Zoo Bites

Freezer Full of Poo

So, we have an Australian Sea Lion pup on the way and have three beautiful Serval Kittens... so what about some cubs from our Sumatran Tigers? Our breeding pair, Assiqua and Tuan, have both been at Adelaide Zoo for about a two years and after several unsuccessful introductions we are trying some new slides and some very interesting scientific tests.

First of all, we wanted to increase the interaction time between our breeding pair. We have 3 tigers and 2 exhibits; being that Tigers are solitary animals, only two Tigers will be on exhibit, with the third one spending the day off exhibit. If the Tiger spending the day off exhibit happens to be one of our breeding pair then they had no interaction all day with the other one due to our solid slides. So we got out fantastic Maintenance welder, Mark, to make some mesh slides, allowing our Tigers to see, hear and smell each other.

ZIMS

Adelaide and Monarto Zoo are amongst a select few Zoos around the world selected to be first users or early adopters of the Zoo community’s brand new all encompassing records program Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS).

It replaces a handful of older outdated stand alone programmes and integrates them all in a web based, real time record and management system that enables zoo staff to share a huge amount of animal data instantly.

Ady & Tasko Update

Well, the most exciting news would be that Ady is pregnant (see video blog), due any time in the next couple of months. Yes, I am going to be a Sea Lion auntie! Words can not describe how happy our team is.

Ady is doing very well, steadily putting on the kilos; she has gone from a trim 83 kilos to 100 kilos, making movement a bit slower and she does a very pregnant waddle. She is a little less active at the moment, as any pregnant lady is allowed to be, so if you are looking for her she may be sleeping on the rocks, having a day off exhibit or hanging out in the maternity pool.

African Wild Dog Enrichment

You can probably tell from my other blogs that I love enrichment, however I am finding that what I think the animals will love is not always the case!

Recently I saw Gary, one of our great BEEZA (Behavioural and Environmental Enrichment for Zoo Animals) volunteers, with a shopping trolley full of paper mache balls for the Tasmanian Devils at Monarto Zoo. I took one look at them and thought they would be the perfect size for our African Wild Dogs. Gary happily agreed to make six and also put some dry kibble and dried liver treats inside, not only making the ball rattle but a nice surprise inside for the dogs.

Orangutan Birthdays (part 2)

The orangutans had a brilliant day for their birthday bash! Kluet and Karta shared a party celebrating their birthdays, which are only 4 days apart. The wonderful Zoo volunteers prepared them a huge birthday box that was filled with other boxes and cardboard rolls which had all sorts of treats inside like sultanas, peanuts and some popcorn (unsalted and unbuttered of course so it is nice and healthy!) .

They both gobbled up the treats quickly but that did not mean the fun was over!

Sea Lion Surgery

Find out about the recent surgery on our female Sea Lion, Ady.

 

Sunbears vs Pumpkins

Zookeepers use various methods to enrich the lives of the animals in their care.  These enrichment items can vary from scatter feeds, scent trails or markings to novel items such as balls or boxes, and helps alleviate boredom or stereotypic behavior, encourages natural behavior and often just challenges the animal with something ‘new’ to deal with.

We recently had some huge pumpkins donated to the zoo

A Little Bit About Our Other Carnivores

It has been about 2 months since I started on the Mixed Carnivore Round and it has been, and still is, an amazing learning experience. As I said in my previous blog I had not worked with most of the animals on this round so there has been a huge learning curve. So I thought I better write down some things I have seen so far...

I will start off with the smallest and I must say the most elusive carnivore on the round…the Dwarf Mongoose. In winter they are little bit hard to spot but they do love to bask in the winter sun. These guys love their insects and it is very funny watching them chase and pounce on cockroaches and crickets…they can be very fast when they want. Fast enough even to take on and bite a greedy seagull trying to steal their food.

Orangutan Birthdays (part 1)

Hi everyone

Kluet and Karta, our two beautiful Sumatran Orangutans, have both recently celebrated birthdays.

Kluet celebrated his birthday on the 18th July and Karta celebrated her birthday only 4 days later on the 22nd. At 28 years of age, Karta is middle aged but Kluet is still only a teenager as he has only just turned 15. While Kluet is already a bit bigger than Karta, he has a lot more growing to do and he will probably put on another 30 or 40 kilograms before he is fully grown.

Macaw Search & Rescue

Find out more about our young macaw, Tambopata, who recently escaped from Adelaide Zoo.

Together Again

Our two Orang-utans, Karta and Kluet, have been back on exhibit together for just over a month now, having given Kluet time to grow and mature a little more.

Each afternoon they are brought into their off limit area and separated for the  night,  for management reasons, after spending the day together. They are more than happy to go their separate ways once inside the building and receive their evening meal from keepers.

Extension of the Lion Exhibit

Myself, Jason (Horticulture) and Mark (Maintenance) have been very busy little bees over on the Big Cat Round, renovating an exhibit for our three African Lions. Unfortunately our Persian Leopard, Cubba, passed away but we wanted to put his exhibit to good use and give our Lions so more room to move.

This could have been a very large and involved job, but when this exhibit was built it was connected to the Lion exhibits so the sliding gates were still there, much to our relief. Mark and I got to work on removing boards that formed a wall between the exhibits, checking all the slides and locks work, checking the fencing and stabilising the platform at the front of the exhibit (lions weigh almost three times as much as Cubba did!).

Learning a New Round

Since starting at Adelaide Zoo in December I have been on the Big Cat Round, which I absolutely love. Now I am being trained on the Mixed Carnivore Round which consists of the Sea Lions, Binturong, Dwarf Mongoose, Meerkat and Africa Wild Dog.

Some of you may be surprised the Sea Lions fall under the Carnivore umbrella

Peeping Tuan

Ever get the feeling like your being watched? I get that feeling everyday I am at work and it's not just a feeling... I am usually being watched when I walk along the back service road behind the big cats.

No, it is not a camera or a person watching me, it’s a very nosey Sumatran Tiger named Tuan!

Tuan is our 12 year old male tiger from Germany

Kittens? What Kittens?!

Yes our Serval kittens certainly don’t look like kittens anymore! Our three Servals are four months old and, if you look quickly, can be mistaken for their mum, Kali.

At the last vet check and vaccination, they were weighing in at a healthy 3-4 kilos, so by now they would be in the 5 kilo range. Yes, we feed them very well, especially now that they are predominantly eating solid foods and are suckling from Kali much less.

Serval Kitten update

Our beautiful “little” Serval kittens are 11 weeks old and growing so fast! Their ears and legs are starting to getting bigger and longer and they are getting more confident by the minute. A lot has happened since we first released news of our kittens to the world - they have had their first and second vet check and now can be seen out in their exhibit across from the African Lions.

At the six week health check our kittens were vaccinated, micro-chipped, weighed, sexed and given a visual check over by our Senior Veterinarian, Wayne Boardman. We are pleased to announce we have three very healthy Serval kittens consisting of two girls and a boy, each roughly weighing 2kg. Once the kittens were given the all clear by our vet it was time to work on getting the exhibit ready to let them out.

Settling into Panda-land

About the same time that the Giant Pandas moved into their beautiful new home, the Red Pandas were packing their bags and moving from their home near the Lions to their new homes in the Bamboo Forest

There are two Red Panda enclosures. The three girls, Sogyal, Imandari and Maya, are in one and two boys, Shahin and Himal, in the other.

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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