York city, which is facing its own budget crisis.
The departure of the porcupines is particularly poignant. Earlier this year the zoo put out a viral advert on YouTube which showed the zoo's director dismissing a live porcupine on the grounds of threatened New York state budget cuts. The video generated 83,000 signatures on a petition and was seminal in persuading the governor of New York, David Patterson, to rethink the cuts.
Now the World of Darkness, the exhibit inhabited by the porcupines, bats and night monkeys, has been ordered to close. So too has the Rare Animal Range, replete with deer and guanaco, a South American relative of the llama.
Two other exhibits dedicated to displaying various species of antelope are also closing.
The zoo, which was opened in 1899, was visited by more than 2 million people last year.
The city's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has so far resisted pressure to restore funding. "Everybody always says cut the services," he said. "Then you say, OK, here's the services. 'Oh, oh, no, don't cut that,' and in the end they don't want to cut anything."
The zoo is just one of the bedrock New York institutions that has suffered from a slump in corporate and individual giving in the wake of the economic crisis. The Metropolitan museum recently announced it was laying off 10% of its staff, though in this case the casualties are all human.