Latest News from Monarto Zoo
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…
It’s Festival Time Again!
This is such a great time of year in Adelaide. I moved to SA in 2008 so last year was my first Fringe, my first Womad... I love it. And it’s so great that Adelaide Zoo is such a part of it all; even more so from this year with the new spaces for performance and exhibition at the new front entrance of the zoo.
With this, though, comes a responsibility for us to ensure that the animals in the Adelaide Zoo collection are not adversely affected by the events in and around the zoo – just as domestic dogs can be afraid of thunder. Between Festival and Fringe events, Womad right on our doorstep, Clipsal... and this year the AC/DC concert at the Adelaide Oval the night before last!... the zoo experiences a lot of loud noise at this time of year.
Keeping out of Mischief
Hello this is Wayne Boardman here, Head Vet for Zoos SA. Quite an interesting week this week - not full on but enough to keep us out of mischief.
On Saturday we saw Ian Smith, the main vet for Monarto Zoo, leave us for three months as he goes on his Churchill Fellowship. He is travelling to South Africa, Europe and USA to look at veterinary facilities for open range zoos. I think we are all a little green with envy. We all wish him well and look forward to him being back at the end of May.
I checked on Mujambi, our lion that previously seizured, to review his medication which we have done. He is looking great and eating well but occasionally stumbles – we want to titrate the dose the minimum effective level.
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.
Welcome to Monarto Zoo
Monarto Zoo is a 1,000 hectare open-range sanctuary undertaking a major role nationally and internationally in breeding programs for rare and endangered species.
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