My visit was for 3 days with the keepers...so i saw everything...yes they ate live prey, mostly quails....ofcourse they do that beacuse they are a breeding facilty and not a zoo...so some of the animals will be sent back to the wild...
But the fossa is captive born so it might not realise how to hunt properly. If this was the case then what if it pawed it a few times, scratched it, got bored of it and left it in agony to bleed to death? Yes, nature is harsh, but this is a zoo, and I'd bet you'd complain if you were put in with hungry tigers with no chance of escaping.
This is not a zoo, but a breeding facility, which i think is different.
i don't think its brutal to give live animal to a predtor, just because we as humans see something is brutal doesnt mean that the animals should allowed to practice their natural behavior. we as people try to get the animals behave as natural as possible altough they are captive so why live prey is any different? because its hard for us to see blood and hunting?
I don't care about seeing blood, I see that enough on TV and with dead feeding. I don't like the idea of giving the quail an unfair chance. And how is a breeding facility different? Does the quail realise that and think "Oh, it's not a zoo so it's fine for me to get hunted without a fair chance of escape"? I think not. I just don't think there's a need for it. If this was a Chinese zoo selling quails for the public to feed to the predators there'd be an uproar.
I volunteered there a few summers ago too (in fact I beleive dr.zoomi that I was with you and Rene on your first day there!) and helped out with the carnivores.The quail come from a farm quite close to Mountain View and would have been killed for human consumption a few days later anyway. They do have a chance to escape, and indeed one did escape from the Golden Cat at one point, however, the cats are used to being fed live prey and all of them very swiftly capture and kill the birds within seconds. If you're interested in animal behaviour it is a fascinating thing to watch!
Realy? that's cool...i dont remember you but i may have a pic of you working.
i had a great time there, i have to say! they made me feel like home
About the live animals for feeding, i understood long ago that some people see it as a horrible thing and some see it as true nature.
