Blog Archive

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!).

Jason removed all the climbing structures (lions are not as agile climbers as leopards), provided scratching logs and cleaned up the plant life in the exhibit. I also got the fun job of cleaning out a connecting corridor between the exhibits that hadn’t been used in a while and was filled with more cobwebs and spiders than I would like to remember.

During the whole process we were watched by Amani, Yizi and Mujambi, which can be a little unnerving. As each board came down you could see the increasing curiosity of the three. After extensive checks by my supervisor and the rest of the Carnivore team it was time to let the lions in.

Amani and Yizi had the honour of being first in, racing through the gate as it was opened. For the first 20 minutes it was a competition to see who could smell the whole exhibit first. Surprisingly it took half an hour for one of them to realise they had a platform to explore. From the beginning I had my money on Yizi being the first one up there and sure enough with a single leap and a small climb up a well positioned log she was up there staring over the top of everyone. Not long after Yizi came down Amani was straight up to see what all the fuss was about...

And the fuss was the view of three Sumatran Tigers, which also gave the Tigers a big surprise! You can imagine when you are an 85 kilo tiger and have two 130 kilo lions staring at you, it can be very intimidating. But don’t worry, our Tigers are just as intrigued in the Lions are as the Lions are in them. Tuan can be regularly seen sitting in a spot that looks directly at the Lion exhibit.

The next day was Mujambis’ turn. As the girls did, he spent most of the time sniffing the exhibit. Mujambi is not as great a climber or jumper as the girls so the platform is a bit beyond his capabilities but he still gets the opportunity to watch the tigers through the bamboo. Mujambi does seem to enjoy having more room but will stay in the exhibit next door to the girls to watch every move they make (he is infatuated with them!).

So make sure you come down and see our Lions making use of their new found room, if you cant see both girls just make sure you look up to that platform.

Arliah