So, it’s been over a month since I last went to the zoo. Mainly due to the cold and my busy schedule. Today wasn’t a deep freeze, so I decided to go on out with my brother. Happy to say, it was a pretty eventful day.
Vishnu was on display, and he seemed pretty agitated. Not sure what was wrong, if anything at all, but he was running back and forth in the exhibit, knocking around the hanging obstacles in there. Didn’t seem like his usual self.
Got a chance to see the False Gharial. Pretty neat to see it with the Malaysian painted turtles. I remember seeing it there years ago. Good to see the species back.
Notice another reptile in the exhibit with the Crocodile Newts. Asked a passing keeper about it and they said it was a Crocodile Lizard which has been there for a while. I never realized it before. To see it, you need to really bend down and look towards the back of the exhibit.
Went to the Lion talk were I got a chance to see a pretty big fight between Fintan and Lemon. Keeper threw out 5 bones for them and Fintan seemed to want them all for himself. Initially Lemon tried going for one and Fintan put her in her place and started gnawing on one of the bones. After about 10 minutes Lemon tried going for a bone, and that’s when Fintan and Lemon got in a real scuffle. Lemon was knocked back into the hot wire, forcing her to get out of there, and also snagging 2 bones, while Fintan was left with the 2 he originally had. Makali just sat back and watched it all go down. In the end, Lemon looked to have nicked her ear, drawing blood that the Keeper said he’d have to look at when he called her indoors at the end of the day.
While the Keeper was there I asked him some questions about future plans with the African animals.
1st, No final decisions have been made on what other animals will be joining the Giraffe and Elands. Ostriches were in discussion, but it has not been finalized. The Keeper I spoke with was thinking they might put 2 Zebras with them, but again, that is not finalized. Also, I don’t know which Zebras they would put there, or what would happen with the Zebra exhibit.
2nd, There’s still hope for Cheetah cubs this year. Lion cubs is a possibility, but the Keeper is hoping that it won’t happen this year. 2 reasons for that. First is that he thinks they’re still too young. With them being so young the chances of Makali rejecting the cubs is higher. Second is that room accommodations may get a little tricky with cubs. Mainly depending on number of cubs, and when they start to grow up. Jerroh and Lindy take up a lot of room.
3rd, The zoo does have 3 Wildebeest on location that will go on exhibit come spring/summer. The plan was to have them part of a larger mix-species exhibit, but that has been nixed completely. Apparently, plans to get Wildebeest have been kicking around for around 5 years now. When the decision was finally made to get them, the head vet at the time said they’d do the mix-species plan. That changed when the head vet retired, and the new guy took over. He wants to implement an old rule in which Wildebeest are kept around 100 yards away from any other Ruminant animals, which includes cattle, goats, sheep, giraffes, yaks, deer and antelope. This is treating the animal as “always on quarantine”. This comes from a strain of herpes virus that passed from Wildebeest to other Ruminants back in the 1940’s. So, because of this the Wildebeest will be in the Ostrich yard, most likely with the Ostrich. During winter months, when the Wildebeest are indoors, the Ostrich have to stay in a different area, which may be the Hippo house or Giraffe house.
And lastly, I finally saw the echidna. She was walking around the exhibit around 3:00 along with Hamlet and Swamp Wallaby, Francesca.
I hope to post pictures tomorrow.
