During my Master's degree overseas, I went home for the holidays and had the chance to see my tiger, Sweetie, one last time. I actually saw her the day before she was euthanized. The moment I saw her I knew she wasn't doing well. Keepers always know how their animals are feeling just by looking at them because we spend so much time watching over them during our shifts. Sweetie lived to be 18 years old which is way up there even for captive cats. She was also living with a life long hiatal hernia so it was amazing for her to survive for one year let alone 18.

Work it girl.

Sweetie was the kind of cat that didn't like a lot of fuss. She preferred to either be away from the public or terrorizing them. She was strikingly beautiful - and she knew it. Sweetie was only friendly to keepers when she was in heat or when it suited her. Even though she put up front I think she enjoyed being acknowledged and told she was beautiful. I would always say good morning to her and she would stare back at me like she preferred it if I would roll over and die. But I said it anyway because it would have annoyed her even more to be ignored.


I should know better than to look at the comments on online articles by now but once again there were people claiming that she was better off dead than in a zoo. These people have mostly likely never even met Sweetie and yet the feel like they can speak about her life. She wasn't unhappy. She rarely ever displayed any stereotypical behaviour and her keepers never forced her to do anything she didn't want to – except vet check ups. She was a great cat and I can say that because I knew her personally.

RIP Sweetie. You were the definition of fierce.

 Honor Sweetie by educating yourself on the plight of Siberian Tigers and take action towards conserving this beautiful cat.

I have been a little less active lately and that will most likely continue until August. It's because I'm doing a masters degree. Whoa! I'm doing a Master of Global Wildlife Health and Conservation Biology through the University of Bristol. Some of my courses are taught through Bristol Zoo Gardens. It's been fantastic so far.

Here's a another comic. For those of you whole aren't keepers, this might not be that funny but for those who are, you know exactly what I'm talking about. That darn hose. It gets caught on everything!!

 The holidays are upon us! If you're thinking about getting one of your family members a pet this year make sure you do your research.

Let me tell you a little Christmas story about Optimus the Sulcata tortoise. Optimus was donated to our zoo when her family could no longer take care of her – in fact our zoo has never really had to pay for reptiles because there are plenty of people who buy them with out knowing what they're getting themselves into. Optimus is half the size she should be for her age. This is because when her previous family purchased her they didn't want a pet that would get very big. Sulcata tortoises grow to 18 inches in carapace length and can weight 70-100 pounds. The pet shop owner told the family to feed Optimus once a week to keep her from getting too large, and it worked. Sulcata tortoises are grazers and they eat constantly through out the day. Since Optimus was only fed once a week, her growth was stunted and she will never grow to her full size.

Here's Optimus enjoying some tasty rose petals with our junior zoologists. Notice how bumpy her shell is, this is a sign of nutrition deficiencies in tortoises and turtles.

Never buy a pet that you are not willing to take care of. For example, ball pythons can live for almost 50 years. Same with Parrots. They can live for 50 -100 years depending on their species and that, combined with their intelligence, means you're stuck with a 3 year old that will most likely out live you.

Once you've done your research about the animal itself and you're sure you can give it adequate care, then make sure you're getting the animal from a human source. Many small exotic pets are smuggled into the country using inhumane methods. See the pictures below.

Remember that no wild animal makes a good pet. If you're interested in owning an animal, go down to you local shelter and adopt a cat, dog or bunny!

Happy Holidays!

Images from: The Huffington Post

It's international cheetah day!

Our resident cheetah is Duma. He's 5 years old. Duma's claim to fame is that he was featured on cheetah diaries. At that time he was called Yankee.

Duma eats about 2 Kg of meat six days a week. He enjoys purring and being told that he's gorgeous - he already knows it but it's nice to have a daily reminder.

 

 

 

Duma's cool with having a day dedicated to him

I often get costumer complaints along the lines of “I didn't come all this way to see the animals lay around and sleep.” I find this very entertaining. There's a huge possibility that people have been watching nature shows – where it's all action all the time – and then they come to a zoo only to be disappointed not to see the same thing. Actually, animals spend a lot of their time resting.


Cats sleep 13-14 hours a day. They do most of their moving about and hunting during the night.

I'm pretty sure she snores

 Canines sleep for 16 hours a day.

Zzzzz

Bear hibernate in the winter. If you come to the zoo in December, you will not see them. Grizzly bears even give birth during their winter nap. No big deal, right?

Shadow prepares for her winter nap

Ironically enough, it was hard for me to find pictures of my animals sleeping. That's because I'm their keeper and when I'm around, it's food time and that's worth being awake for. If you want to make the most out of your zoo experience, attend shows and talks to see the animals in action!

Say good night to the hippo bums!

In November 2011 our zoo lost two giraffes. Their deaths would mark my introduction to the media frenzy that follows the death of a charismatic animal. Amryn's death hit us all very hard, but before we were given even a second to process his passing it was time to answer to the media. His mother, Eliah, died only five days later and once again the shock had hardly even begun settle before people wanted answers. When a keeper is faced with an animal death, we aren't given very long to process our feelings before it is time to get back to work. Everyone wants to know the who, what, where, when and why of the “incident” before the tears on our face have dried. I reacted very strongly to Amryn's death for a number of reasons. He was an amazing animal. He had such a strong presence at the zoo and I knew it would take a long time before it dissipated. Even months later I'd still catch myself look for him out in the field. Another reason I reacted so strongly to Amryn's death was because, as a keeper, it was the firs time in my career that I had experienced the flood of news clips and public comments that followed a big event like this. I felt I was being attacked by both corporate and public communities. I felt a lot of anger as a result and though it's impossible to change what's been published on the event, I can at least offer up my take on the situation.

Oh Amryn. You were such a muffin.

 It seems to me that there is an assumption floating around that animals that live in captivity are immortal and this is simply not true. All living things have the potential to die before their maximum life span for a number of reasons. They can be killed by conspecifics or predators, or contract a disease. Giraffes are especially tricky to treat in captivity because their anatomy doesn't allow us to treat them in the same way as other animals. For example, it is very dangerous and usually fatal to sedate a giraffe because their circulatory system doesn't do so well if they aren't standing. This means we can't operate on them to treat health problems like we're able to with other animals.
 

With Amryn, he was only five, so of course his death would be considered premature. What bothered me was the contradiction between the interviews about Amyrn and those regarding Eliah. The Humane Society said Giraffes can live to 20 years of age in captivity in an interview regarding Amryn, however, in the interview about Eliah the same guy said that Giraffes can live to 26 years of age so Eliah's death was also premature. Eliah was 23 years old when she passed away. I think it's a little unfair to, first of all, to be allowed to change your facts during an interview to suit your agenda of making the zoo look bad and second to suggest that the death of a 23 year old giraffe was premature. It's like saying that the death of a 117 year old man was premature because the world record for the oldest human is 122. I suppose the news is the news, I have issues with it even without all the coverage of the zoo, but I think it's ridiculous that people who aren't authorities on exotic animals (like the representative from the humane society) are allowed to make their claims without being held accountable when they change their facts.

There were also some questions as to why we didn't notice that our animals were sick. I believe comments like this come from a lack of knowledge. Most animals don't show their weaknesses. A lion with a tumor the size of a basketball will only develop a slight limp near the end of of its life because if they displayed their vulnerability in the wild they would be the target of predation. This goes for animals in captivity too – the instinct for self preservation never leaves them. We do our best to monitor the health of our animals, but we can't fix a problem that their instincts refuse to show us. As far as we knew, both Amyrn and Eliah were happy and healthy.

One of the most frustrating comments for me were the ones suggesting that our zoo should be shut down. I think comments like these also come from a place of ignorance. If you are a person that wants animals to be treated in a humane manner then why wouldn't you consider how much stress it causes an animal to be transported to and live at another facility? It's not just as easy as closing the doors of the zoo to the public and calling it a day. There would be a lot of animals that could die during transport. They would be stressed in their new home until they grew accustomed to it. Plus, there would animals that would be euthanize simply because other zoos don't have the space to house them.

There is a lot of public misconception about why zoos exist. Perhaps back in the 70s, zoos were responsible for taking animals out of the wild solely for display purposes but that's no longer the case. I feel that most zoos work really hard to fight this image and reestablish themselves as conversation centers. For example, all the animals in my care are either

1. wild disable. Meaning they were injured in the wild and wouldn't be able to survive on their own.
   
2. former pets. Meaning they were kept in someone's home until authorities confiscated the animal or the owner donated the animal too the zoo.
   
3. born in captivity. Meaning that whether they were raised by their parents or by Keepers, these animals have only ever known a life with human interaction.
   

None of my animals were plucked from the wild, and they live at the zoo because of the circumstances that brought them there. I work really hard to educate people on the issues that each species faces, but I find myself spending more time combating people's outdated misconceptions.
I could go on for days, but I think I'll wrap it up. I know that people are entitled to think what they want but all I am asking is that public considers two things when reading and interpreting news about a zoo animal's death. Firstly, the sadness that the keepers are feeling over the loss of an animal that they loved like their own child and secondly the potential that you are being hypocritical. Make sure you are buying free range chicken, donating to wildlife rehabilitation centers or supporting the conservation of exotic animals before you get on your high horse about the practices of zoos.

I like where this is going - Discovery news. Zoos are an integral part of animal health and conservation and it's great that many of them are continuing to be innovative with their animal care.