Zoo Bites

Some cats DO like water

Some very lucky visitors (and myself!) were surprised to find a tiger taking a morning dip in the pond at the start of our Big Cat tour last week. Yes, contrary to popular belief, some cats do like water and some, like the Sumatran Tiger, actually like to swim in it.

Sumatran Tigers are one of the few big cats that can swim and they even have webbing between their toes, making them very efficient swimmers.

So who was the tiger in the water you ask…

You smell like a Giraffe but look like a Lion

Hi everyone

In addition to the food that we feed our animals on the Big Cat round, we like to stimulate them with enrichment - these may be food, sense or physical based. The animals all react differently to enrichment, they can have positive, negative or neutral reactions. Out of all the cats the two female African Lions, Amani and Yizi, have the best interactions with enrichment.

Recently, the girls have been given giraffe faeces...

Making Friends with a Leopard

Hi everyone

My first week as a Carnivore Keeper at Adelaide Zoo was incredible, meeting all the animals of the Big Cat round and learning how to care for them. Don't tell the other big cats but our Persian Leopard “Cubba” has fast become my favourite cat on the round!

Cubba was born here so has seen his fare share of new faces at Adelaide Zoo, and just like every keeper before me I have had to build up a relationship with him.

Hello from Arliah

Hi, my name is Arliah and I am Carnivore Keeper at Adelaide Zoo. I am a fairly new keeper to the zoo and I am absolutely loving it.

At the moment I am working on the Big Cat round and have the pleasure of working with our African Lions, Sumatran Tigers, Servals, Persian Leopard, Fennec Foxes and Red Pandas.

Carnivore Fun and Games

Hi All,
 
We recently had some enrichment fun with the Lions and Hyena at Monarto Zoo.
 
The lovely volunteers at Monarto Zoo kindly donated some money so that special toys could be purchased through 'Aussie Dog Products'. These toys had to be ultra strong and durable as the jaw pressure of the Lions and especially the Hyenas are amazing!

Rocking for Rhinos

Zoos SA Planetkeeper programs are active education programs that are designed to help students learn about, and raise money for in situ conservation programs.

Little Penguin chick

Hear the full story about our Little Penguin chick who was recently rescued from the River Torrens.

More about Chook

Chook the Superb Lyrebird has recently become a web sensation in a Youtube clip, where he shows off his extraordinary mimicry skills. Watch this new video to learn even more about Chook and Superb Lyrebirds.

More about Chook >

More about Mujambi

Listen to our Head Vet talk about the medication that Mujambi, our male lion, is being given to try to control his seizures.

Go to our "Zoo Bites" blogs to find out more Mujambi.

The day I met the bravest person in the world

One of my roles as a zoo photographer is to photograph zoo events both inside the zoo grounds and at outside venues. The most recent one I had to photograph was the opening of the ‘Panda Countdown Clock’ on top of the ETSA building on Anzac Highway. For event photography I try and plan ahead for the shots that people require, then move about the crowd and try to be invisible while I take the photographs. The media were there also, photographing The Premier Mike Rann who officially started the clock on its countdown to the arrival of the pandas in adelaide. Also in attendance was the Adelaide Zoo’s CEO Chris West, zoo staff, ETSA staff and of course ‘Funi’ the panda was putting in a guest appearance.

Update on Mujambi

Listen to Head Vet, Wayne Boardman, talk about our male lion's recent seizure.

Check out our "Zoo Bites" blogs for more information on our lion introduction.

Mujambi's Surgery

Watch our male lion, Mujambi, undergo surgery to investigate any potential issues with his central nervous system.

Check out our "Zoo Bites" blogs for more information on our lion introduction.

Is that him?

One of my roles as a zoo photographer is to take photos of the animals for the keepers. The keepers use the photos to identify individual animals that may require specialised food or medicine. It’s very important to make sure the right animal is given the right attention.

Update on Matilda

Thank God I don’t have to get up at night for Matilda anymore! I’ve moved her out of my room now, she’s been out for about a month because she was waking up at 3 or 4am to play. Sometimes I can still hear her next door but she doesn’t call out for me so she’s obviously okay.

She hasn’t been as playful lately, she’s been a bit sick for the last few weeks. She dropped a bit of weight, reached over a kilo and then went under, and is now back up again. It was a bit stressful during that time, as I didn’t know whether she would crash and die as koalas are so sensitive. But now she seems a bit brighter.

Lion Introduction Updates

Zoo Photography

Hello I’m Dave and I’m the zoo photographer.
 
I photograph the zoo animals, zoo staff and the zoo grounds for use by the Adelaide and Monarto Zoo. The images appear in zoo publications, on the zoo website and in any media the zoo uses to promote the animals and conservation.
 
Some of the photographs were easy to capture with the animal doing exactly what I needed. More often than not though the animal would look away or stand when I needed an animal sitting or sitting when I needed the animal standing. Who was it that said 'never work with animals'?

Carnivore Update

Well, as so often happens when working with animals…things have not exactly gone to plan. 

Our female Fennec Fox did go to Sydney on the Monday and the Serval and the male Fennec Fox arrived safely on the Tuesday.  Yesterday however, did not see our Sea lions arrive. 

The weather in Western Australia was simply far too hot to send them over.  We have a ‘Hot Weather policy’, so while I’m disappointed they are not here, I’m very happy their welfare remained the number one priority. They will be arriving some time in the near future when conditions are more comfortable and a suitable flight is available.

My Working Week

So far in this blog I’ve told you about events that have already taken place…so to change things up a bit I thought I’d tell you about my up coming working week.

Monday the 9th of February (day 1) is going to be a big day…so much is happening… I’ll arrive at work tomorrow around 7:30am and will have maybe 30 minutes to check, catch, box, weigh, recheck…and finally send a female Fennec Fox to Taronga Zoo in Sydney (she’s booked on a flight early morning so there’s not much room for error on my part).  She’s left here for breeding purposes and on Tuesday we will receive a male from Taronga…also for breeding purposes…Exciting!

Raising Matilda

Hi, I’m Liza, one of the mammal keepers at Adelaide Zoo. Since December I’ve been hand raising our new baby koala, Matilda.

Her mum was hit by a car and had to be put down due to her bad injuries. Approximately 7 months old at the time, Matilda came to Adelaide Zoo  a healthy 512gm and has never shown any signs of trauma since I’ve had her (her weight has only gone up which is a good indicator).

Lion Introductions

Over the last three weeks the Lions have taken a large and important step closer to being housed together as a small pride.  The daily introductions were progressing well and we were confident the few, brief altercations between them were simply natural hierarchy behaviours seen in many social animals.

On 29th December 2008, Mujambi and Yizi looked very comfortable in each others space…so we left them together overnight.

Dental Day

Nothing further to report on the Lion Introductions as the Lions took a back seat to our other Big Cats.

The Carnivore Department had a very busy day on December 18th.  A dental specialist was in Adelaide for a couple of days and the Zoo’s Carnivore Department took day one.  Animals we had detected may have dental issues were looked at on a priority basis…and “Carnivore Dental Day” started very early.

Establishing a New Pride

G’day everyone and welcome to the new Lion Introduction blog.  I’m Steve McKee and I am one of the Big Cat keepers at the Adelaide Zoo.  I’m a Carnivore keeper which means some days I work with Big and Small Cats; other days I work with Australian Sealions and African Wild Dogs; and sometimes I work with Otters, Meerkats…and Giraffes (?)…just to keep me on my toes.

Our Lion introduction has been taking place for sometime now so I’ll start this blog with a bit of history and how we got to where we are now.

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